Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe NOT mentally ill and should be RELEASED

Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, has been housed at high-security Broadmoor Hospital mental health facility in Berkshire. If the authorities are satisfied that he is no longer mentally ill, he should be transferred back to a Category A prison at the penal system's earliest convenience - Sutcliffe's case should be handled no differently to that of any other convicted criminal.

Still, the final call rests in the hands of UK Justice Secretary Michael Jove.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'Decisions over whether prisoners are to be sent back to prison from secure hospitals are based on clinical assessments made by independent medical staff.

Court of Appeal judges dismissed an appeal in 2011 by the serial killer, ruling: "Even accepting that an element of mental disturbance was intrinsic to the commission of these crimes, the interests of justice require nothing less than a whole-life order".

While some of the families of Sutcliffe's victims are happy the killer may face jail, others say it won't undo the past.

He reportedly told a friend it would be a "disaster" if he was moved to Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.

The mental health tribunal endorsed this view in July 2010 when it found that his treatment had produced "complete remission of his positive symptoms" and warned his mental health would likely suffer if he were returned to prison.

The former lorry driver, from Bradford, was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated the bodies of his victims using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife. McCann was 5 when his mother was murdered in 1975.

At his trial, Sutcliffe claimed that the voice of God had sent him on a mission to kill and he pleaded not guilty on the ground of diminished responsibility.

Meanwhile, Broadmoor has previously been rated inadequate by a watchdog, with concerns raised about patients being physically restrained too often.

Sutcliffe, formerly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, is said to be furious at the prospect of leaving the hospital, where he has a Freeview TV and a DVD player in his room.