A 40-year-old man accused of murdering three women in Bradford told a court today his name was "the crossbow cannibal".
Stephen Griffiths, a mature student studying criminology at Bradford University according to media reports, was charged yesterday with killing prostitutes Suzanne Blamires (36), Shelley Armitage (31) and Susan Rushworth (43).
The remains of Ms Blamires, who had been missing since last Friday, were discovered in a river in West Yorkshire on Tuesday, while Ms Armitage has been missing since April 26th, and Ms Rushworth disappeared on June 22nd last year.
Griffiths appeared at Bradford Magistrates' Court on Friday morning for a brief hearing and when asked to confirm his name, he said: "The crossbow cannibal".
At other times he sat fidgeting and touching his head or staring silently at the floor. He was remanded in custody to appear at Bradford Crown Court later in the day, the Press Association reported.
Mr Griffiths, a former public schoolboy, was arrested on Monday and the head of West Yorkshire's Crown Prosecution Service said there was sufficient evidence to charge him with all three murders.
The English Collective of Prostitutes said the deaths, coming just a few years after the murder of five sex workers by Steve Wright in Ipswich, showed there needed to be a change in the law. The group said prostitutes in Bradford had been complaining about increased arrests and prosecutions.
"Sex workers continue to pay the price for decades of criminalisation and, more recently, for a government-led moral crusade against prostitution," it said. "If women were able to come forward to report attacks and these were vigorously investigated, violent men could be stopped, maybe even before they kill."
Reuters