At the time, it diverted crucial police resources into finding the real killer – so much so that Doreen Hill, the mother of Sutcliffe’s last known victim Jacqueline, maintained her daughter would still be alive if it weren’t for police failings. In the Byford Report, the Inspector of Constabulary Lawrence Byford criticised the leader of the investigation, George Oldfield’s unusual obsession with the tapes, adding that he had ignored advice from survivors of Sutcliffe’s attacks and specialists, including from the FBI in the US, that they were a hoax.
