The juxtaposition of the sacred and the unholy is always shocking. This week, as we attend carol services, decorate our trees and prepare for Christmas with a levity of spirit, the news from Ipswich provides an unbearably horrible counterpoint.
In the first ten days of this murder investigation, the bodies of five women were discovered relatively close to one another in Suffolk. The psychosis that underpins these murders remains a matter of pure speculation, but the killer is evidently animated by a savage desire to slaughter as many prostitutes as he can, as quickly as he can. Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, spread out his 13 murders over six years. The Ipswich killings have more in common with Jack the Ripper’s murder of six women in three months.
Even as we celebrate the coming of light into the world, a heart of purest darkness is at work. To our profound sense of shock is added an intimation of human vulnerability and the lurking presence of evil in our lives.
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