P.M. BRIEFING : ‘Ripper’ Case Libel Award Cut

The British satirical magazine Private Eye today won an appeal against the size of a libel award of almost $1 million to the estranged wife of the “Yorkshire Ripper” mass murderer.

A three-judge panel slashed all but $40,000 from the $960,000 award, the largest ever set by a British jury, pending a reassessment of the damages.

Private Eye had accused Sutcliffe of trying to sell her story to a newspaper to capitalize on the notoriety of her husband, Peter, jailed in 1981 for the murders of 13 women in the northern English county of Yorkshire.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop said he was delighted with the ruling vindicating his stand against the huge award.

“If this is justice, I am a banana,” Hislop had said in May after the $1 million award was levied. Today he said the appeal showed that “I am not a banana.”