Coronation Street fans were stunned to see soap actor Bruce Jones, who played Les Battersby, appear in an ITV documentary about the Yorkshire Ripper.

The Corrie legend became caught up in the viscous murders when he found a dead body while working on an allotment in the late 1970s.

Peter Sutcliffe, the notorious serial killer was only charged for a handful of his despicable murders, which ITV explored in a new documentary on Wednesday 23 February titled Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders.

For the first time, the programme also linked 20 unsolved murders and attempted murders to Sutcliffe, along with the murder of 13 women and attempted murder of 7 women that he was charged with from 1975 to 1980.

The police looked at key evidence from these unsolved murders and tried to unearth why Sutcliffe was never considered to be the killer at the time for this crime, despite his convictions.

Along with relatives of the victims, eyewitnesses appeared in the ITV documentary including Bruce Jones. Bruce recounted that in October 1977 he was working on an allotment with his friend, when he discovered the murdered body of Jean Jordan.

On camera, Bruce recalled the harrowing events from that terrible day, he began: "There was two of us, me and this older bloke who… managed to get an allotment which we did. We managed to acquire this big shed but it needed a brick base.

"I was like 'I'll go and get the bricks for the base, I'll just.. big building plot over there, I'll go and get bricks and that.' And it was on the way there, five times I'd, I'd gone, filled the barrow, come back. And the sixth time, there was this body. My mate came over, he couldn’t look at it, he was being ill.”

Jean was a young mother in her twenties who had recently moved down from Scotland to Manchester and worked as a sex worker. The details of her death all indicated to the Manchester police that this was the work of the Yorkshire Ripper as she had blunt trauma to her head, stab wounds and her body had been stripped of clothes and posed by her killer.

However, West Yorkshire Police who were hunting the serial killer, were not convinced. They quizzed Bruce and he remembered: "They asked me if I'd been to Yorkshire. I couldn't remember if I'd been to Yorkshire or not. ‘Where was I in Manchester on such and such a date?’ I didn't know.

"Why I had a hammer and big chisel and lump hammer in, in my wheelbarrow? That was to break the bricks up I needed for the base of the shed. Just question after question.

"Your mind does play tricks on you. It's like ‘where was I? Had I been to Yorkshire? No, I've never been to Yorkshire.’ Right from the minute you find that body your mind is going faster than you can think. And no, no, no I wasn't there. I wasn't there…you know never been there. Never been there. And in the end, they come in and tell you, ‘Get dressed,’ and we'll run you home and that was it.”

Soap fans were shocked by his discovery, one tweeted: "Fans were shocked by Bruce's confession: "Bloody hell. The actor who played Les Battersby found one of the #yorkshireripper victims. Crazy!"

As another added: "The maddest cultural crossover that I will never get my head around is that Les Battersby discovered one of the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper."

A third exclaimed: "Sorry but is that Les from Corrie in the #yorkshireripper doc on ITV?!"

Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders is on ITV at 9pm on February 23. Part two follows at the same time on Thursday.

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