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The man behind the “Wearside Jack” tape that derailed the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry has spoken for the first time of the most infamous hoax in British criminal history.

John Humble, now 57, was just 23 when he recorded the sick message pretending to be the serial killer who brought terror to the streets of Britain.

It was posted to the head of the Ripper team, West Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, personally taunting him… and sending the investigation down a blind alley.

Police were convinced the tape was genuine.

They interviewed 40,000 suspects and launched a £1million publicity campaign, believing they were hunting a man with a strong Wearside accent.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

In the meantime the real killer, softly-spoken Yorkshireman Peter Sutcliffe, went on to murder three more women .

Humble, who also sent a series of “Ripper” letters, including one to the Daily Mirror, escaped justice for 27 years – until a cold case investigation using new DNA techniques finally exposed him and he was jailed for eight years in 2006 for perverting the course of justice.

Now out of prison and back on his native Wearside, the Sunderland labourer has told how his twisted pretence all started “as a prank – just a bit of fun”.

He has admitted to relatives: “I was young and daft. It was a spur of the moment thing with the first letter, then I got carried away.”

He told how he made the recording on a rickety old tape deck used by his then 12-year-old sister Jean.

Obsessed with crimes such as the Jack the Ripper killings and the Moors murders, he admits he initially got a sinister kick from writing letters pretending to be the killer.

The deadly charade escalated when he secretly made the infamous “I’m Jack” tape at his family’s red-brick council semi on Sunderland’s Hylton Lane estate.

(Image: PA)

It ended with a 22-second clip from the song Thank You For Being A Friend, by Andrew Gold.

When detectives took the tape seriously, Humble suddenly realised he had gone too far.

He rang police to warn them it was a sham, but by then it was too late.

He says: “I called the cops twice. I said, ‘It’s a hoax’. But they were convinced it was right. The calls just seemed to make things worse.”

Humble decided to lie low – and kept his vile secret for almost three decades until he was trapped by a saliva swab after an unrelated drinking offence.

Now relatives have told how the tapes and letters ruined his life. One said yesterday: “He turned to drink and tried to take his life three times.

“We all wondered what was going on with him. He tried to hang himself but that did not work. He slashed his wrists, but did not go deep enough. Then he threw himself off a bridge – and still survived.”

Humble’s 257-word, two-minute recording mesmerised the nation.

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Mr Oldfield was convinced it was the real killer.

His team ruled out suspects who did not have a Wearside accent, including Sutcliffe, who was arrested then released.

Humble’s first letter, postmarked Sunderland, was sent in March 1978. Another was received by the Mirror at about the same time.

Then, in June 1979, at a packed police conference, stunned journalists from around the world listened as Humble’s voice taunted Mr Oldfield: “I’m Jack… I see you are still having no luck catching me.”

Later in the tape he says: “I can’t see meself being nicked just yet… I reckon your boys are letting you down, George. They can’t be much good can they?”

The recording haunted the veteran cop to his death.

He took early retirement and died in Wakefield in 1985, at the age of 61.

Humble’s sister Jean, 46, revealed her family had also paid a heavy price.

She said: “We had windows smashed and were abused in the street. Even after he got out of prison, he was beaten up three times.”

She added: “He has moved on with his life, we all have. But nobody will forget what he did.”

Caught in the end

Humble’s accent was the vital – and tragic – clue for detectives transfixed by the Wearside Jack tape.

And with politicians and the media clamouring for a breakthrough, they took the decision to go public with the letters and recording in 1979.

In total 40,000 men were quizzed but the real culprit, Peter Sutcliffe, was from Bradford and did not sound like the man on the tape.

While West Yorkshire Police were chasing a Wearside suspect, the real Ripper was free to murder three more women. Sutcliffe, 67, was found guilty of 13 murders in 1981 and remains in Broadmoor Special Hospital.

Humble had changed the course of the inquiry to devastating effect. Efforts to catch him were ditched in September 2003, with police saying they would be unable to prosecute any suspect because of the time that had elapsed.

But a cold case review using DNA testing in 2005 matched his profile with a sample he had given after he was held for being drunk and disorderly in 1991.

Humble was finally jailed in 2006 and served half of his ­eight-year sentence before being released on licence.