Jayne MacDonald
| Jayne MacDonald | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 August 1960 Leeds, England |
| 💀Died | 26 June 1977 Leeds, England26 June 1977 |
| 💼 Occupation | |
Jayne MacDonald (1960-1977) was a 16-year-old shop assistant who was murdered in 1977 by Peter Sutcliffe, commonly known as 'The Yorkshire Ripper'. She was his youngest known murder victim, although not his youngest victim (he later confessed to attacking 14-year old Tracy Brown two years earlier)[1]. Her death led to widespread coverage of the murders, public furore and rising anger amongst women.
Early life
Jayne Michelle McDonald, born in Leeds in 1960, was the second child of Wilfred McDonald (a railwayman) and his wife Irene. She had two half-sisters - Carole and Janet (born 1957) - from her mother's first marriage, and siblings Debra (born 1961) and Ian (born 1964). Carole married Victor in 1964 and moved with him to Johannesburg, South Africa with Janet remaining with her mother and half-siblings.
Jayne had recently left Allerton High School and since April 1977 had been working as a shop assistant in the shoe department at Grandways supermarket.[2] She is described in police reports as being 5 feet and 3 inches with shoulder length brown hair. She was a Bay City Rollers fan and enjoyed dancing and roller skating.[3]
Murder
On Saturday 25 June 1977, Jayne went to meet friends at the Hofbrauhaus, a German-style Bierkeller in Leeds. There she met 18-year-old Mark Jones and spent the evening with him, arranging to meet him again later that week. Jayne missed her last bus home and failed to get a taxi so ended up walking home. She was attacked by Sutcliffe in Reginald Street in Leeds at around 2am.
Her body was discovered the following morning at 9.45am by children in the playground between Reginald Terrace and Reginald Street in Chapeltown. A post mortem exam was carried out by the Home Office Pathologist Professor David Gee. The extent of her injuries was not revealed at the time by police although it was subsequently revealed she had been hit on the head three times with a hammer and had been stabbed in the chest and back. A broken bottle was found embedded in her chest.[4]
Jayne was buried in Harehills Cemetery, Leeds, West Yorkshire on 20 December 1977 (Memorial ID: 184496297).
Aftermath of murder
Change of perception
Jayne's death marked a change in the tide of the investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper murders - primarily because of her youth and innocence. She was said to be his first "non-prostitute" murder victim, his youngest murder victim and his fifth known murder victim.[5] Jayne's death highlighted the sexist attitudes of both the police and press at the time, with the police describing her as a “respectable young girl” who was a chance victim. The Byford Report was critical of this point, noting that the murder of Jane MacDonald elicited a more sympathetic response from both the public and the press, and arguing that police should not have assumed that Sutcliffe "wrongly identified MacDonald as a prostitute".[6]
Jayne's family lived on the same street as one of Sutcliffe's earlier victims, Wilma McCann, and strenuously objected to the way victims were divided into categories. Jayne's sister Debra said: “I do remember Mum and Dad feeling really angry about that - the division of victims into good women and bad. It was terrible and none of us saw it that way.”[7]
In a public appeal Irene MacDonald commented: ""How many more must die before people wake up and realize it could happen to someone they love? I feel that if (the victims) had all been Sunday school teachers, the public would have come forward with clues and the man would have been found by now."[8]
Journalist Henry Matthews commented: “Prior to that point, the fear, if you like, had been exclusively felt by working prostitutes. But from Jayne McDonald on there was this feeling that no woman was safe.”[9] After Jayne's murder there was a public outcry and the next day West Yorkshire police begin to circulate information about the murders of Jayne MacDonald, along with that of Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Patricia Atkinson and Irene Richardson. This marked the point at which the attacks were seen as "something truly heinous" and there is significant, systematic urgency to catch the Yorkshire Ripper.[10]
Reclaim the Night Movement
Jayne's murder changed the police's and press's perception of the Yorkshire Ripper murders (later discovered to be by Peter Sutcliffe) and resulted in public furore[11] and increasing anger amongst women. The police reaction led to the Reclaim the Night movement being formed in 1977.
Women - particularly in Leeds and the North of England - felt the police response to the Yorkshire Ripper murders was slow and that the press had barely reported on them until Jayne's murder. Although her murder led to more coverage, the police responded by telling women not to go out at night, effectively putting them under curfew. Feminists and a variety of student and women’s groups were angered by this response, as well as by the sensationalising of the serial murders. This led to the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group calling for women to march in cities across the UK on the night of 12th November 1977 against rape and for a woman’s right to walk without fear at night.[12]
Sutcliffe's testimony
When Sutcliffe was apprehended in 1981 he admitted to feeling regret about Jayne's killing. He said he thought she was a prostitute because she was walking through a red light district in the early hours of the morning[13], saying: "I felt like someone inhuman and I realised that it was a devil driving me against my will and that I was a beast".[14].
Family's reaction
Irene MacDonald, Jayne's mother, was reported to have said that she wished Sutcliffe was going to the gallows. "I hope other prisoners have the decency to make every minute he is inside a living hell for him," she said.[15] On 5 March 5 1982, Irene MacDonald made legal history when a High Court registrar in Leeds awarded her damages of £6,722 against Peter Sutcliffe for the death of her daughter.[16]
Wilfred MacDonald, who had to identify Jayne's body, was not well and was so broken by her death that he died 2 years later (1979) at the age of 60. He was buried with his daughter.[17][18]
References
- ↑ David Yallop (1993). Deliver Us From Evil. Corgi. Search this book on
- ↑ "The Attacks and Murders: JAYNE MacDONALD". Execulink.com.
- ↑ Carol Ann Lee (2019). Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter. Michael O'Mara Books. Search this book on
- ↑ "The Attacks and Murders: JAYNE MacDONALD". Execulink.com.
- ↑ "Peter Sutcliffe: who were the Yorkshire Ripper's victims and is the killer still in prison now?". inews. 26 March 2019.
- ↑ "Sir Lawrence Byford Report into the Police Handling of the Yorkshire Ripper Case". Gov.UK.
- ↑ Carol Ann Lee (2019). Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter. Michael O'Mara Books. Search this book on
- ↑ "Voice of a Killer". Washington Press. 30 June 1979.
- ↑ "The Yorkshire Ripper". Crime and Investigation.
- ↑ "Case Notes: S01E07 – The Yorkshire Ripper, part 1 of 5". En Clair.
- ↑ Chris Burn (26 March 2019). "Restoring reputations of Yorkshire Ripper's victims after decades of victim-blaming". Yorkshire Post.
- ↑ "Why Reclaim the Night". Reclaim the Night.
- ↑ "The Yorkshire Ripper Files: Why Chapeltown in Leeds was the 'hunting ground' of Peter Sutcliffe". Yorkshire Post. 26 March 2019.
- ↑ David Yallop (1993). Deliver Us From Evil. Corgi. Search this book on
- ↑ Gordon Burn (1986). Somebody's husband, somebody's son: The Story of the Yorkshire Ripper. Penguin. Search this book on
- ↑ "The mother of the Yorkshire ripper's youngest victim was awarded damages of $12,328 for the death of her daughter". UPI. 6 March 1982.
- ↑ "Interview with Irene MacDonald".
- ↑ Carol Ann Lee (2019). Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter. Michael O'Mara Books. Search this book on
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