A MAN who has admitted being the notorious hoaxer known as Wearside Jack is due to stand trial today.

John Humble faces four charges at Leeds Crown Court of intending to pervert the course of justice.

Humble was arrested at his home, in Flodden Road, Sunderland, on October 18, following a cold-case review of the hoax investigation.

The 50-year-old's barrister said last month the trial would hinge on Humble's intent when the hoaxes were made.

The former labourer admits writing letters and making a tape sent to detectives hunting the Yorkshire Ripper almost three decades ago.

His trial could last up to two weeks and is expected to attract huge national interest.

Officials have set aside two courts - one fitted with television screens to relay of the proceedings.

Defence counsel David Taylor told an earlier hearing that Humble had made confessions when he was interviewed at Wakefield police station following his arrest in October.

At a hearing last month, when reporting restrictions were lifted, Mr Taylor said: "A defence statement has now been drafted whereby the defence concedes that he wrote the letters and, in fact, made the tape.

"The issue now is not one of whether it actually was him, it is solely the question of intent."

The charges relate to each of the three letters and the audio tape that taunted detectives involved in the Ripper inquiry, in West Yorkshire, in the late 1970s.

A huge police effort was concentrated on the Sunderland area after senior officers concluded the Wearside voice on the tape was the murderer.

But they were exposed as a hoax when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981 and confessed to being the Ripper.