Corrie's Bruce Jones panicked as he was accused of being the Yorkshire Ripper

Coronation Street star Bruce Jones has been speaking about the emotions he felt when he was wrongly accused of being the Yorkshire Ripper.

The Les Battersby actor became a suspect during Peter Sutcliffe’s murdering spree in the 70s.

In 1981, Sutcliffe was found guilty of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980.

Bruce found the body of the Yorkshire Ripper’s fifth victim – 20 year old Jean Jordan.

The actor discovered the body in 1977 in an allotment in Manchester, where he was working with a friend at the time.

The recent ITV documentary ‘Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders’ investigated a string of unsolved murders and attacks that Sutcliffe is prime suspect for, even after his death.

In the documentary, Bruce spoke about the moment he discovered the body and what went through his mind when he was questioned by the police.

‘There was two of us, me and this older bloke who managed to get an allotment which we did. We managed to acquire this big shed but it needed a brick base’, he said.

‘I’ll go and get the bricks for the base, I’ll just…big building plot over there, I’ll go and get bricks and that.

‘And it was on the way there, five times I’d gone, filled the barrow, come back. And the sixth time, there was this body. My mate came over, he couldn’t look at it, he was being ill.

‘I ran across the main road and phoned 999. I thought, “What do I do, do I go, do I stay?” The next minute, I’d never seen so many police cars.’ 

He continued on: ‘They [the police] asked me if I’d been to Yorkshire. I couldn’t remember if I’d been to Yorkshire or not. “Where was I in Manchester on such and such a date?” [Police asked me] Why I had a hammer and big chisel and lump hammer in my wheelbarrow?

‘That was to break the bricks up I needed for the base of the shed. Just question after question. Your mind does play tricks on you. It’s like “Where was I? Had I been to Yorkshire? No, I’ve never been to Yorkshire.” Right from the minute you find that body your mind is going faster than you can think.’

‘And in the end, they come in and tell you, “get dressed”, and we’ll run you home and that was it.’

Bruce Jones played the role of Les Battersby in Coronation Street from 1997-2007.

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