Revealed: The face of Jack the Ripper

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Modern day techniques have been used to produce this photofit of Jack the Ripper

This is the face of Jack the Ripper, the 19th-century killer whose identity has remained a mystery for more than 100 years.

Using state of the art profiling, investigators have created a vision of what the monster, who strangled and butchered five London prostitutes, would have looked like - and revealed that police at the time were probably searching for the wrong kind of man.

Laura Richards, head of analysis for Scotland Yard's Violent Crime Command, analysed evidence from the case using modern police techniques and has been able to form the most accurate portrait of the Ripper ever put together.

She claims that the 118-year-old evidence shows the Ripper was aged between 25 and 35, between 5ft 5 and 5ft 7ins and stocky. Modern techniques can even pinpoint his address.

She said: "For the first time, we are able to understand the kind of person Jack the Ripper was. We can name the street where he probably lived; and we can see what he looked like; and we can explain, finally, why this killer eluded justice."

Working alongside former Metropolitan Police commander John Grieve, Richards, who in the past has studied serial killer Fred West and Soham murderer Ian Huntley, assembled a team of experts - including pathologists, historians and a geographical profiler - to work out why the case was never solved and to see whether it still could be.

Grieve said: "This is further than anyone else has got. It would have been enough for coppers to get out and start knocking on doors... they would have got him."

The story of Jack the Ripper, who terrorised the streets of Whitechapel in the Autumn of 1888, has grown into one of history's most enduring mysteries.

His brutal, and seemingly motiveless killing spree has led, over the decades, to more than 200 names being put in the frame - including celebrity suspects such as Lewis Carroll, Prince Albert Victor and Sir John Williams, obstetrician to the royal family.

But despite a large-scale investigation the Ripper - hailed as the first modern serial killer - was never caught.

Drawing on modern experience, the team unpicked the legend, analysed the Ripper's crimes and retraced his murderous steps. They also examined 13 different witness statements taken at the time of the killings.

The picture they were left with was one of someone who was "perfectly sane, frighteningly normal, and yet capable of extraordinary cruelty," Richards said.

Grieve added: "It's a popular misconception that nobody ever saw the murderer, that he just vanished into the fog of London. Well that's just not right. There were witnesses at the time who were highly thought of by the police.

"If we were doing this investigation today, we could pool together all these descriptions and the kind of face that the police were clearly looking for. You could come up with a composite and you can go beyond just a full face, you can get something that really helps the police to look for suspects."

• Jack the Ripper: The First Serial Killer is on Five on Tuesday at 8pm.

 

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