MO Lea’s heart quickened in terror as the sound of footsteps behind her moved closer and grew louder.
Suddenly, the man with a ‘softly spoken and friendly voice’ who she’d bumped into just moments earlier was beside her, hammering blows to her head.
He had also pierced her neck with a screwdriver, an injury that very nearly cost Mo her life.
The monster was in fact the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ Peter Sutcliffe, who was later convicted of killing 13 women and attempting to murder seven others including sex workers, between 1975 and 1980.
But it wasn’t until 12 years on that Mo finally found the courage to admit that she was one of the survivors of the attack, initially fearing that she would be associated with the sex workers he targeted.
Instead, she spent more than a decade living in silence, using her artwork as therapy for her attack and distancing herself as a ‘victim.’
Mo, 64, who was 21 at the time, and speaking as part of Fabulous’ new YouTube series Life Stories, where ordinary people share their extraordinary experiences, recalls:
“A few months after my attack I saw Sutcliffe’s face on TV it was the same man who had attacked me – In that moment I just fell to the floor, I was on my knees.
“My first thought was I can’t admit that I had been attacked by a serial killer who targets prostitutes.”
Retired art lecturer Mo moved from her hometown Liverpool to Leeds in 1979 to study art and quickly felt at home.
“As a student I was a little bit punky,” she says.
“I dressed androgynously, always with an accent of creativity and flair. At one point I had bright, acid yellow hair.
“Naturally I stuck out a little bit but not when I was with my art crowd.”
In October 1980, a few days before her 21st birthday, Mo headed into the city to meet with friends at the pub.
At the time, Sutcliffe had already claimed the lives of 12 women across Yorkshire and Manchester, and he was still roaming free.
Fear was widespread and women had been advised to stay indoors, at night especially.
But with a strong independent streak, Mo headed into the Headingley area of the city alone.
She recalls: “Normally I’d go out with my boyfriend at the time, but he was away in London so I thought I’ll go alone.
I was really panicking and the adrenaline kicked in and my knees went to jelly…I just started absolutely freaking out with fear
Mo Lea
“I had just enough money for three bottles of beer to last me the evening.
“I decided to catch an early bus home to avoid the rush after kick-out time at the pubs.”
At the end of the night Mo headed home and walked with her friends until their paths split.
But when they offered to walk her to the bus stop she declined.
“I walked at quite a fast pace,” she recalls. “I went through the university campus and noticed it was really quiet – that was uncanny because it was usually a busy campus with a student bar.
When Mo reached the end of the campus she decided to take a well lit short cut to reach the bus stop, not thinking for a moment that she was in any danger.
Mo Lea was an art student in Leeds at the time of her attack and had been out with friends when the Ripper struck[/caption]
Sutcliffe claimed the lives of 13 women, his last victim was murdered a month after Mo was attacked[/caption]
That was until she came across a lone figure in the dark.
“I thought it would be completely safe but as I was walking along I felt a bit uncomfortable,” she says.
“Then I heard a voice to my right.”
Mo describes the male voice as being ‘friendly and softly spoken’, so much so she thought it belonged to someone she knew.
But she quickly realised the man was in fact a stranger and she knew she had to get away.
“He was waffling, so I thought ‘I’m not engaging with this’,” she explains.
“I said goodbye and started walking briskly towards the end of the road where I could see the main street lights and the traffic passing.”
As Mo tried to get away, she heard the sound of footsteps quickening behind her.
“I started to walk quickly but the footsteps were getting quicker and quicker,” she recalls. “I started to run but the footsteps got louder.
“I was really panicking and the adrenaline kicked in. My knees turned to jelly and I just started absolutely freaking out with fear.”
Puncture wounds
Suddenly, Mo felt a huge blow to the top of her head and fell to the pavement.
Unbeknown to Mo, she had let out a scream, attracting the attention of a couple walking by who reported seeing her attacker carrying a hammer as he fled.
Mo suffered horrific injuries – her skull was fractured, her cheek and jaw broken. She had puncture wounds to her neck, injuries inflicted with a screwdriver, which had narrowly missed her spinal cord.
She was taken to St James’s Hospital and into surgery but Mo’s only recollection is waking up the next day in intensive care.
And her facial injuries were so severe, even her own parents didn’t recognise her.
“I couldn’t feel pain, I was more in a state of shock than anything,” she says.
“It was only when the police arrived at the end of my bed with a camera to take pictures of my injuries that I discovered I had been assaulted.”
Mo says she had no idea that her attacker could be the same man who had targeted multiple other women in the area and was yet to be caught.
“I just thought it was a stranger because at the time the narrative was that the man on the loose only attacked prostitutes,” she explains.
“I was just an art student so I thought he wouldn’t be interested in me.”
Despite her attacker’s modus operandi matching that of the man who was later revealed to be Sutcliffe, police were searching for the wrong person.
They were pursuing a man called John Humble – who went by the name ‘Wearside Jack’ – a hoaxer from Sunderland who had sent the police fake tapes claiming to be the serial killer, distracting them from catching the true culprit.
The sick hoax meant police failed to link Mo’s attack to the previous 12 murders.
Mo claims: “They couldn’t have another attack on their hands so they simply dismissed my case as not being linked.”
I didn’t want to be named a victim and I didn’t ever want to be connected with the Yorkshire Ripper story at all
Mo Lea
A £1m campaign was launched to catch the man who later turned out to be the Yorkshire Ripper. Yet despite being quizzed several times by police, Sutcliffe was let go because he didn’t have a Wearside accent.
Sutcliffe struck again, this time claiming his final victim, Jacqueline Hill, a Leeds University English student who was murdered on November 17, 1980 on her way home to student halls.
Mo says: “Ultimately, Jacqueline Hill’s murder could have been prevented if police had continued to look into my case.
“They put all their eggs in one basket by focusing on the Geordie accent, and in doing so they gave Sutcliffe an invisibility cloak where he could carry on doing his killings.
“That, and how they didn’t come back and ask me any more questions allowed Sutcliffe to continue his attacks.”
Mo was forced to continue life in fear, knowing her assailant was still roaming free.
Searching for clues
At one point, she struggled to leave her flat at all.
“I was on high alert and I didn’t go out at all unaccompanied,” she recalls.
“There were times when I couldn’t leave the flat, I was beginning to get seriously ill.
“I just had to learn to live with the fact that someone had tried to kill me…and they might come and try and finish me off.”
When Mo did have the courage to leave her home, she took measures to stay safe.
“When I went into town I went with my keys through each finger, thinking I was going to bump into the person who tried to kill me,” she explains.
“I actually searched for him, I would look at everybody in town, people must have thought I was nuts, staring at young men, trying to figure out if one of them was my attacker.”
She has criticised the work of police who were lead astray by a hoaxer pretending to the Ripper[/caption]
In 1981, Sutcliffe was finally caught when he was stopped by cops with prostitute, Olivia Reivers.
During questioning, police realised he matched the physical characteristics of the killer they were after and after returning to the scene of his arrest, detectives found a knife, rope and hammer.
Following a two-week trial in May 1981, Sutcliffe was handed 20 life terms which were converted to a whole life order in 2010.
He spent almost 40 years behind bars and died in hospital aged 74 in November 2020, of Covid.
It wasn’t until 1993 that Mo admitted how she too had been one of his victims.
She says: “I denied that it was the Yorkshire Ripper, because it was the best way to protect my identity as an artist.
“I didn’t want to be named a victim and I didn’t ever want to be connected with the Yorkshire Ripper story at all.
“Who would want to say they’d been a victim of a highly notorious killer of sex workers? I didn’t want to be tarnished by that.”
That was until she took part in a Yorkshire Television documentary about the ‘forgotten victims’ of the serial killer.
“When I was contacted for the documentary I was absolutely shocked,” says Mo, who now lives in Bedford.
“Mainly because I’d tried to keep it secret, but also what had taken them so long to come and acknowledge that they knew that I was a victim of Sutcliffe?”
Timeline of terror
June 1946: Peter Sutcliffe is born in Bingley, West Yorks
August 1974: Sutcliffe marries Sonia Szurma
October 1975: Sutcliffe kills Wilma McCann in Leeds – his first murder.
January 1981: Sutcliffe is arrested by police in Sheffield. He confesses to being The Ripper.
May 1981: He is given 20 life sentences at The Old Bailey over 13 murders and seven attempted murders. He starts sentence at HMP Parkhurst, Isle of Wight.
March 1984: Sent to Broadmoor High-security Hospital after being declared paranoid schizophrenic
August 2016: Sutcliffe moved from Broadmoor to Category A Frankland Prison, County Durham
November 13, 2020 – Sutcliffe dies.
Mo felt it was time to prove she was more than a victim and began to talk about her past and present.
“I wanted to show how these things don’t have to define you, they can give you a lust for life instead,” she says.
“It’s a corny sense of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
An ‘open wound’
While Mo refuses to let what happened define her, she continues to feel dismayed that she didn’t see Sutcliffe punished for her assault – a feeling she likens to an ‘open wound’.
A report in 1981 by Sir Lawrence Byford found Sutcliffe could have been responsible for 13 more offences and made a string of recommendations to West Yorkshire Police.
Mo was named as a probable victim in redacted parts of the report but no charges were brought against Sutcliffe despite a re-investigation.
“I was one of many forgotten victims,” says Mo.
“Of course the families of the victims who died did eventually get justice as Sutcliffe was convicted for those crimes.
“Whether people find some kind of solace in that, I don’t know, but myself and other forgotten victims never found justice.
“And that’s like keeping a wound open.”
In survival mode
Mo says her artwork continues to be a key factor in her recovery and uses it to ward off nightmares.
“My artwork has been absolutely vital as part of my survival, I’ve used it as therapy,” she says.
“I drew pictures about my darkest nightmares and I managed to get them out of my system.”
Mo’s powerful project called ‘Ripping Up The Ripper’, saw her filmed drawing a portrait of Sutcliffe before tearing it up and stamping on the pieces.
She also projected an image of Lady Justice pouring out female gender symbols from the scales of justice onto the Houses of Parliament on the 40th anniversary of Peter Sutcliffe’s conviction.
At the time – in May 2021, Mo revealed: “The art projection raises the question, asking what progress has been made in the police and legal systems to support women who have been victims of violent attacks.
“This represents the negative imbalance of justice towards women.”
Today, Mo adds: “I don’t think things have changed significantly enough for women who are victims of violent crimes to feel comfortable in the knowledge that they’ll be taken seriously.”
To view Mo’s art, visit her website at molea.art
