Warning: This story contains details some readers might find confronting.

Before Adam Liaw fired up the kitchen burners for his win on MasterChef in 2010, you would've found him at a desk working on law briefs.

The cook, writer and broadcaster landed his first job as a lawyer with a firm in Adelaide not long after graduating from the University of Adelaide with a double degree in law and science.

Proudly hanging on his office wall were the requisite framed degrees and paintings. 

But there was also something a tad more unusual.

Alongside them was a caricature from 1891 depicting his ancestor, the English judge Sir Peter Henry Edlin.

Pictured in his wig and gown, presiding over a case in a London court, the stately-looking Sir Peter was a fitting addition to the office.

It also revealed Adam's link to one of England's most notorious serial killers.

A 100-year-old portrait

Adam recently told ABC iview's Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction that if a hurricane was heading his way, the portrait of Sir Peter would be one of the first items he'd rescue.

"It's a print from [the magazine] Vanity Fair … it's not a reproduction of the print — it's the actual print from 100-plus years ago."

From 1868 to 1913, the magazine, founded by British MP Thomas Gibson Bowles, cast a satirical eye over London society.

Its full-page colour caricatures featured notable members of society painted by the likes of Italian cartoonist and satirist Carlo Pellegrini and French painter and illustrator James Tissot.

As a Queens Counsel and judge, Sir Peter was deemed worthy enough for the Victorian society magazine to cover.

But it was not Sir Peter's biggest claim to fame.

In 1889, he imprisoned a man who some suspect was a killer whose name and crimes are known around the world.

The controversial suspect

According to Adam, Sir Peter imprisoned a man many now believe may have been Jack the Ripper, the London serial killer who, in 1888, mutilated and murdered five women.

"There was a guy who found one of Jack the Ripper's victims [but] he wasn't sentenced for that — he was sentenced for assaulting a police officer some years later by my forebear [Sir Peter]," he said.

The man in question was Louis Diemschutz and the woman he discovered late one night in a dark London lane was Elizabeth Stride, widely believed to be the third victim of Jack the Ripper.

While riding his cart late one night, he came across Elizabeth's body lying on the road, her throat cut.

An hour later, and within walking distance of Elizabeth's crime scene, the murder of Catherine Eddowes took place, her throat also cut before being left for dead.

Catherine is widely considered to be Jack the Ripper's fourth victim.

Louis would go on to give police conflicting versions of the event.

In one he discovers Elizabeth's body and promptly leaves in search of a police officer. In another, he stays with Elizabeth until help arrives.

The discrepancy has given Jack the Ripper enthusiasts enough reason to include Louis on the lengthy list of potential suspects.

Barrister Montague Druitt, royal wigmaker Willy Clarkson, medical student Thomas Cutbush and even Prince Albert Victor, the son of King Edward VII, are just a few of those also on the list.

A few months after the deaths of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly would become Jack the Ripper's final victim.

Eight months after Elizabeth's murder, Louis came before Sir Peter for assaulting a police officer during a riot, according to newspaper clippings from that time.

The Jewish Standard on 3 May 1889, reported that Louis was sentenced by Sir Peter to "three months' imprisonment, with hard labour".

But his unlikely connection to Jack the Ripper isn't the biggest twist in Adam's story about Sir Henry and the portrait.

Sir Peter goes missing

The frame of Sir Peter remained on Adam Liaw's office wall until a move to Japan for work.

Adam said the quick relocation to a new country and a new job meant leaving behind his framed degrees and paintings, including the caricature of Sir Peter.

"I came back [on] one of my many trips back to Australia … and went to my old law firm," he said.

"I got some of the other paintings and documents that I had but this [portrait] had gone missing.

Sir Peter's portrait was missing.

"And that was it," said Adam.

He was convinced the caricature was gone for good. Until a lucky hard rubbish find almost 17 years later. 

A stunning twist of fate

Adam said he was visiting his dad's house when, lo and behold, he spotted the portrait lying on the ground.

"Dad likes walking with his partner and they were taking a stroll — not even in their own neighbourhood but my stepsister's neighbourhood — and he saw this nice frame on the side of the road with a whole bunch of other stuff.

"He thought, 'I'll just take the picture home, I might be able to use the frame for something'. So it sat in his office on the floor, waiting for him to take the frame off.

"It's not from his side of the family, so he had no idea whose it was [or] where the painting came from because my mum had to go to the effort of ordering it from the UK. 

"It's not something that's commonly lying around.

Stream all episodes of Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction on ABC iview or watch on ABC TV, Wednesdays at 8pm.