The Yorkshire Ripper may have just weeks to live, it has been reported.
Peter Sutcliffe is said to be in “the final stages of his life” and suffering from breathing difficulties.
The murderer is haunted by the faces of his victims and is “preoccupied” with his own death, according to the Daily Star .
Sutcliffe is reported to have high blood pressure and diabetes, and is almost blind.
The 73-year-old is taking a cocktail of drugs to stay alive and has weekly – and often daily – medical check-ups.
Due to his age and his failing health, he is excused from working and spends much of his time in his cell.
Some inmates read to him but the monster often cuts a lonely figure, wandering the landings inside top-security Frankland prison mumbling to himself.
It is understood that he struggles to sleep and complains that when he does he suffers from nightmares and is haunted by his victims’ faces.
A prison source said: "Sutcliffe’s life expectancy is now relatively short. He could be dead in a matter of weeks.
"He is in the final stages of his life and his own death is now something he is preoccupied with.
"He has reached that stage where every time he gets ill he never fully recovers and so is on a steady decline. His other health conditions are adding to his increasing deterioration."
Sutcliffe’s health has been failing for the last 18 months.
Last year, he underwent eye surgery to remove cataracts and was recently reported to have severe breathing difficulties.
He has often complained about being moved to Frankland, which houses some of Britain’s most dangerous prisoners.
Sutcliffe, who was convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more, was moved there from Broadmoor in August 2016 after losing his fight to stay at the secure hospital.
He was sent to the facility in Berkshire in 1984 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
But a health tribunal ruled that he no longer needed treatment for the mental disorder.
His move to Frankland has saved taxpayers around £250,000 a year.
Sutcliffe, from Bradford, preyed on women in West Yorkshire and Manchester from 1975 to 1980.
The beast, who worked as a lorry driver during his reign of terror, usually beat his victims to death with a hammer before mutilating them.
During his trial, Sutcliffe claimed he had acted on God’s orders. The former gravedigger said the voice came to him from the headstone of a man in a cemetery where he worked.
Last night, a senior Ministry of Justice source said: “There is always a feeding frenzy every time the MoJ mentions Sutcliffe so there will be no official comment until he’s dead.”
A ministry spokesman added: “The MoJ does not comment on individual prisoners.”
