Olive Smelt always insisted her attacker was from Yorkshire

Olive Smelt was attacked by Peter Sutcliffe in 1975 as she returned to her Halifax home after a night out.

When she heard a hoax tape in 1979 she was sure the man behind the recorded voice, who had a North East accent, was not the man who attacked her.

"I said all the time he was Yorkshire," she said.

"I kept saying it when they got onto the Geordie, well it wasn't him who attacked me then if he was Geordie because the man who spoke to me was Yorkshire and it's come right that it was hasn't it?"

I thought they're never going to catch him if they don't believe that he's Yorkshire Olive Smelt - Yorkshire Ripper survivor Man held over Ripper hoax

Mrs Smelt said hearing of a 49-year-old man's arrest in connection with the hoax material had stirred painful memories of her attack.

"It brings it back," she said. "You think about it."

She said her attacker spoke to her about the weather before hitting her from behind but when she first heard the hoax tape she feared police would never catch him.

"They (the police) never brought the tape to me, I had to listen to it in town in Halifax," she said.

"I thought they're never going to catch him (her attacker) if they don't believe that he's Yorkshire.

"I knew he was from Yorkshire, him that spoke to me, and I always thought he was the one that attacked me and he admitted it and they caught him.

"The first thing CID said to me when they came to talk to me was 'you are the lucky one', which I guess I was. He didn't kill me did he?

"But he would have done if somebody hadn't come along with headlights on. He's admitted that as well. He was out to kill us all."