POLICE have said that Wearside Jack, the mysterious hoaxer who disrupted the Yorkshire Ripper murder hunt, will never be caught.

The letters and tape the hoaxer sent to the officers desperately trying to catch Peter Sutcliffe diverted police resources, and may have given him the freedom to continue his killing spree.

Yesterday, police said they were no longer investigating the Ripper hoaxer and, even if Wearside Jack was identified, he would not face the courts for wasting police time.

The decision to give up on finding Jack was criticised by an MP.

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said: "Given the time which has now passed, it would not be possible to prosecute for the offence of wasting police time."

The man, with a distinctive Wearside accent, sent police three letters and an audio tape at the height of the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry in 1978 and 1979, claiming to be the serial killer.

Detectives in West Yorkshire were so convinced he was the Ripper that they switched their inquiries to Wearside and launched a £1m publicity drive to catch him.

But while the police hunted in Wearside for 18 months, the real killer, Peter Sutcliffe, went on to kill the last three of his 13 victims.

Yesterday Fraser Kemp, MP for Houghton and Washington East, said: "I am very, very disappointed with the decision of West Yorkshire Police.

"This man cost the police millions of wasted man-hours and wasted more than £1m of taxpayers' cash.

"But, more than that, his intervention allowed the Ripper to carry on killing for 18 months.

"Three women lost their lives needlessly, as Sutcliffe could have been caught sooner."

One theory was that Wearside Jack knew Sutcliffe and misled police to divert attention from the hunt.