British detectives say they have charged a 40-year-old man with the murders of three women from Bradford who worked as prostitutes.
The head of West Yorkshire’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Stephen Griffiths was accused of murdering Suzanne Blamires, 36, Shelley Armitage, 31, and Susan Rushworth, 43.
“I have decided that there is sufficient evidence to charge Stephen Griffiths with their murders, and that it is in the public interest to do so,” said CPS head, Peter Mann.
Griffiths will appear at Bradford Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning and then will be remanded into custody to appear at Bradford Crown Court later that day.
Earlier detectives confirmed human remains found in a river in West Yorkshire were those of a missing prostitute Ms Blamires, 36, who had been missing since last Friday.
Griffiths, who media reported was a criminology student specialising in serial killers, was arrested on Monday.
The investigation has rekindled memories of the 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 was never found.
Bradford lorry driver Sutcliffe, now 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.
