April 1978 - Internal Review of the Yorkshire Ripper Inquiry

On the 25th April, 1978, following increasing concern within the West Yorkshire force that the administration of the series inquiry was being overwhelmed by the amount of information being recorded and the number of actions required to clear it, a special inquiry team under Detective Chief Superintendent Domaille was appointed to conduct an internal review of the investigation.

The team was asked to establish the lines of inquiry that had been undertaken in connection with each case in the series and to report whether each inquiry had been completed as far as possible and if not to give the current position. At the time 9 murders and 4 attempted murders were regarded as being connected in the series but before the team was able to report a further three murders had occurred.

The team, first under the command of Detective Chief Superintendent Domaille and later under Detective Superintendent Slater, comprised two detective inspectors, four detective sergeants and four detective constables. Their report, which was submitted to the Chief Constable in December 1979, was more in the nature of an index of what had and had not been done in the past than a suggested blueprint for further action.