Alun Kyte
Alun Kyte | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 July 1964 Tittensor, Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Other names | Midlands Ripper |
| Occupation | Lorry driver |
| Motive | Hatred of women |
| Convictions | 2 counts of murder, 1 count of rape, 2 counts of buggery, 4 counts of indecency with a child, 3 counts of attempting to choke, 2 counts of indecent assault, 2 counts of deception, 3 counts of theft, 1 count of making off without payment, 1 count of failing to surrender to bail, other convictions for petty offences |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment (25-year minimum tariff) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 2+ |
Span of crimes | Late 1980s – December 1997 |
| Country | England |
Date apprehended | December 1997 (for rape), March 1998 (for murders), February 2023 (for further historical sexual offences) |
| Imprisoned at | HM Prison Onley (as of May 2023, previously HM Prison Rye Hill) |
Alun Kyte (born 7 July 1964), known as the Midlands Ripper, is an English double murderer, serial rapist, child rapist, paedophile and suspected serial killer. He was convicted in 2000 of the murders of two sex workers, 20-year-old Samo Paull and 30-year-old Tracey Turner, whom he killed in December 1993 and March 1994 respectively. After his conviction, investigators announced their suspicions that Kyte could have been behind a number of other unsolved murders of sex workers across Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. He was apprehended due to the ground-breaking investigations of a wider police inquiry named Operation Enigma, which was launched in 1996 in response to the murders of Paull, Turner and of a large number of other sex workers. Kyte was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment for the murders of Paull and Turner.
Operation Enigma, which reviewed the unsolved murders of more than 200 sex workers and vulnerable women across Britain since 1986, continues to influence police investigations today and was described as the first step towards the creation of a violent crime database in Britain.
In February 2023, Kyte was further convicted of historical sexual offences against a 9-year-old boy, which he committed in a violent campaign of rape, indecency, and threats which began in the late 1980s and continued for five years. Kyte is imprisoned at HM Prison Onley as of May 2023 and continues to refuse to accept his guilt for any serious crime of which he has been convicted, except for one murder which was verified with a DNA link to him and which he eventually 'accepted his culpability' in.