THE story of a Jack the Ripper suspect from Wimborne is being brought to the big screen.

Wimborne Minster Cine and Video Club has made a 58-minute feature film, starring well-known actor Michael Medwin, about Montague John Druitt, the barrister who might have been behind the 19th-century murders.

The three-year £1,500 project, also involving Wimborne Drama and Canford School pupils, was shot on location in Pamphill, the Priest’s House Museum, Wimborne Cemetery – where Druitt is buried – Upton House and Scaplens Court.

Director and writer Ray Joyce, an accountant, said: “We weren’t trying to make a whizz- bang, blood and guts movie – everybody does that.

“We wanted to look at the people and try to understand the characters concerned, and how the boy Druitt grew into a man.”

Druitt was found drowned in the Thames shortly after the killings of 1888 stopped. The club used part of Poole Harbour to stage his death scene.

“We’re putting all our facts out there and letting the audience decide what to think,” added Mr Joyce.

“They might walk away saying ‘It was Druitt’ or ‘I don’t believe this but what a great story’.”

The 30-strong cast has six principal parts.

Another Dorset link to the mystery of Jack the Ripper is Blandford-born Inspector Frederick George Abberline, a key player in the murder investigation.

He retired to Bournemouth, and is remembered by a plaque in Holdenhurst Road.