Peter Sutcliffe, the serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died after refusing treatment for COVID-19.

The 74-year-old, who was one of the UK’s most notorious prisoners, was serving 20 life terms at Frankland prison in County Durham for murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more in the late 1970s.

He was jailed in 1981 and spent several years at Broadmoor Hospital where he was treated for paranoid schizophrenia. His sentence was made a whole-life term in 2010 before he was transferred to HMP Frankland in County Durham in 2016.

Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham, three miles from where he was an inmate, a Prison Service spokesman confirmed.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “HMP Frankland prisoner Peter Coonan (born Sutcliffe) died in hospital on November 13. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”

He was sent there after developing COVID-19 but reportedly refused treatment for the virus. He also had a number of health problems, including diabetes and heart issues.

Sutcliffe’s admission to the hospital came two weeks after he had been treated there for a suspected heart attack.

The 13 women Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering were:

• Wilma McCann, 28, from Chapeltown, Leeds, who was killed in October 1975.
• Emily Jackson, 42, from Morley, Leeds. Killed on 20 January 1976.
• Irene Richardson, 28, from Chapeltown, Leeds. Killed on 6 February 1977.
• Patricia Atkinson, 32, from Manningham, Bradford. Killed on 24 April 1977.
• Jayne MacDonald, 16, from Leeds. Killed on 26 June 1977.
• Jean Jordan, 21, from Manchester, who died between 30 September and 11 October 1977.
• Yvonne Pearson, 22, from Bradford. Killed between 20 January and 26 March 1978.
• Helen Rytka, 18, from Huddersfield. Killed on 31 January 1978.
• Vera Millward, 40, from Manchester. Killed on 16 May 1978.
• Josephine Whitaker, 19, from Halifax. Killed on 4 April 1979.
• Barbara Leach, 20. Killed while walking in Bradford on 1 September 1979.
• Marguerite Walls, 47, from Leeds. Killed on 20 August 1980.
• Jacqueline Hill, 20. Killed at Headingley on 16 November 1980.