UK: The British Are So Much Better At F**ked Up

The Black Flag Cafe is the place travelers come to share stories and advice. Moderated by Robert Young Pelton the author of The World's Most Dangerous Places.

Moderator: coldharvest

UK: The British Are So Much Better At F**ked Up

Postby RYP » Thu May 27, 2010 3:45 am

Image
May 27, 2010
Homicide student held over murder of three prostitutes
Andrew Norfolk
RECOMMEND? (3)

IMAGE :1 of 3
A suspected serial killer who was being questioned last night over the murder of three prostitutes is studying criminal justice at a university. Stephen Griffiths, 40, is understood to be following a course at the University of Bradford, where he is specialising in homicide studies. He has a degree in psychology.

On a website that has been taken down by police, he described himself as “the misanthrope who brought hate into Heaven”. A former neighbour said last night that Mr Griffiths had told her “he was doing a PhD in murder and Jack the Ripper”.

Mr Griffiths was arrested on Monday over the murder of Suzanne Blamires, 36, a sex worker last seen alive on Friday in the red-light area near Bradford city centre. A day later body parts thought to be hers were found floating in a river three miles away. A woman’s head was found in a rucksack by the river bank.

Detectives disclosed that they were also questioning Mr Griffiths on suspicion of murdering two more women who have disappeared in Bradford during the past year. Shelley Armitage, 31, has not been seen since April, and Susan Rushworth, 43, went missing in June last year. All three women, who knew each other and socialised together, vanished from the red-light area around Thornton Road, Bradford.

RELATED LINKS
City’s red light district has a chilling past
MULTIMEDIA
BLOG: Crime Central
There were unconfirmed reports last night that detectives may expand their inquiry further to explore potential links to three more unsolved disappearances of women in West Yorkshire. Bradford prostitutes were found murdered in 1992 and in 2001.

The spectre of a serial killer haunting Bradford recalled dark memories of the Seventies when fear gripped the same streets during the Yorkshire Ripper’s reign of terror. Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders. Three of his victims were killed in Bradford.

Mr Griffiths, who is single, lived on his own in a flat in a converted stone mill building off Thornton Road. The building was sealed off yesterday. Witnesses said armed police used a ram to storm the flat on Monday afternoon after sealing off surrounding roads. Mr Griffiths was hauled outside and forced to lie face down at gunpoint.

One neighbour said: “As he was taken away he had his usual cold expression on his face. There was no shock, surprise or emotion. The only thing he was bothered about was the police locking his door properly.”

Neighbours described him as a loner who was obsessed with prostitutes. He is said to have bred rats to feed to his pet lizards and was often seen dressed in a long black leather coat and wearing round, dark glasses. He is believed to have written blogs under the alias Ven Pariah, according to The Sun. On one page posted on a social networking site, he wrote: “Humanity is not merely a biological condition. It is also a state of mind. On that basis I am a pseudo human at best. A demon at worst.”

On his website he listed more than 50 serial killers including Fred West, Ted Bundy and Dennis Nilsen.

It is understood that detectives have CCTV footage of Mr Griffiths allegedly in the act of killing Ms Blamires.

During police interviews with him, the scope of the inquiry was widened to include Ms Armitage and Ms Rushworth. As the investigation continued last night, three grief-stricken families were being offered counselling.

Ms Rushworth, a grandmother and mother of three, was last seen on June 22 last year as she boarded a double-decker bus in Thornton Road.

Her marriage collapsed after alleged domestic violence and she became a heroin addict who turned to prostitution to pay for drugs. She also suffered from epilepsy.

Two weeks after she went missing, her son, James, 23, said: “We’re all very worried about her. We’re a close family and we’re not coping well with her disappearance.”

A friend said: “Sue was very family-oriented and was liked by everyone who knew her. She’d kicked drugs a few weeks before she went missing. She’d decided enough was enough and she was clean and sober for the first time in ages.”

At 10.10pm on April 26, CCTV cameras captured the last confirmed sighting of Ms Armitage as she strolled up and down Sunbridge Road, a short distance from Thornton Road.

Mario Demski, 42, a worker at Oak Lodge residential home in Oak Villas, said she had visited residents at the home before her disappearance. He said: “We know that she came here before she went missing and several patients know her but I don’t think she has a relative here.”She was reported missing by her boyfriend two days later.

Ms Armitage, who had issues with alcohol and drugs, had worked as a prostitute in Huddersfield before moving to Bradford last year.

Police described her as “a much loved daughter, girlfriend and friend” and said it was completely out of character for her to disappear. A friend said yesterday: “Shelley was a good egg. Like all girls on the streets she had some serious problems but she was a genuinely pleasant person, friendly and kind-hearted.”

She had recently bought a puppy and was said to have been devoted to it.

Ms Armitage and Ms Blamires lived only three streets apart in Bradford. They were said to have met up regularly to chat and drink together.

When Ms Blamires disappeared on Friday she had been working as a prostitute for ten years and colleagues said she was “into all sorts of drugs”.

“She’s been disowned by her mother. Sometimes she’d get in a bad way. She’d clean up but then she’d go straight back on them again.” In 2001 Ms Blamires was fined for propositioning an undercover police officer outside the University of Bradford.

Mr Griffiths had been under arrest for 24 hours when a member of the public reported human body parts floating in the waters of the River Aire at Shipley, three miles north of Bradford.

Scenes of crime and scientific officers remained at the scene yesterday and a large white tent has been erected at a nearby yard.

The multiple murder inquiry is being run by the West Yorkshire force’s elite homicide and major inquiry team, which gained permission yesterday from a magistrate to detain Mr Griffiths until this evening.
User avatar
RYP
Ownerus Websiteus Authorus
 
Posts: 27774
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:42 am

Return to Black Flag Cafe

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Majestic-12 [Bot] and 15 guests

cron