* See the interview with Humble as West Yorkshire Police ask him to repeat his hoax claims
HOAXER John Humble was today jailed for eight years for what a judge described as the most serious form of perverting the course of justice.
The man, who became known as Wearside Jack after he sent taunting letters and a tape to police hunting the Yorkshire Ripper, was told he would have been jailed for ten years had the case gone to trial.
Humble, 50, of Flodden Road, Sunderland, changed his pleas to guilty to four counts of perverting the course of justice when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court yesterday.
Defence barrister Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said: "Had it not been for these matters, he would have led a spectacularly inadequate life.
"At the time of his arrest he was in any view a hopeless alcoholic."
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