Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe often 'struggled with being hated', forensic psychiatrist at Broadmoor recounts

A forensic psychiatrist who worked with violent offenders at Broadmoor recounted meeting the Yorkshire Ripper and revealed murder's often 'struggle with being hated'.

Gwen Adshead, 63, from Crowthorne, Berkshire, has spent 30 years working in hospitals alongside dangerous inmates like Peter Sutcliffe, however the psychiatrist said she 'just saw a middle-aged man' saying there was 'nothing to see'. 

Elsewhere she claimed she doesn't judge the murderers she works with because she thinks even she could probably have the ability to kill, 'given the right circumstances.'

Speaking to LADbible TV psychiatrist recounted what it is like to work with murders and gave an insight into their minds.  

Recounting meeting Sutcliffe, who was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980, she said: 'A really important aspect of forensic psychiatry, that when you work with people who've done terrible things, you know, it's not necessarily there in their face or their body.

'There's nothing to see. You really have to spend quite a lot of time talking to people before you can kind of get at the states of mind that lead to causing great cruelty and harm to others.'

Meanwhile she revealed that those murders who cut up their victims bodies are often just finding 'a practical solution to a problem' when trying to dispose of a body.

She said: 'Cutting up a body seems absolutely horrific and monstrous. But people I've met who've cut up a body have said that it was a practical solution to the problem. Getting rid of a body is very difficult. Dead bodies are extremely heavy.

'People who do that are usually in a slightly odd state of mind when they do it. They're kind of dissociated a bit from reality. It's as if it's like a dreadful dream. That's what some people say.'

Elsewhere the psychiatrist said murder's often 'struggle with being hated' for their crimes as they sometimes see themselves as 'soldiers.'

She said added that people often talk about 'what it means to have killed somebody,' and said murders are often preoccupied with 'if they are any different to soldiers'. 

'It's not that people see themselves as victims, they don't, but they do sometimes struggle with the sense of being hated.'

Asked how much detail do convicted murderers tell her about the crimes they've committed, she said: 'Not very much'.

She it's 'quite distressing' for people who have killed to 'talk about that'. 

'People often don't appreciate is that people who kill sometimes develop PTSD in relation to the homicide that they actually caused.

'So they have traumatic memories, they have flashbacks to the blood that was present, the smell of the blood.

'They can have flashbacks to the sound that the victim made. They can have flashbacks to what they did afterwards and how they were feeling.'

She explained that  'it's not at all unusual people who've killed to have nightmares'.

Gwen described her job as a bit like doing surgery on the mind' of murders as she had to be extremely careful.

She said: 'You can't just go barrelling in and say, "Right, let's talk about this day you killed somebody." you have to be careful about these things and you have to use language very carefully.'

Gwen revealed she has never felt 'frightened' for her own safety in Broadmoor but had previously been 'assaulted in the community.' 

She said: 'I mean, the place which is most unsafe is the community. So actually, the places where I've been assaulted have nearly all been in outpatient clinics.

'People who've been in very disturbed states of mind, often cause they're intoxicated, have come into a clinic and been very angry with me for some reason and assaulted me.

The Yorkshire Ripper died with coronavirus in jail in 2020.

The frail serial killer, who murdered at least 13 women in the 1970s and 1980s, died at the University Hospital of North Durham after his lungs failed overnight. No visitors were by his bedside due to covid rules.

Sutcliffe had written regular letters to a penpal during the pandemic and just months before his death had boasted about feeling 'much safer' in prison than in the outside world, MailOnline can reveal.  

Mentioning the 'horrible worldwide pandemic', he told the correspondent, who asked to remain anonymous: 'The world is stuck with this covid. Makes me feel much safer being in here with all that's going on in the world.'

He had regularly described his fears about contracting coronavirus in the months before he tested positive. He first mentioned it on March 16 writing: 'You be careful with this horrible virus about.'

He also declined to have visitors due to his fears about the virus, writing on May 10: 'Visits are going again but I won't be bothering with them in the present circumstances. I'd rather wait until they've discovered an effective vaccine.'

In July of 2020, Sutcliffe said he was 'fed up with lockdown' and moaned about a prisoner friend not being able to cook him a Full English breakfast, before mentioning on August 4 how he had taken a covid test that came back negative. 

In his last recorded words, he wrote: 'Lockdown still no change here and with all the new spikes going on outside these walls I don't there will be any change until the new year. Health-wise we are both doing OK and getting on with life the best we can.' 

The Ripper had previously signed 'do not resuscitate forms' - while friends said he astonishingly believed he would 'go to heaven' after his death because he had become a Jehovah's Witness. 

Families of his victims today celebrated his death and said the serial killer will 'rot in hell'. 

Marcella Claxton, who was left needing more than 50-stitches after being over the head with a hammer, told MailOnline: 'I'm happy he's gone. I've thought about what he did to me every day since and although the news that's he's died brings those horrible memories back at least now I may be able to get some closure. 

'I'm hoping it will bring me a little peace knowing he's no longer with us.'

Neil Jackson, whose mother Emily was killed by Sutcliffe after he hit her 52 times with a hammer, heard about his death today in a phone call from his son. 

He said: 'My first thought was 'thank God for that'. It's a big relief.'