Barbara Leach - Yorkshire Ripper Victim

At 1am on Sunday, 2nd September, 1979, Peter Sutcliffe murdered Barbara Leach, a young student at Bradford University.

Twenty-year-old Barbara, originally from Kettering, was living in student digs whilst she attended Bradford University.

On Saturday, 1st September, 1979, Barbara Leach went with friends to the Mannville Arms public house on Great Horton Road. They left the public house at 12.45am on Sunday morning.

Peter Sutcliffe was driving through this area of Bradford and took an interest in the group as they walked away from the pub. Sutcliffe saw Barbara separate from her friends, and quickly drove past her and turned left into Ash Grove. As he opened the door to get out of the car, Barbara was walking towards him. He let her walk past him before attacking her with a hammer from behind, and then dragged her body into a nearby back yard.

Sutcliffe pushed up her shirt and bra to expose her breasts and continued to undo and partially pull down her jeans. Sutcliffe then used a screwdriver to stab her eight times. Tests would later show this to be the same screwdriver used to stab Josephine Whitaker.

Sutcliffe covered Barbara's body with a carpet and stones.

It is thought that Sutcliffe was driving a 3.5 litre Rover at this time.

Barbara's body was found at 4pm on the Sunday afternoon.

Detective Chief Superintendent Gilrain led this inquiry and established his incident room in Bradford. The crime was immediately linked with others in the series and Detective Superintendent Holland who, on hearing of the murder, had immediately returned to West Yorkshire from leave in Scotland.