THE brother of Peter Sutcliffe says he feels he is in the dark about any funeral arrangements and only found out about his death on television.

The notorious serial killer, who murdered 13 women and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, died last week aged 74.

Sutcliffe had been ill for several weeks and is understood to have been suffering from Covid-19.

His brother Mick Sutcliffe, 70, says he did not receive any medical updates about his brother before he died.

He added he only found out about his brother’s death by switching on the television news last Friday – after his death was announced publicly.

Mick added he did not have a weekly telephone call with the Ripper for the last few weeks of his life.

He said: “The whole country knew my brother had died before I did.

“I have not got a clue about his funeral. Nobody has told us anything. We don’t know when it (any funeral) is. I didn’t even know he had covid. “It was s*** to find out that way. I should have been told before everyone else. I’m just p***** off they did not tell us anything. They would not tell us anything at all.

“I found out by switching on the TV news on Friday morning, at around nine or 10am.

“There’s nothing we can do about it, we just have to wait.

“I’m not grieving for him, he has gone now. “

A Prisons Service spokesperson said: “The prisoner's nominated next of kin are always informed before any details are shared publicly.”

The Northern Echo: Peter Sutcliffe, who died last week Peter Sutcliffe, who died last week

The serial killer was serving a whole life term for murdering 13 women across Yorkshire and the north-west of England between 1975 and 1980.

Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 after an unprecedented police manhunt.

He spent three decades at Broadmoor Hospital before being moved to Frankland Prison in County Durham in 2016.

Known as the Yorkshire Ripper, Sutcliffe, a former lorry driver from Bingley, committed a five year reign of terror around West Yorkshire between 1975 and 1980.

Before his death, the T&A reported that he had been refusing treatment at a hospital in County Durham close to Frankland Prison where he was incarcerated.

He was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham following a suspected heart attack at the end of October.

After returning to the prison, he developed Covid-19 symptoms and was taken back to the hospital earlier this month.

Sutcliffe was reportedly refusing treatment from doctors for the killer virus in hospital.

Due to suffering from diabetes, being obese and because of his advanced age, Sutcliffe was particularly vulnerable to a virus that has already claimed tens of thousands of people’s lives across the UK.

Jailed in 1981, for the murders and attacking nine others, Sutcliffe received 20 life sentences, which was extended to a whole life term in 2010.

Following his imprisonment, Sutcliffe was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and after almost three years at HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight he was transferred to the secure Broadmoor Hospital in 1984, where he was incarcerated until 2016.

After being deemed sane enough to return to prison, Sutcliffe was transferred to the Category A HMP Frankland, where he remained until he died.