The Theresa Sykes assault was not in the Ripper frame at
the time of Sutcliffe's arrest. However after his arrest and admission to
this assault the police charged him with it in their efforts to throw all
they could at him and to close the case.
Theresa was attacked by him in Huddersfield as she walked
home. She screamed for help and Sutcliffe ran away but she gave a good
description of him to police.
It matched the description given by Doctor Bandara who had
been attacked by him about 6 weeks previously. Sutcliffe the desperate,
mad, copy cat killer who thought he was the Ripper came to Huddersfield
because the Ripper had previously claimed Helen Rytka as his victim here.
Now Sutcliffe was associating his intended assault with the
Ripper. Some police knew about the plan to trap Tracey, most didn't know
and they were puzzled. Responsibility for the investigation seems tenuous.
Hobson had the inside information and he wasn't sharing it with his junior
colleagues.
This was definitely not a Ripper attack, but it became one
when Sutcliffe managed to stage his arrest in Sheffield some eight weeks
later and the police wanted to close all the unsolved attacks they could,
with his confessions.
