Yorkshire ripper stabbed in Broadmoor hospital by 'crazed' knifeman

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has been attacked by a fellow patient at Broadmoor.

The serial killer is understood to have been stabbed in the face with a piece of cutlery on a ward in the secure hospital in Berkshire where he is being held.

The Sun reported that a fellow patient lunged at him, attempting to gouge out his only working eye but narrowly missed, leaving him with just a cut on his cheek.

Sutcliffe, 61, who was jailed in 1981 for murder, is already blind in one eye after a series of attacks, including being stabbed with a pen 10 years ago.

The hospital confirmed there was an attack on a patient on Saturday but declined to give details.

A spokesman said: "Occasionally there are incidents where one patient assaults another and those incidents are dealt with accordingly."

He added: "I can confirm that the police were informed as with any incident of this kind.

"The patient's injuries are not serious."

Sutcliffe stood trial at the Old Bailey in London in May 1981 for the murders of 13 women.

On his first day in the witness box he told the jury: "Voices kept saying I had a mission to get rid of prostitutes.

"God told me it was prostitutes who were responsible for all these problems."

Asked what sort of women he thought he was attacking, he said: "Prostitutes every time".

Doctors diagnosed Sutcliffe as a schizophrenic, but the judge, Sir Justice Boreham, did not accept the diagnosis and gave him 20 life sentences.