Stephen Griffiths: The crossbow cannibal

An Easy Case

Stephen Griffiths police photo.

Within hours of Suzanne Blamires death, Stephen Griffiths approached another prostitute. She declined the 80 GBP he offered, or she might well be dead today. And the list of dead might have rolled on — but Peter Gee, the superintendent at Holmfield Court, reviewed the complex’s security tape just hours after Blamires’ untimely demise, and — immediately after he called the Sun to offer his exclusive story to the tabloid — he reported the video’s disturbing images to police:

Early May 22, 2010, the camera caught a woman fleeing apartment 33. It showed a man wrestle her to the ground, knock her unconscious, then shoot her twice in the head with a crossbow before dragging her back into the apartment. Later footage showed the same man leaving the apartment with a number of large bags.

The man gave the camera the finger.

Yorkshire had become over the years one of the most intently monitored places in Britain, littered with surveillance cameras and watched by pioneering license plate-identification system. But Griffiths was caught by a camera on his own threshold.

The head of Bradford’s vice squad, Sgt. Helen Metcalfe, was able to identify the woman in the video as Suzanne Blamires. Griffiths was easy enough to find in his apartment at the site of the crime. When police marksmen burst in on him, he called out, “I’m in here. I’m Osama bin Laden.”

Detectives immediately searched Griffiths’ apartment, and found a trove of his own videos to supplement the evidence on the security tape. Metcalfe identified Shelley Armitage from video stored on Griffiths’ computer. A woman bound with green twine, shown on his living floor, hasn’t been positively identified, but may be Susie Rushworth.

The apartment was full of books and journals on murder and serial killers. There were two bloodstained crossbows, and nearly 30 knives.

A few days after the arrest, a pedestrian found a rucksack holding the remains of Suzanne Blamires on the bank of the River Aire. Blamires had been hacked into 81 pieces. Her head was without skin, ears or nose, and a crossbow bolt and a knife fragment were embedded in her skull.

Later a stretch of river in Shipley yielded to police divers a black flight bag holding knives and hacksaws, then parts of Shelley Armitage. Any further evidence was unnecessary: Stephen Griffiths was proud to be known as the Crossbow Cannibal.

Confessions

Griffiths with crossbow. MySpace/Personal photo.

Stephen Griffiths initially claimed that his victims list extends beyond Susie Rushworth, Suzanne Blamires and Shelley Armitage. Police didn’t believe him, and he’s since refused to answer questions about other cases. He’s certainly not been shy about detailing these three crimes.

Griffiths told authorities that he dismembered the women using power tools and a hammer, an assortment of knives and a samurai sword. He enthusiastically described his bloodied bathroom as “a slaughterhouse.”

He bragged to detectives that he cooked parts of the first two victims. His oven broke, but he made do, and ate pieces of the third victim raw.

His first day in court lived up to the sick bravado he displayed to investigators. When the judge asked his name at the start of proceedings, Griffiths smugly answered, “The Crossbow Cannibal.”

He pleaded guilty and in December 2010, Griffiths, then 40, received a life sentence.

Sources say he’s showed little emotion and no remorse, but Griffiths is showing signs of disturbance. He’s made four suicide attempts, once by trying to hang himself with a sock. He spent much of 2011 on a hunger strike. Originally sentenced to Wakefield Prison (once home to Soham killer Ian Huntley), he’s since been moved to Rampton Psychiatric Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

Bibliography on following page.