The brother of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has denied claims the mass murderer is planning to sue Broadmoor hospital for negligence after he was wounded by a knife-wielding killer.

Sutcliffe, 61, of Heaton, Bradford, suffered a cut to his cheek when fellow inmate Patrick Sureda lunged at him with a metal knife in a bid to gouge out his right eye last weekend.

Sutcliffe had already been blinded in his left eye when he was stabbed with a pen by another Broadmoor inmate ten years ago.

A national newspaper claimed Sutcliffe was considering legal action over the latest attack, but his younger brother, Mick, of Bingley, refuted that.

"I have spoken to Peter on the phone and he has not mentioned legal action. He is not bothered about compensation," he said.

"He doesn't smoke and can't drink because he has diabetes. All he needs money for is phone calls and letter-writing."

Mick also denied reports his brother had been paid almost £200,000 in compensation for the attack on him ten years ago.

He said: "He didn't get a penny for that and didn't put in a claim for any money.

"He is not bothered about what happened last weekend. He was sat having lunch when this guy came up from behind with a knife and tried to stab him. Somebody shouted a warning and Peter dodged it and the nurses got the guy on the floor.

"He didn't need any stitches, he hardly had a mark on him. This guy had only been on his ward for a few weeks and he has been taken off it now.

"Apart from him, Peter gets on fine with the other people on the ward. But I told him to sit with his back to the wall in future."

Police have been called in to investigate the attack on Sutcliffe, who was given 20 life sentences in 1981 for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven others, and has been held at Broadmoor security hospital for many years.

Sureda, 41, a paranoid schizophrenic, was locked up seven years ago for strangling his mother.

Mick said his brother spent most of his time writing letters and watching wildlife programmes on TV.

"He still gets letters sent to him regularly and he writes back. He writes letters every day to somebody - women, men, lorry drivers."

He said Sutcliffe was on a non-fat and sugar diet to reduce his weight, which had increased to about 15 stones.

And he has managed to halve his insulin injections to twice a day after his diabetes condition improved.