Bradford murders

Stephen Shaun Griffiths (born 24 December 1969 in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire), at the time a semi-professional postgraduate student in criminology, was arrested and in May 2010 he appeared in the magistrates' court, giving his name as "the Crossbow Cannibal." At a Crown Court appearance that afternoon, he was remanded in custody until his next court appearance. He made a second appearance at the Crown Court on 7 June via a video link from Wakefield Prison where a trial date of 16 November 2010 was set. On 21 December 2010, Griffiths was convicted of all three murders after pleading guilty. At Leeds Crown Court, the same day, Mr Justice Openshaw sentenced Griffiths to life imprisonment with a whole life order, meaning he will not become eligible for parole and is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. While in prison, Griffiths has attempted suicide on several occasions. In 2011, he went on a 120-day hunger strike, during which time he avoided contact with other people. ==Post trial statements==

Griffiths' criminal history included a three-year sentence, when aged 17, for an unprovoked knife attack on a supermarket manager. While in custody, he stated that he saw himself becoming a murderer, and psychiatrists warned that he fantasised about becoming a serial killer. Police had been watching Griffiths for two years before he killed his victims and had already seized hunting weapons. The police contacted the housing association which owns the flat in which Griffiths lived after he was observed reading books on dismemberment. The housing association shared the police's concerns and fitted a better CCTV system in anticipation of an incident. At the time of the murders, police had no evidence for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order. == Government reaction ==

David Cameron, the then new Conservative prime minister, said the murders were a "terrible shock". He said the decriminalisation of offences related to prostitution should be "looked at again", but he also added that: "I don't think we should jump to conclusions on this – there are all sorts of problems that decriminalisation would bring." Later, aides close to Cameron strongly insisted he was concerned with addressing the social problems surrounding it such as encouraging agencies to work together to help women off the streets or to combat drug addiction. Cameron also called for tougher action on kerb-crawling and drug abuse. The debate as to whether a change in the law would protect sex workers soon came into question. == Other possible victims of Griffiths ==

When he was arrested and interviewed by police in 2010, Griffiths claimed to officers to have killed a total of five sex workers in Bradford, suggesting there were two additional victims unaccounted for. Griffiths knew Hall and she was known to regularly visit his flat. His former partner at the time revealed that Griffiths had excitedly taken her to the place where her body had been found, and also said that the car park was next to his doctor's surgery and pharmacy. The murder was one of several cold cases to be re-opened after Taylor's conviction and he was questioned about it, in part because evidence showed Hall's body had been stored for a period after her death, which was a known hallmark of Taylor. In 2013, criminologist David Wilson released a documentary on Griffiths as part of his Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story series, in which he examined unsolved murders that could be linked to Griffiths. The former lead detective on the case revealed in 2018 that two DNA profiles had previously been extracted from Hall's clothing, but the profiles were of too poor quality at the time to determine what the full profile of the unidentified individual was. Following this, in 2019, police announced the arrest of a 37-year-old woman (who would have been the same age as Hall at the time, 19). The woman was released under investigation. == See also ==