A MALVERN criminologist has dismissed claims by a best-selling American crime writer that she has uncovered the true identity of Jack the Ripper.

Patricia Cornwall, author of the famous Kay Scarpetta mysteries, says the Victorian serial killer was in fact the well-known painter Walter Sickertt.

According to a national newspaper report, Cornwall has spent nearly £3 million on her research.

But Richard Whittington-Egan, of Foley Terrace, who has written many books on true crime and is an authority on the Ripper case, describes the theory as "total nonsense".

"It is not even the first time that Sickert has been mentioned in connection with the case," he said.

The painter was named by the writer Stephen Knight as one of a group of people associated with the Duke of Clarence, who were allegedly associated with the murders. Another author, Jean Overton Fuller, has also promoted the theory.

"Sickert was interested in murder, and was definitely interested in the Robert Wood murder case in Camden Town and did some paintings about it," said Mr Whittington-Egan, "Some people have read something about the Ripper murders into these."

He is publishing his own 700-page tome, The Quest for Jack the Ripper, in April next year. The Ripper murders of five prostitutes in Whitechapel in 1888 are Britain's most famous unsolved crimes.