Bradford murders suspect: I’m the Crossbow Cannibal

A 40-year-old Bradford man described by neighbours as an "oddball" who walks his pet lizards on a lead, and who admitted on his MySpace page to projecting "a scary image" to the world, has been charged with the murder of three local women who were working as prostitutes.

Stephen Griffiths appeared in court today, charged with the deaths of Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth. Asked his name, he replied: "The Crossbow Cannibal".

West Yorkshire police are continuing to search derelict houses and factories near Griffiths's home, and divers are still searching the River Aire after body parts identified as the remains of Blamires were retrieved from the water earlier this week.

Three previous unsolved local murders are still being investigated and other police forces with similar unsolved murders on their books are said to be watching the investigation.

It has emerged that Griffiths was educated at the fee-paying Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, where the infamous 1940s serial killer John Haigh - known as "the acid bath murderer" - was a scholarship student before the war.

Griffiths went on to Leeds University, from where he graduated with a degree in psychology. Recently he has been studying for a PhD in criminology at Bradford University, writing his thesis on 19th-century murders.

The women at the heart of the investigation have been disappearing over the course of a year. Susan Rushworth, 43, vanished last June, having last been seen leaving her bedsit. Police had been looking for Shelley Armitage, 31, for a month after she was last spotted on CCTV on Rebecca Street in Bradford city centre. Suzanne Blamires, 36, went missing last Friday.

Griffiths was arrested on Monday at his flat in Holmfield Court, a converted mill north of Bradford city centre, after a caretaker examining CCTV footage taken over the weekend reportedly spotted images of Blamires. Neighbours have described armed officers pouring up the stairs to the third-floor flat and returning with Griffiths in handcuffs 10 minutes later.

It was revealed yesterday that Griffiths was a keen internet user. He had posted many photographs of himself on his MySpace pages, where he used the pseudonym 'Ven Pariah'. The photos were accompanied by various statements, including the Biblical passage, used in the violent Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides".

In a message to a comment board, Griffiths thanked Jacqueline, a woman who had contacted him, saying: "Hope you have a nice day as well ­ lots of them, in fact. Glad you could see past the scary image I generally project to the world." ·