Was the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe caught, what happened to him and is he still alive?

Families in West Yorkshire and Manchester had their lives torn apart after 13 women were brutally murdered by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe in the 1970s.

The HGV driver, from Bingley, Bradford was found guilty of murdering his victims and attempting to kill seven others in 1981, while his crimes took place between 1975 to 1980. It triggered one of Britain's largest manhunts, which is now the focus of a new ITV drama, The Long Shadow, which begins on ITV1 on Monday, September 25.

Sutcliffe was initially dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, as, like notorious Victorian serial killer Jack The Ripper - who was never identified - he also evaded police for years, until finally getting caught. Like The Ripper, who was based in London, Sutcliffe also brutally murdered his victims - who were mainly prostitutes or university students in the West Yorkshire and Manchester areas.

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Between his murders, Sutcliffe would continue to live life as normal, working as a lorry driver and living with his wife Sonia Sutcliffe. The pair first met at a nightclub in Bradford's red light district when Sonia was 16 years old and Sutcliffe was 21. They married seven years later in August 1974 - a year before Sutcliffe's first murder.

Sutcliffe first began attacking prostitutes in 1969. His first killing was of a 28-year-old mother-of-three, some six years later. Vile Sutcliffe would hit his victims over the head with a hammer before stabbing them and removing their clothes.

West Yorkshire Police came under fire after questioning Sutcliffe nine times during their five-year investigation, but failing to identify him as the killer. At the age of 34, in 1981,