ianstone
05-29-2010, 09:19 AM
Police dig up drains near home of 'crossbow cannibal' Stephen Griffiths in hunt for bodies of missing prostitutes
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By Daily Mail Reporter (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter)
Last updated at 1:23 PM on 29th May 2010
Videos (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282420/Crossbow-cannibal-Stephen-Griffiths-Police-search-drains-clues.html#video)
The search came as Griffiths, 40, appeared in court yesterday and gave his name as 'The Crossbow Cannibal' - a reference to the suspected weapon in one killing.
Although the criminology student and former public schoolboy was charged with the murder of three women, only the body of Suzanne Blamires has so far been found.
Grim task: Police officers dig up a street outside Griffiths' flat in Bradford yesterday searching for murder victims
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/29/article-1282420-09CCE20A000005DC-520_634x381.jpg Painstaking: Forensic officers sift through the dug up earth
His other alleged victims, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth, remain missing.
Yesterday police brought in a lorry with a digging arm to help with an excavation outside the block of flats in Bradford where Griffiths lived.
Forensic officers with specially-trained dogs scoured the trenches along Thornton Street - just a few yards from Bradford Magistrates Court where Griffith was remanded in custody.
More...
'I haven't seen him in 10 years' says father of serial killer suspect Stephen Griffiths (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282268/I-havent-seen-10-years-says-father-serial-killer-suspect-Stephen-Griffiths.html)
At the brief-but-dramatic hearing yesterday, in which some of the dead women's relatives sobbed, he was asked where he lived and replied: 'Erm ... here I guess'.
Griffiths, who studies serial killers on his homicides course at the local university, had lived in the housing association flat for 13 years but was unknown to many neighbours.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/28/article-1282131-09C6A632000005DC-38_306x423.jpg
'Crossbow cannibal': Triple murder suspect Stephen Griffiths as he appeared on his internet page
One resident, witnessing the search, told the Daily Mirror: ‘They told me they are looking in the drains to see if they can find remains. They are checking all the drains and digging them up.’
Utility firms have dug up the roads in recent months and detectives want to find out if anything relating to the murders was dumped in the ditches.
Griffiths is accused of murdering Suzanne Blamires between May 20 and May 25; Shelley Armitage, 31, between April 23 and May 25; and mother-of-three Susan Rushworth, 43, between June 22 last year and May 25 this year.
Mother-of-three Suzanne, 36, was last seen on Friday last week. Parts of her dismembered body were discovered in a river on Tuesday.
An angry member of the public is restrained by police as he shouts abuse at a security van containing Stephen Griffiths as it leaves Bradford Crown Court
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A member of the public arrives with flowers near the home of Stephen Griffiths
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Missing: (from left) Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth all worked as prostitutes in Bradford and have vanished over the last year
A still from CCTV footage of sex worker Shelley Armitage on Rebecca Street in Bradford City Centre in April, just before she went missing
Detectives are understood to be investigating CCTV footage showing a woman believed to be one of the victims.
Even as the charges were announced yesterday, an exhaustive investigation was already under way into Griffiths’s life and dealings with prostitutes.
Police sources confirmed they are probing at least three other unsolved murders of prostitutes in West Yorkshire.
Also, two decades of files on women who have either vanished or been attacked in red light districts in Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester are being checked for possible links to the case.
And officers from neighbouring North Yorkshire force have contacted West Yorkshire colleagues probing the murders over any possible links with university chef Claudia Lawrence, 36, who vanished in York 14 months ago.
Officers are still combing through Griffiths’ flat and are likely to closely examine maps on his wall and his academic books on serial murderers
Enlarge http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/27/article-1281514-09C7BEE2000005DC-130_634x320.jpg (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/29/article-1281514-09C7BEE2000005DC-130_634x320_popup.jpg)Extensive: Forensic teams scour the area around Griffiths's flat, which is close to the red light district
At the magistrate's court, Griffiths, who dressed in black and sported stubble and short, black hair, sat down for part of the proceedings, bowing his head and looking at the floor.
There were about 40 people in court, including eight members of the families of Griffiths's alleged victims.
Some wiped away tears at the start of proceedings. Others stared intently at Griffiths, who stood to give his 'name'.
Court clerk Miss Amarjit Soor read out the charges to Griffiths during the three-minute long hearing, which was only the second session of the day.
Fingertip search: Police were still scouring Griffiths's flat at Holmfield Court flats in Bradford after his arrest on Monday
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/26/article-1281514-09C55443000005DC-916_634x511.jpg
Griffiths had a second court appearance yesterday, at the city’s crown court, for which he was more restrained.
He spent most of the hearing staring down at his hands, clasped in his lap.
But as 18 relatives, some in tears, strained to get a close look at him, he looked back at them several times.
Asked to confirm he was Stephen Shaun Griffiths, he replied simply: 'I am.'
Judge James Goss agreed to allow him to appear on video link from prison for his next court hearing on June 7.
As he was driven back to Wakefield jail, members of the public hurled abuse and one man had to be restrained.
Bradford 'Ripper' suspect: The loner who created a dark and disturbing alter ego in cyberspace
By Paul Harris (http://live-mailonline.anl.dmgt.net/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Paul+Harris)
The cosmopolitan bustle of a city such as Bradford could easily have allowed Stephen Griffiths to enjoy an ordinary, comfortable life. He could have got a job, found some friends, and slipped quietly into everyday anonymity.
But Stephen Griffiths was not interested in being ordinary. And, as we now know, he certainly didn't want to be anonymous.
Outwardly, he was a 40-year-old oddball - an unmarried, unattached, ex-public schoolboy and perpetual student who never really grew up. In his mind, he was 'Ven Pariah', the confident, dominant character of his disturbingly dark alter ego.
Parallel life: Stephen Griffiths, who is charged with murdering three prostitutes, in a photograph taken from one of his web pages
Through the unbridled freedom of the internet, he created a sinister parallel life - 'the scary image I generally project to the world', as he phrased it.
Pariah was a figure obsessed with crimes and those who commit them. His publicly declared heroes were terrorists, Nazis, outlaws and murderers.
So yesterday - as police faced the prospect that a serial killer might have murdered at least three missing prostitutes, plus others who vanished more than a decade ago - the central question was whether the fantasy world of Ven Pariah had somehow become reality for Stephen Griffiths?
There was certainly a dramatic contrast between the online character and the real thing. Locked in the seclusion of his shabbily kept third-floor flat, Griffiths would spend hours at the computer, sometimes surfing the web until well into the early hours.
The only regular company he reportedly kept there were his pet lizards - plus the mice he bred to feed them.
Griffiths lived in a converted former mill between the city centre and its red light district, where once-proud industrial buildings lie either derelict or are being turned into apartments.
A neighbour who directly overlooked his main window said Griffiths was 'always on the internet, 24/7'. Another said he was 'baffled' as to why a 40-year-old man would spend so much time indoors.
Yet it wouldn't have been difficult for anyone to make the link between Ven Pariah and Stephen Griffiths, the 6ft figure who could occasionally be seen around the cobbled backstreets.
Simply putting his name into a search would bring up a string of pages which Griffiths had created, as well as a trail to those on which he had left messages or images.
Police have shut down many of the sites as they begin to scrutinise every part of their suspect's life.
Looking deeper into the web, however, a startling insight into his dark thoughts emerges.
Moira Griffiths, mother of suspected Yorkshire serial killer Stephen Griffiths. After his parents split up, Griffiths lived with her
On Amazon, for example, he built a wish list of books and DVDs. Most were about real-life crime. They include boxed sets entitled Notorious Killers, Mass Murderers and Britain's Bloodiest Serial Killers.
Also featured are the film Ravenous, whose theme involves vampire cannibals, and David Lynch's horror movie Eraserhead.
On another web page, a line that looked as if it might have come from the Book of Ezekiel could have suggested at first glance that Griffiths had an interest in the Bible.
But the quotation - 'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides' - was actually an infamous line spoken by Samuel L Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent movie Pulp Fiction.
Last December he reviewed a book entitled Women And The Noose, a history of female criminals and their execution. He gave it a five-star rating and wrote that author Richard Clark did a 'competent job' - and branded a previous reviewer as 'a complete imbecile'.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Fred and Rose West, gangsters Bonnie and Clyde, Arab terrorists and Nazi war criminals all featured on his pages.
He joined online groups calling for independence for Yorkshire, and complained to one that Bradford was being 'over-run by chavs'.
No one seemed to recall yesterday if he ever had a full-time job after leaving school. Certainly he has spent a great deal of time in education. It is understood he did a psychology degree at Leeds University, and spent the last six years doing a PhD in criminology at Bradford.
Bradford confirmed yesterday he was a student in the Department of Social Science and Humanities, which runs criminology undergraduate courses, but declined to elaborate.
Griffiths himself had no such reluctance. He once summarised his course to a neighbour by saying he was studying Jack the Ripper and doing 'a PhD in murder'.
But if he could justify his interest in serial killers as purely academic, it appears to have become blurred by the macabre presence of his alter ego.
As Ven Pariah, Griffiths used two main images of himself, one a self-portrait taken bare-chested as he stared into a mirror. He assigned himself the age of 99 and trawled internet sites to hook in like-minded correspondents. Most of them were women. The tone of the exchanges suggests he didn't meet them face to face.
Indeed, it appears he may have watched some of them from afar. Last night it was claimed he sent 'unnerving' messages to a woman he watched leaving a yoga class that she had been conducting.
She didn't report it to police but told fellow yoga teacher Steven Johnson.
He said: 'She'd never met him or knew who he was, but got a message through MySpace saying "I saw you coming out the yoga class. You know you look all right".
She didn't reply and he didn't seem to like that so he sent another message. The messages weren't threatening or sexual. I think he was trying to be friendly, but she found it unnerving.'
At Bradford University, just a short walk from his home, Griffiths was a mature student who found himself surrounded by people half his age.
He didn't make friends easily - and nor did his fellow students try too hard to befriend him. They called him 'the weirdo' and rarely socialised, unless it was to chat about a mutual interest in music. Perhaps surprisingly, his favourites included bands such as Hot Chocolate and Queen.
Enlarge (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/27/article-1281514-09C7BEE2000005DC-130_634x320_popup.jpg)Extensive: Forensic teams scour the area around Griffiths's flat, which is close to the red light district
He also listed reggae, punk, rap and heavy metal among his tastes, and took a keen interest in the local music scene.
The silent, solitary figure in the audience was a familiar sight at some of the venues where he indulged that interest. Often it would involve walking through the red light district on his way home - he lived less than a mile away from where girls touted for trade.
They knew him, of course - because he had started chatting to them almost as soon as he moved into the area in 1997. But he never wanted sex.
He was happy to share a cigarette with them, and would often hang around with them. One of the girls, Sarah, remembered him from as far back as 2000.
'He would always be hanging around us,' she said. 'He always told us he was gay.'
In his long, dark, leather coat, often dressed in 'Goth' style, the 40-year-old seemed at ease with them. As a child, however Griffiths was awkward and aloof.
His mother was a telephonist and his father, a frozen food company rep when Stephen was born in 1969, was often seen in a suit and tie. It wasn't that common in the area of Dewsbury where he spent his first years.
His parents split up while he was young and he lived with his mother Moira, and a brother and sister, in a council semi in Wakefield.
A neighbour who remembers them well said: 'They were odd, all of them.'
Moira didn't officially work and was believed to be on benefits. Perhaps significantly, neighbours widely believed she had a secret night-time existence.
'She used to go out most nights at 11.30 or midnight, and always seeing different men who would come and go from the house,' said the neighbour.
She vividly recalled the one and only night she agreed to go out socially with Moira. They went to a nightclub and Moira 'immediately began snogging men'.
The neighbour described Stephen and his brother Philip as 'nerds'. 'They never went out, mixed with other children in the street or played outside.'
Stephen's enthusiasm for knowledge helped to earn him a place at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, a prestigious independent school which boasts that it 'exists to nurture respect, responsibility and the achievement of excellence'.
Fees are now more than £9,000 a year and alumni include England rugby star Mike Tindall.
The school confirmed yesterday that Griffiths attended for three years until 1986, making him a few months short of his 17th birthday when he left.
His mother, now 61, lives in a run-down block of flats behind Dewsbury station.
A neighbour there said Stephen used to visit often. 'He's a bit strange but I always thought he was harmless,' the neighbour said.
'Once I invited him to share a can of lager with me on the grass outside and it was suddenly like he was my best friend. He seemed quite lonely.'
Additional reporting by Chris Brooke and Dan Newling
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282420/Crossbow-cannibal-Stephen-Griffiths-Police-search-drains-clues.html#ixzz0pKDHXipU (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282420/Crossbow-cannibal-Stephen-Griffiths-Police-search-drains-clues.html#ixzz0pKDHXipU)
More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
Bradford police have found more human remains in the River Aire during their search for the bodies of two missing women.
The hunt for Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage was continuing near the home of the man charged with their murders.
Criminology student Stephen Griffiths, 40, dubbed himself the "crossbow cannibal" when he appeared in court on Friday charged with three counts of murder.
He is accused of killing the two missing women along with Suzanne Blamires, whose remains were found on Tuesday in the River Aire in Shipley, West Yorkshire.
All three went missing in nearby Bradford where they worked as prostitutes.
Sky's Michelle May, reporting from the scene, said more body parts have now been found about 200 metres from the earlier discovery.
"Police say it is too early to be able to identified the remains," she said.
"But in the last couple of hours, between finding the remains and telling us, they have been contacting the families and loved ones of the two women to inform them."
Forensic police in the rear garden of Stephen Griffiths' Bradford apartment
May added that the search was far from over, with an excavation outside the block of flats where Griffiths lives involving a lorry with a digging arm.
Sky News also understands officers were now examining 128 sites in the Bradley and Shipley area and the operation could go on for weeks.
Ms Blamires was last seen on Friday, while Ms Armitage, 31, has been missing since April 26 and Ms Rushworth, 43, disappeared on June 22 last year.
Psychology graduate Griffiths, who was undertaking postgraduate research in criminology at Bradford University, was arrested on Monday at his home in Thornton Road on the edge of Bradford's red-light district.
When asked for his name at Bradford Magistrates Court, he replied: "The crossbow cannibal."
Four hours later he made his second appearance of the day at Bradford Crown Court, where he spoke only to confirm his name.
Griffiths made no application for bail and was remanded in custody to appear before the same court on June 7 via video link from Wakefield Prison.
More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
The hunt for Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage was continuing near the home of the man charged with their murders.
Criminology student Stephen Griffiths, 40, dubbed himself the "crossbow cannibal" when he appeared in court on Friday charged with three counts of murder.
He is accused of killing the two missing women along with Suzanne Blamires, whose remains were found on Tuesday in the River Aire in Shipley, West Yorkshire.
All three went missing in nearby Bradford where they worked as prostitutes.
Sky's Michelle May, reporting from the scene, said more body parts have now been found about 200 metres from the earlier discovery.
"Police say it is too early to be able to identified the remains," she said.
"But in the last couple of hours, between finding the remains and telling us, they have been contacting the families and loved ones of the two women to inform them."
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/May/Week4/15640405.jpg Forensic police in the rear garden of Stephen Griffiths' Bradford apartment
May added that the search was far from over, with an excavation outside the block of flats where Griffiths lives involving a lorry with a digging arm.
Sky News also understands officers were now examining 128 sites in the Bradley and Shipley area and the operation could go on for weeks.
Ms Blamires was last seen on Friday, while Ms Armitage, 31, has been missing since April 26 and Ms Rushworth, 43, disappeared on June 22 last year.
Psychology graduate Griffiths, who was undertaking postgraduate research in criminology at Bradford University, was arrested on Monday at his home in Thornton Road on the edge of Bradford's red-light district.
When asked for his name at Bradford Magistrates Court, he replied: "The crossbow cannibal."
Four hours later he made his second appearance of the day at Bradford Crown Court, where he spoke only to confirm his name.
Griffiths made no application for bail and was remanded in custody to appear before the same court on June 7 via video link from Wakefield Prison.
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More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
Rumour suggest many more bodies from this cross bow nut.
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By Daily Mail Reporter (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter)
Last updated at 1:23 PM on 29th May 2010
Videos (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282420/Crossbow-cannibal-Stephen-Griffiths-Police-search-drains-clues.html#video)
The search came as Griffiths, 40, appeared in court yesterday and gave his name as 'The Crossbow Cannibal' - a reference to the suspected weapon in one killing.
Although the criminology student and former public schoolboy was charged with the murder of three women, only the body of Suzanne Blamires has so far been found.
Grim task: Police officers dig up a street outside Griffiths' flat in Bradford yesterday searching for murder victims
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/29/article-1282420-09CCE20A000005DC-520_634x381.jpg Painstaking: Forensic officers sift through the dug up earth
His other alleged victims, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth, remain missing.
Yesterday police brought in a lorry with a digging arm to help with an excavation outside the block of flats in Bradford where Griffiths lived.
Forensic officers with specially-trained dogs scoured the trenches along Thornton Street - just a few yards from Bradford Magistrates Court where Griffith was remanded in custody.
More...
'I haven't seen him in 10 years' says father of serial killer suspect Stephen Griffiths (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282268/I-havent-seen-10-years-says-father-serial-killer-suspect-Stephen-Griffiths.html)
At the brief-but-dramatic hearing yesterday, in which some of the dead women's relatives sobbed, he was asked where he lived and replied: 'Erm ... here I guess'.
Griffiths, who studies serial killers on his homicides course at the local university, had lived in the housing association flat for 13 years but was unknown to many neighbours.
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'Crossbow cannibal': Triple murder suspect Stephen Griffiths as he appeared on his internet page
One resident, witnessing the search, told the Daily Mirror: ‘They told me they are looking in the drains to see if they can find remains. They are checking all the drains and digging them up.’
Utility firms have dug up the roads in recent months and detectives want to find out if anything relating to the murders was dumped in the ditches.
Griffiths is accused of murdering Suzanne Blamires between May 20 and May 25; Shelley Armitage, 31, between April 23 and May 25; and mother-of-three Susan Rushworth, 43, between June 22 last year and May 25 this year.
Mother-of-three Suzanne, 36, was last seen on Friday last week. Parts of her dismembered body were discovered in a river on Tuesday.
An angry member of the public is restrained by police as he shouts abuse at a security van containing Stephen Griffiths as it leaves Bradford Crown Court
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A member of the public arrives with flowers near the home of Stephen Griffiths
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Missing: (from left) Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth all worked as prostitutes in Bradford and have vanished over the last year
A still from CCTV footage of sex worker Shelley Armitage on Rebecca Street in Bradford City Centre in April, just before she went missing
Detectives are understood to be investigating CCTV footage showing a woman believed to be one of the victims.
Even as the charges were announced yesterday, an exhaustive investigation was already under way into Griffiths’s life and dealings with prostitutes.
Police sources confirmed they are probing at least three other unsolved murders of prostitutes in West Yorkshire.
Also, two decades of files on women who have either vanished or been attacked in red light districts in Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester are being checked for possible links to the case.
And officers from neighbouring North Yorkshire force have contacted West Yorkshire colleagues probing the murders over any possible links with university chef Claudia Lawrence, 36, who vanished in York 14 months ago.
Officers are still combing through Griffiths’ flat and are likely to closely examine maps on his wall and his academic books on serial murderers
Enlarge http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/27/article-1281514-09C7BEE2000005DC-130_634x320.jpg (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/29/article-1281514-09C7BEE2000005DC-130_634x320_popup.jpg)Extensive: Forensic teams scour the area around Griffiths's flat, which is close to the red light district
At the magistrate's court, Griffiths, who dressed in black and sported stubble and short, black hair, sat down for part of the proceedings, bowing his head and looking at the floor.
There were about 40 people in court, including eight members of the families of Griffiths's alleged victims.
Some wiped away tears at the start of proceedings. Others stared intently at Griffiths, who stood to give his 'name'.
Court clerk Miss Amarjit Soor read out the charges to Griffiths during the three-minute long hearing, which was only the second session of the day.
Fingertip search: Police were still scouring Griffiths's flat at Holmfield Court flats in Bradford after his arrest on Monday
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/26/article-1281514-09C55443000005DC-916_634x511.jpg
Griffiths had a second court appearance yesterday, at the city’s crown court, for which he was more restrained.
He spent most of the hearing staring down at his hands, clasped in his lap.
But as 18 relatives, some in tears, strained to get a close look at him, he looked back at them several times.
Asked to confirm he was Stephen Shaun Griffiths, he replied simply: 'I am.'
Judge James Goss agreed to allow him to appear on video link from prison for his next court hearing on June 7.
As he was driven back to Wakefield jail, members of the public hurled abuse and one man had to be restrained.
Bradford 'Ripper' suspect: The loner who created a dark and disturbing alter ego in cyberspace
By Paul Harris (http://live-mailonline.anl.dmgt.net/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Paul+Harris)
The cosmopolitan bustle of a city such as Bradford could easily have allowed Stephen Griffiths to enjoy an ordinary, comfortable life. He could have got a job, found some friends, and slipped quietly into everyday anonymity.
But Stephen Griffiths was not interested in being ordinary. And, as we now know, he certainly didn't want to be anonymous.
Outwardly, he was a 40-year-old oddball - an unmarried, unattached, ex-public schoolboy and perpetual student who never really grew up. In his mind, he was 'Ven Pariah', the confident, dominant character of his disturbingly dark alter ego.
Parallel life: Stephen Griffiths, who is charged with murdering three prostitutes, in a photograph taken from one of his web pages
Through the unbridled freedom of the internet, he created a sinister parallel life - 'the scary image I generally project to the world', as he phrased it.
Pariah was a figure obsessed with crimes and those who commit them. His publicly declared heroes were terrorists, Nazis, outlaws and murderers.
So yesterday - as police faced the prospect that a serial killer might have murdered at least three missing prostitutes, plus others who vanished more than a decade ago - the central question was whether the fantasy world of Ven Pariah had somehow become reality for Stephen Griffiths?
There was certainly a dramatic contrast between the online character and the real thing. Locked in the seclusion of his shabbily kept third-floor flat, Griffiths would spend hours at the computer, sometimes surfing the web until well into the early hours.
The only regular company he reportedly kept there were his pet lizards - plus the mice he bred to feed them.
Griffiths lived in a converted former mill between the city centre and its red light district, where once-proud industrial buildings lie either derelict or are being turned into apartments.
A neighbour who directly overlooked his main window said Griffiths was 'always on the internet, 24/7'. Another said he was 'baffled' as to why a 40-year-old man would spend so much time indoors.
Yet it wouldn't have been difficult for anyone to make the link between Ven Pariah and Stephen Griffiths, the 6ft figure who could occasionally be seen around the cobbled backstreets.
Simply putting his name into a search would bring up a string of pages which Griffiths had created, as well as a trail to those on which he had left messages or images.
Police have shut down many of the sites as they begin to scrutinise every part of their suspect's life.
Looking deeper into the web, however, a startling insight into his dark thoughts emerges.
Moira Griffiths, mother of suspected Yorkshire serial killer Stephen Griffiths. After his parents split up, Griffiths lived with her
On Amazon, for example, he built a wish list of books and DVDs. Most were about real-life crime. They include boxed sets entitled Notorious Killers, Mass Murderers and Britain's Bloodiest Serial Killers.
Also featured are the film Ravenous, whose theme involves vampire cannibals, and David Lynch's horror movie Eraserhead.
On another web page, a line that looked as if it might have come from the Book of Ezekiel could have suggested at first glance that Griffiths had an interest in the Bible.
But the quotation - 'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides' - was actually an infamous line spoken by Samuel L Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent movie Pulp Fiction.
Last December he reviewed a book entitled Women And The Noose, a history of female criminals and their execution. He gave it a five-star rating and wrote that author Richard Clark did a 'competent job' - and branded a previous reviewer as 'a complete imbecile'.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Fred and Rose West, gangsters Bonnie and Clyde, Arab terrorists and Nazi war criminals all featured on his pages.
He joined online groups calling for independence for Yorkshire, and complained to one that Bradford was being 'over-run by chavs'.
No one seemed to recall yesterday if he ever had a full-time job after leaving school. Certainly he has spent a great deal of time in education. It is understood he did a psychology degree at Leeds University, and spent the last six years doing a PhD in criminology at Bradford.
Bradford confirmed yesterday he was a student in the Department of Social Science and Humanities, which runs criminology undergraduate courses, but declined to elaborate.
Griffiths himself had no such reluctance. He once summarised his course to a neighbour by saying he was studying Jack the Ripper and doing 'a PhD in murder'.
But if he could justify his interest in serial killers as purely academic, it appears to have become blurred by the macabre presence of his alter ego.
As Ven Pariah, Griffiths used two main images of himself, one a self-portrait taken bare-chested as he stared into a mirror. He assigned himself the age of 99 and trawled internet sites to hook in like-minded correspondents. Most of them were women. The tone of the exchanges suggests he didn't meet them face to face.
Indeed, it appears he may have watched some of them from afar. Last night it was claimed he sent 'unnerving' messages to a woman he watched leaving a yoga class that she had been conducting.
She didn't report it to police but told fellow yoga teacher Steven Johnson.
He said: 'She'd never met him or knew who he was, but got a message through MySpace saying "I saw you coming out the yoga class. You know you look all right".
She didn't reply and he didn't seem to like that so he sent another message. The messages weren't threatening or sexual. I think he was trying to be friendly, but she found it unnerving.'
At Bradford University, just a short walk from his home, Griffiths was a mature student who found himself surrounded by people half his age.
He didn't make friends easily - and nor did his fellow students try too hard to befriend him. They called him 'the weirdo' and rarely socialised, unless it was to chat about a mutual interest in music. Perhaps surprisingly, his favourites included bands such as Hot Chocolate and Queen.
Enlarge (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/27/article-1281514-09C7BEE2000005DC-130_634x320_popup.jpg)Extensive: Forensic teams scour the area around Griffiths's flat, which is close to the red light district
He also listed reggae, punk, rap and heavy metal among his tastes, and took a keen interest in the local music scene.
The silent, solitary figure in the audience was a familiar sight at some of the venues where he indulged that interest. Often it would involve walking through the red light district on his way home - he lived less than a mile away from where girls touted for trade.
They knew him, of course - because he had started chatting to them almost as soon as he moved into the area in 1997. But he never wanted sex.
He was happy to share a cigarette with them, and would often hang around with them. One of the girls, Sarah, remembered him from as far back as 2000.
'He would always be hanging around us,' she said. 'He always told us he was gay.'
In his long, dark, leather coat, often dressed in 'Goth' style, the 40-year-old seemed at ease with them. As a child, however Griffiths was awkward and aloof.
His mother was a telephonist and his father, a frozen food company rep when Stephen was born in 1969, was often seen in a suit and tie. It wasn't that common in the area of Dewsbury where he spent his first years.
His parents split up while he was young and he lived with his mother Moira, and a brother and sister, in a council semi in Wakefield.
A neighbour who remembers them well said: 'They were odd, all of them.'
Moira didn't officially work and was believed to be on benefits. Perhaps significantly, neighbours widely believed she had a secret night-time existence.
'She used to go out most nights at 11.30 or midnight, and always seeing different men who would come and go from the house,' said the neighbour.
She vividly recalled the one and only night she agreed to go out socially with Moira. They went to a nightclub and Moira 'immediately began snogging men'.
The neighbour described Stephen and his brother Philip as 'nerds'. 'They never went out, mixed with other children in the street or played outside.'
Stephen's enthusiasm for knowledge helped to earn him a place at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, a prestigious independent school which boasts that it 'exists to nurture respect, responsibility and the achievement of excellence'.
Fees are now more than £9,000 a year and alumni include England rugby star Mike Tindall.
The school confirmed yesterday that Griffiths attended for three years until 1986, making him a few months short of his 17th birthday when he left.
His mother, now 61, lives in a run-down block of flats behind Dewsbury station.
A neighbour there said Stephen used to visit often. 'He's a bit strange but I always thought he was harmless,' the neighbour said.
'Once I invited him to share a can of lager with me on the grass outside and it was suddenly like he was my best friend. He seemed quite lonely.'
Additional reporting by Chris Brooke and Dan Newling
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More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
Bradford police have found more human remains in the River Aire during their search for the bodies of two missing women.
The hunt for Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage was continuing near the home of the man charged with their murders.
Criminology student Stephen Griffiths, 40, dubbed himself the "crossbow cannibal" when he appeared in court on Friday charged with three counts of murder.
He is accused of killing the two missing women along with Suzanne Blamires, whose remains were found on Tuesday in the River Aire in Shipley, West Yorkshire.
All three went missing in nearby Bradford where they worked as prostitutes.
Sky's Michelle May, reporting from the scene, said more body parts have now been found about 200 metres from the earlier discovery.
"Police say it is too early to be able to identified the remains," she said.
"But in the last couple of hours, between finding the remains and telling us, they have been contacting the families and loved ones of the two women to inform them."
Forensic police in the rear garden of Stephen Griffiths' Bradford apartment
May added that the search was far from over, with an excavation outside the block of flats where Griffiths lives involving a lorry with a digging arm.
Sky News also understands officers were now examining 128 sites in the Bradley and Shipley area and the operation could go on for weeks.
Ms Blamires was last seen on Friday, while Ms Armitage, 31, has been missing since April 26 and Ms Rushworth, 43, disappeared on June 22 last year.
Psychology graduate Griffiths, who was undertaking postgraduate research in criminology at Bradford University, was arrested on Monday at his home in Thornton Road on the edge of Bradford's red-light district.
When asked for his name at Bradford Magistrates Court, he replied: "The crossbow cannibal."
Four hours later he made his second appearance of the day at Bradford Crown Court, where he spoke only to confirm his name.
Griffiths made no application for bail and was remanded in custody to appear before the same court on June 7 via video link from Wakefield Prison.
More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
The hunt for Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage was continuing near the home of the man charged with their murders.
Criminology student Stephen Griffiths, 40, dubbed himself the "crossbow cannibal" when he appeared in court on Friday charged with three counts of murder.
He is accused of killing the two missing women along with Suzanne Blamires, whose remains were found on Tuesday in the River Aire in Shipley, West Yorkshire.
All three went missing in nearby Bradford where they worked as prostitutes.
Sky's Michelle May, reporting from the scene, said more body parts have now been found about 200 metres from the earlier discovery.
"Police say it is too early to be able to identified the remains," she said.
"But in the last couple of hours, between finding the remains and telling us, they have been contacting the families and loved ones of the two women to inform them."
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/May/Week4/15640405.jpg Forensic police in the rear garden of Stephen Griffiths' Bradford apartment
May added that the search was far from over, with an excavation outside the block of flats where Griffiths lives involving a lorry with a digging arm.
Sky News also understands officers were now examining 128 sites in the Bradley and Shipley area and the operation could go on for weeks.
Ms Blamires was last seen on Friday, while Ms Armitage, 31, has been missing since April 26 and Ms Rushworth, 43, disappeared on June 22 last year.
Psychology graduate Griffiths, who was undertaking postgraduate research in criminology at Bradford University, was arrested on Monday at his home in Thornton Road on the edge of Bradford's red-light district.
When asked for his name at Bradford Magistrates Court, he replied: "The crossbow cannibal."
Four hours later he made his second appearance of the day at Bradford Crown Court, where he spoke only to confirm his name.
Griffiths made no application for bail and was remanded in custody to appear before the same court on June 7 via video link from Wakefield Prison.
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More Body Parts Found In Bradford River
Rumour suggest many more bodies from this cross bow nut.