Crossbow cannibal cop found severed breasts on table and brain in microwave

Daily Record

4 hours ago

Stephen Griffiths was caught because one of his victims managed to briefly escape from his home, before he dragged her back and killed her.
Police officers investigating a serial killer were sickened by the foul stench from a dismembered body after tracking the murderous sex fiend back to his lair. Stephen Griffiths had dragged victim Suzanne Blamires back to his flat and had been captured on CCTV abducting the sex worker.
Suzanne, 36, vanished from the red-light district near Griffiths' home. He had befriended some of the sex workers who plied their trade in the streets around his flat. Suzanne was seen on the same CCTV camera running in terror out of his stinking apartment, followed by the killer - brandishing a black crossbow.
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After knocking her unconscious in the corridor of his Bradford home, the monster dragged Suzanne back inside, before smirking at the camera and raising his middle finger in mock salute, The Mirror reports. It was only when the building's caretaker idly watched back the footage on the morning of Monday May 24, 2010 - three days later - that he noticed the altercation.
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It was seeing Suzanne's final act of bravery, when she tried to get away, that finally snared the self-dubbed 'Crossbow Cannibal'. Griffiths, a criminology PhD student, who hero-worshipped Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, stockpiled weapons and books about murder and harboured ambitions of becoming a serial killer.
As a child, he would torture animals, pulling the wings off birds and taking a hammer to his own pet rat. His younger siblings were subjected to violence. Griffiths designed a system whereby he would award them 'points' for annoying him. After accumulating a certain number of points, he would launch a vicious attack on them, ignoring their sobs of pain.
But even they could not have predicted the twisted crimes he went on to commit against at least three women. Now, 15 years on from the Bradford murders, a new Prime Video documentary looks back at how the killer was able to get away with his crimes for so long - crimes which would have a lifelong impact on everyone involved.
After the shocked caretaker and his manager called 999 to report the chilling CCTV footage, Damien Sharp, a former firearms tactical advisor with West Yorkshire Police, was tasked with planning and executing the raid to arrest Stephen Griffiths. His partner Adam Twigg was part of the ground team, poised to break down the killer's door and free the woman they hoped was still alive inside.
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Both men are speaking publicly about what they witnessed for the first time. He said: "We had a collapsing time frame. We knew from the cameras that Suzanne hadn't left Griffiths' apartment over the weekend. The hope was that she was still alive." Firearms officer Adam and his squad broke through Griffiths' door only to find him sitting up in bed.
He said: "I gave him a gentle prod with the front of my gun to drive him to the floor." A loaded crossbow lay nearby, along with a cache of hunting knives and shells. Once officers got the killer on the floor and in handcuffs, Adam crouched down to read him his rights. I told him, 'Stephen, I am arresting you on suspicion of murder.' And he just looked up at me and went, 'I'm Osama bin Laden'."
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Adam and his team set about searching the flat for any trace of Suzanne. What they found would haunt them forever. Recalling how he could hear everything his team were saying over the radio, Damien said: "One of them opened the microwave and immediately shut the door again.
"He said the flat was like something out of [horror film] Seven, blood smeared everywhere and crossbow bolts embedded in the walls. The smell was horrific - sweet and rotten. It was the smell of death.' Adam went to investigate the bathroom - which the killer had proudly dubbed 'The Slaughterhouse.'
Blood was splattered over the surfaces and a charred quilt covered the remnants of a rucksack in the bathtub. Griffiths was trying to dispose of DNA evidence from Suzanne's body parts, which he'd stashed inside the bag to dump in the nearby River Aire. Adam said: "There was a sizable portion of a brain in the microwave.
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"And there was another portion of brain on a plate, on a coffee table in the front room, next to a pair of amputated breasts." Officers also recovered Griffiths' laptop and digital camera, which had a stash of disturbing images and footage. Shelley Armitage, a 31-year-old woman who had gone missing a month previously on April 26, 2010, was seen lying dead in his bath.
She had the words 'My sex slave' carved into her chest. Griffiths had shot her with his crossbow, cut up her remains and cannibalised part of her body. At least three women met their deaths at the hands of Griffiths, who had been diagnosed as a sadistic schizoid psychopath in 1991, after slashing a shop clerk's face while shoplifting goods.
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He murdered Susan Rushworth, 43, with a hammer after she disappeared on June 22, 2009. He had dismembered her body using machine tools, before cooking and eating some of her flesh. No trace of her remains have ever been found. After being convicted, Griffiths taunted her devastated family, by refusing to tell them what he did to her.
Shelley was his second victim and Suzanne his third. In court, Griffiths proudly proclaimed himself the Crossbow Cannibal in response to being asked his name - a boast that behavioural scientist and psychological profiler Dr Nicola Davies believes was actually designed to protect his shattered ego.
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'Griffiths had invested so much of his identity into becoming what he saw as the ultimate predator,' she observes. 'He had rehearsed his fantasies, studied serial killers at PhD level, and created a mythologised version of himself online. Being caught destroyed that performance and he found that intolerable. Griffiths wanted to be a serial killer.
"He only just achieved that definition - three murders - before the brave Suzanne Blamires ensured he was caught when she escaped his flat and his crime was recorded on CCTV. For a man who saw himself as untouchable and the ultimate predator, this would have severely hurt his ego – as would the fact that he 'underperformed' in comparison to his serial killer idols.'
After his conviction in 2010, Griffiths was handed a rare whole-life order for the murders of Susan, Shelley and Suzanne, meaning he will die behind bars without ever being released. The judge described him as 'wicked and monstrous'. He has since been linked to the murders of three other women, but has refused to cooperate with police in subsequent interviews.