THE CROSSBOW CANNIBAL KILLER PLEADS GUILTY TO KILLING & EATING 3 WOMEN!

(Reuters) - A man who dubbed himself "the crossbow cannibal" pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murdering three women who worked as prostitutes in northern England.

Criminology student Stephen Griffiths, 40, admitted killing Suzanne Blamires, 36, Shelley Armitage, 31 and Susan Rushworth, 43, the Press Association reported.

Prosecutor Robert Smith told Leeds Crown Court that a caretaker whose job it was to review closed circuit TV filmed at the apartment block where Griffiths lived, saw Blamires running out of Griffiths' home with her killer in pursuit in May this year.

She was later seen being dragged on the floor by her leg by Griffiths, who had something in his hand, the prosecutor added.

The court was told the woman was shot with a crossbow before Griffiths gestured to the CCTV camera.

The former public schoolboy, who was obsessed with serial killers, admitted to killing Blamires in the flat and dismembering her by hand, while power tools had been used on the other victims.

"It was just a slaughterhouse in the bathtub," Griffiths told police officers. He also claimed to have eaten raw parts of flesh of Blamires. "That's part of the magic," he told police.

He sat motionless in the dock as the court heard further gruesome details. Smith said 81 different pieces of Blamires were found in or by the River Aire in Shipley, while a broken knife and a crossbow bolt were embedded in her severed head.

Griffiths said when he was arrested: "I'm Osama bin Laden," and told officers on another occasion: "I've killed a lot more than Suzanne Blamires -- I've killed loads."

During his first court appearance earlier this year after being charged with the murders, the former public schoolboy stated his name was "the crossbow cannibal."

The judge, Justice Peter Openshaw, told the court the defendant's mental health had been carefully examined and there was "no question that he was fit to plead."

The murder investigation rekindled memories of "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, named after the notorious Victorian murderer "Jack the Ripper," who was blamed for killing five women in east London in 1888 but never found.

Bradford lorry driver Sutcliffe, 63, was jailed for life in 1981 for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven others during a five-year killing spree in the 1970s and 80s when he mainly targeted prostitutes around northern England. "Peter Sutcliffe came a cropper in Sheffield," Griffiths told police in one interview. "So did I, but at least I got out of the city."

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