Ian Kay

Ian Kay (born in 1967, UK), is a convicted murderer, known as the "Woolworths Killer", and notable for committing an attack which cost the infamous serial killer Peter Sutcliffe the use of one eye.

Kay was sentenced, in 1995, for a minimum term of 22 years imprisonment for the murder of 21-year-old John Penfold, a Woolworth's shop assistant stabbed to death in Teddington, Middlesex, in November 1994. At the time of Penfold's murder Kay was on leave from prison, almost eight years after nearly killing another shop worker in a similar attack; he later described Penfold as "a 'have-a-go' hero who got what he deserved".

Kay was transferred to Broadmoor, a maximum secure psychiatric hospital, after showing signs of mental illness. On March 10, 1997, while in Broadmoor, Kay attempted to kill Peter Sutcliffe, stabbing him six times in the left eye and four times in the right eye with a Parker Rollerball pen (used during the hospital's drawing classes), blinding Sutcliffe in the left eye and severely damaging his right eye. On trial on January 28, 1998, Kay admitted stabbing Sutcliffe, and told the court that he had intended to attack him with a razor embedded in a toothbrush handle. Kay said "I was going to ... walk into the room and cut his jugular vein on both sides and wait there until he was dead. Killing has always been in my mind, ever since I've been here [at Broadmoor] . In hindsight, I should have straddled him and strangled him with my bare hands... He said God told him to kill thirteen women, and I say the devil told me to kill him because of that."

Kay was sentenced to be detained in a secure mental hospital indefinitely. The recommended minimum term given at his trial would keep him behind bars until at least 2017 and the age of 50.

References

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/caseclosed/yorkshireripper1.shtml BBC Crime Archive]