The daughter of the victim of an unsolved murder in Bingley about which the Yorkshire Ripper was later quizzed has added her voice to calls for him never to be released from his life sentences.

Irene Vidler’s father Fred Craven was killed in an attack at his bookmakers’ shop in Wellington Street, Bingley, in April 1966.

Mr Craven, a popular character who had a disability after contracting tuberculosis, was battered over the head with a blunt instrument.

The suspect was believed to be a man in his 20s, but no-one was ever arrested for the murder and the case remains unsolved.

Years later, Peter Sutcliffe, now 63, was questioned by police due to the nature of the attack on Mr Craven but has always denied any involvement in it.

Mrs Vidler, 66, of Norwood Terrace, Shipley, used to live in Cornwall Road, Gilstead – 100 yards from Sutcliffe, who grew up in the Bingley area.

She has spoken out after Sutcliffe began a legal battle over whether he should be released from prison after serving nearly 30 years for the murders of 13 women and the attempted murders of seven more.

Former taxi driver John Tomey has claimed in a book that he thought he was the first Ripper victim when he was savagely attacked by a man with a hammer on moors near Oxenhope in 1967.

But Mrs Vidler said: “It just seems incredible that, in a small place like Bingley where a murder was a phenomenal event in 1966, that the same method of killing my dad was used as was used to kill those women.

“Nothing has been proved and the police say that there is nothing to be gained by looking into it again, but we haven’t got closure.”

Mr Craven’s murderer, who is thought to have had local knowledge, escaped with £195.

At the time, Superinten-dent George Oldfield, who was later in charge of the hunt for the Ripper, appealed to find a man in his 20s who was seen near Mr Craven’s office at the time of his murder.

West Yorkshire Police, including former Chief Constable, Keith Hellawell, have since investigated whether Sutcliffe was Mr Craven’s killer.

Mrs Vidler has now written to Shipley MP Philip Davies to express her concerns over Sutcliffe’s possible release.

Mr Davies said: “I hope that the authorities leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of this.”

Now known as Peter Coonan, the former Bradford lorry driver was convicted at the Old Bailey in London in 1981 for his killing spree in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.