A WOMAN who survived a brutal attack by the Yorkshire Ripper is to relive the ordeal.

Theresa Sykes, who was 16 and living in Huddersfield at the time, will appear on TV on Friday. She will join two other survivors of Sutcliffe's horrific reign of terror, which ended almost 25 years ago this month.

It was on May 22, 1981, that the Bradford lorry driver was found guilty of the murders of 13 women and of the attempted murders of seven more - including Miss Sykes. She was attacked on November 5, 1980, when returning to her home in Willwood Avenue, Oakes, from a shop.

Her memories of that terrible night will be screened on Sky One, which begins a four-part series called Surviving on Friday at 10pm.

Sky spokesman Lee Robson said: "It was on Bonfire Night in Huddersfield that 16-year-old Theresa came face-to-face with one of the most feared men in Britain.

"Before she could run to safety, two brutal hammer blows to the head knocked her to the ground, leaving her at Peter Sutcliffe's mercy.

"Her life was saved by her boyfriend, Jimmy Furey, who interrupted the Yorkshire Ripper forcing him to flee and only just evade capture.

"With her life shattered, her trust in men destroyed and her relationship with her boyfriend in tatters, it has taken Theresa years to rebuild her life, come to terms with her ordeal and raise a family through which she has found salvation."

In an interview which appeared in the Examiner in October 1999, Miss Sykes told about the terrible night: "I had only walked 100 yards to the shop and was on my way back home. I saw a man and looked at him but he walked away and I continued down the path. I carried on walking and then saw a shadow on the floor.

"I knew someone was behind me. I could not run. I grabbed hold of the gate and that was when he hit me. I started screaming and heard the sound of footsteps running away.

"That man wrecked my life. I can never forget what he did to me."

Theresa will be joined by Maureen Long, who became a victim of the Ripper in 1977 in Bradford. She survived after accepting a lift home from Sutcliffe from a nightclub but was left for dead with a fractured skull, severe stab wounds to the chest and to her back.

Also on the programme will be John Tomey, the only man thought to have been attacked by Sutcliffe, who was never charged with the offence. He was attacked in 1967.

Sutcliffe murdered prostitute Helen Rytka, 18, in Huddersfield in January 1978