A former regional daily reporter who reported on the Yorkshire Ripper has recalled the “harrowing” story in a new podcast.

Neil Chapman, pictured, was working at Teesside’s Evening Gazette in 1980 when Sutcliffe murdered his final victim, 20 year old student Jacqueline Hill, from Ormseby near Middlesbrough.

Now a PR man, Neil recalled being at work when the news broke that Sutcliffe had struck again and that the serial killer’s latest victim was a local woman.

Speaking on the PRsonal podcast, he described the story as the most “harrowing” he covered during his journalism career.

Said Neil: “It would have been front page news anyway but the fact she was from Ormesby that was such a poignant thing as it brought home the terror that had really gripped much of the North over that horrible series of murders.

“Before he was caught there were stories that he had been spotted in Darlington. Now how anyone ‘saw’ him, given nobody knew what he looked like, I don’t know. But it is indicative of the irrationality that the fear caused,” he said, adding safety measures were taken at the old Evening Gazette office in Borough Road.

“One reporter had to work late, between 2pm and 10pm, usually on their own in the office building with the exit-entrance at the rear that anybody could walk in, as there were no locked doors or passes in those days. So. male reporters voted to work the late shift so their female colleagues didn’t need to.

“It was a dark time,” he added.

On the podcast, Neil also recalled the impact that national newspaper coverage of the murders had on Jacqueline’s mum, Doreen.

“Gazette reporters assigned to the story would talk about the behaviour of the national media, hounding Jacqueline Hill’s grieving parents by shouting through their letterbox or posting letters with money offers, all trying to get them to talk and tell their story,” he said.

To hear the podcast, click here.

Neil has also launched a podcast entitled Blighty Thank God, which explores the diaries of his late father, Flt Sgt Ron Chapman, during his stint as a WW2 fighter pilot.