Sister of Yorkshire Ripper’s final victim admits she initially feared The Long Shadow would ‘glorify’ Peter Sutcliffe

• Jacqueline Hill was murdered by Peter Sutcliffe in Headingley, Leeds in 1980
• READ MORE: A timeline of the Yorkshire Ripper’s grisly killing spree and Peter Sutcliffe’s notorious capture

The sister of Peter Sutcliffe’s last victim was initially ‘sceptical’ of ITV’s new dramatisation of the tragic murders in West Yorkshire – The Long Shadow.

Appearing on This Morning, Vivienne Hill and her husband, Gareth, discussed the docuseries, which has been praised by viewers for ‘giving a voice’ to the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper.

Her sister Jacqueline Hill, who was 20 at the time of death, was Peter Sutcliffe’s last victim and the 13th woman to be murdered by him. 

Despite concerns that it would ‘glorify Sutcliffe’, when Vivienne learned about the show’s commission through a magazine article, she realised there was nothing she could do to stop the programme’s production, and decided to be involved. 

‘I didn’t want to get to the end and then regret not getting involved, and we’ve been really pleased that we have’, she said. 

Vivienne Hill (pictured), the sister of Peter Sutcliffe’s final victim, Jacqueline Hill, was initially ‘sceptical’ about ITV’s The Long Shadow 

Jacqueline was a student at Leeds University, where she studied English, and worked as a Sunday school teacher.

Her tragic murder took place in Headingley, Leeds on 17 November 1980, when Sutcliffe saw Jacqueline get off a bus and followed her before attacking and killing her. She suffered four skull fractures and cuts to her head, a stab wound to her left breast and a stab wound to her right eye.

For Jacqueline’s younger sister, the idea of revisiting the painful events for an ITV drama initially caused concern, with fears that that the show would romanticise the Yorkshire Ripper.

But once Vivienne, who was 15 when Jacqueline died, realised that she wouldn’t be able to stop the show’s production, she took a different approach.

In conversation with Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, Vivienne said: ‘We thought we might as well go with it and input as much as we can to try and get our point of view across.’

‘When I was younger, I would have burst into tears at any mention of it [the murder] on the TV or radio. But now… as you get older, you don’t care what people think as much. It doesn’t bother me people knowing. I feel like I have to stand up for everybody now.’

Jacqueline Hill (pictured), who was 20 at the time of death, was Peter Sutcliffe’s last victim and the 13th woman to be murdered by him.

READ MORE: The Yorkshire Ripper moaned his life was ‘absolute hell on earth’ while locked up at Broadmoor in never-before-seen letter 

Vivienne recalled: ‘I was 15 and my brother was 16. My mother did shield us at the time.

‘Those first few weeks were horrendous.’

Throughout the extended mourning process, Gareth, Vivienne’s husband, supported her with the loss of her ‘gentle’ and ‘kind’ sister.

Talking on the show, Gareth, who wed Vivienne in 1991, recalled how he would protect his wife from the media outputs about Jacqueline’s murder.

‘For instance, at the time, there were magazine articles about Sutcliffe and adverts would come on.

‘I used to switch the channel, it was my way of trying to protect her,’ Gareth said.

‘We always say it’s at the most unusual time that you get reminded about this.

‘You might be in a dentist waiting room and you open a magazine and there’s a picture of Jacqueline or the other victims.’

Sutcliffe was dubbed The Yorkshire Ripper when his identity was still unknown – it was a reference to the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper 

Vivienne’s husband, Gareth (pictured) previously protected his wife by blocking out media representations of the Yorkshire Ripper 

Fast forward to some 40 years and for Vivienne, Jacqueline’s murder is ‘always there in the back of your mind every day’.

Now, the tragic events have led Vivienne to believe that ‘you’ve got to enjoy your life while you can.’

To practise her motto, she contributed to the show’s production to pay tribute to the victims.

‘I think the name The Long Shadow is good because the victims are coming out of the shadow, it’s not about Sutcliffe anymore. They were real people.’

‘At the end of it. I wanted it to come across as tribute to the victims. Why should they be forgotten? They never did anything wrong.

‘It is a hard watch, but it’s supposed to be like that, there’s no point it being soft.’

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