Stephen Griffiths was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, December 21, 2010, after pleading guilty to the murders of three women from Bradford: Susan Rushworth, 43, Shelley Armitage, 31, and Suzanne Blamires, 36. All three worked as sex workers in the streets of the city's red-light district, close to the flat where he lived. Mr Justice Openshaw told him the killings were so wicked and monstrous that there was no doubt he should be kept in prison for the rest of his life.
Griffiths was 40, a psychology graduate who had spent years as a part-time research student at the University of Bradford, working on a history of homicide in the city in the nineteenth century. He was caught in May 2010 when the caretaker of his building looked through recordings from its security cameras and called the police. When he first appeared in court, asked to give his name, he called himself "the crossbow cannibal," and the press used that name from then on.
Griffiths was born on December 24, 1969, the date of birth read out by the court clerk and confirmed by him at his first hearing. CBS News, relying on British press reports, said he was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. He grew up in Wakefield and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, a fee-paying school in the city, from 1983 to 1986, according to a 2010 report carried by Fox News with Associated Press material. Reports at the time of his arrest called him a former public schoolboy.
He later studied psychology at the University of Leeds and took a degree there. From 2004 he studied part time at the University of Bradford. The Yorkshire Post reported that his research was for a local history doctorate on homicide in Bradford between 1847 and 1899, drawing on newspaper and periodical archives at the city library. Channel 4 News described him as single, a loner, absorbed in his academic work and in an online persona he called "Ven Pariah." The Associated Press material quoted by Fox News said he had never held a job and lived on grants and disability benefits; the university, asked by the Yorkshire Post how his studies were paid for, declined to say.
Neighbours knew him for keeping monitor lizards, Channel 4 News said, and some called him "Lizard Man." ABC News reported that he bred mice to feed them and wore dark glasses whatever the weather. He also showed an interest in serial killers, including Peter Sutcliffe, who had killed women across West Yorkshire and the north of England in the 1970s and was jailed in 1981.
Griffiths had a criminal record and a long history of contact with psychiatrists before 2009. The Yorkshire Post's report of the sentencing hearing set out what the court was told. In 1987, at 17, he slashed the face of a store manager. He was assessed at Waddiloves Hospital in Bradford, diagnosed with a severe personality disorder, and sentenced to three years in youth custody. In 1991 a psychiatrist described him as a sadistic schizoid psychopath and dangerous. He was assessed at Rampton Hospital, the high-security hospital in Nottinghamshire, but was discharged when doctors concluded that treatment could not help him.
More than 20 years before the killings, the court heard, he had told a probation officer that he saw himself becoming a murderer, though not until his early thirties.
By 2009 Griffiths lived in a flat in Holmfield Court, a block on Thornton Road on the edge of Bradford's red-light district. The building had security cameras in its corridors. Those cameras, and the caretaker who checked them, would bring the case to an end in May 2010.
The three women he killed worked in the streets near his building. Channel 4 News reported that they were friends, and The Times, as quoted in the Associated Press material carried by Fox News, said they knew each other well.
Susan Rushworth was 43 when she disappeared. She was a mother of three and a grandmother. She had epilepsy and, at the time she went missing, was receiving treatment for heroin addiction, the Yorkshire Post reported; ABC News said she had sought help and had begun getting to know her grandchildren. Neighbours told the Yorkshire Post that she visited elderly residents at a local care home. Her daughter said her mother was always ready to help other people and that her friends enjoyed her company. "She was like a sister more than a mum," her daughter said.
She was last seen on Monday, June 22, 2009, getting off a bus in Manningham, Bradford. After that she stopped contacting her family, stopped using her phone and stopped drawing money from her bank account. Two neighbours who believed they were the last to see her told Channel 4 News that she had not wanted to go out that night and seemed sad.
On July 6, 2009, her son made a public appeal for information. A week later detectives said they had grave concern for her welfare, and Detective Superintendent Dave Pervin said it was possible she had taken heroin her body could not cope with. On July 20 police divers searched the lake in Lister Park and the search was extended to a nearby railway line. Nothing was found. Police appealed again in September 2009, when she had been missing for three months.
Her body has never been found. In court in December 2010 the prosecution said Griffiths had given no help in finding her remains. Her mother, Christine Thompson, told reporters that the family had been unable to bury her, and asked Griffiths to tell them what he had done with her.
Shelley Armitage was 31. Her mother, Gill Armitage, said she had become addicted to heroin at 16, and that she was "very much loved." A volunteer who knew her told the Yorkshire Post she was bubbly and lovely, and a friend said she liked being the centre of attention. A charity worker said she had applied for a rehabilitation course to leave sex work.
On Monday, April 26, 2010, she left her flat in Allerton, Bradford, with a friend and was last seen heading towards the red-light district. Her boyfriend reported her missing on April 28. Police launched a poster appeal on May 5, and on May 10 they released security camera footage of her in Bradford city centre on the night she disappeared. The Yorkshire Post reported that a man matching Griffiths's description had been seen with her on April 26.
Only a small part of her remains was ever recovered. Human tissue found in the River Aire at Shipley was confirmed by forensic tests on June 3, 2010 to be hers, and police said her family had been told.
Suzanne Blamires was 36 and lived in a housing association flat in Allerton. Her mother, Nicky Blamires, said in a statement issued through West Yorkshire Police that Suzanne was a bright, articulate young woman who had gone to college and was training to be a nurse, and a much-loved daughter, sister and niece. The family saw her often. "She always knew she could come home and that the door was always open," her mother said. "At the end of the day, nobody deserves this. All these girls were human beings and people's daughters."
At her funeral in August 2010, the priest described her as cheeky, full of confidence and outgoing. As a little girl she loved horses, became a skilled rider, and went to the primary school next to the church where her requiem mass was held. Mourners spoke of her as clever and intelligent and of the community work she had done. Her late father, Norman, had been, in the priest's words, wrapped around her little finger.
She was last seen on Friday, May 21, 2010. Her boyfriend reported her missing the next day.
On Monday, May 24, 2010, the caretaker of Holmfield Court went through the weekend's recordings from the building's cameras. What he saw led him to call the police. The prosecutor later told the court that the caretaker had seen someone on the third floor dragging a person into Griffiths's flat. The recordings showed Griffiths with Suzanne Blamires in the early hours of the Saturday, and that footage was how police identified her. Prosecutors said the cameras captured her leaving the flat with Griffiths following her, and that she was shot with a crossbow. Later footage showed him leaving the building several times carrying bags.
Armed police arrested Griffiths at his flat the same day. Reuters reported that when he was arrested he claimed to be Osama bin Laden.
Griffiths was interviewed at Halifax police station on May 24. He told detectives that searching for the three women was pointless because they were already dead, and he admitted killing Susan Rushworth, Shelley Armitage and Suzanne Blamires. He would not say where their bodies were. He then claimed to have killed many more women, "loads," without naming any. In another interview the next day he withdrew that claim, and from then on he maintained that he had killed only the three women, the Yorkshire Post reported in December 2010.
He told officers he had "cut himself off from society" and that a "civil war" was going on in his head, CBS News reported. Police said he gave no clear motive and told interviewers he did not have much regard for the human race. He said he had no issue with prostitutes and was not "street cleaning like Peter Sutcliffe." He also told police that he had eaten parts of his victims. That is his own claim, and it formed no separate charge.
On Tuesday, May 25, a member of the public found human remains in the River Aire at Shipley. They were later confirmed to be those of Suzanne Blamires. On Thursday, May 27, Assistant Chief Constable Jawaid Akhtar of West Yorkshire Police announced that Griffiths had been charged with the murders of all three women. The charges set out date ranges: Susan Rushworth between June 22, 2009 and May 25, 2010; Shelley Armitage between April 25 and May 25, 2010; and Suzanne Blamires between May 20 and May 25, 2010.
He appeared at Bradford Magistrates' Court on Friday, May 28, before District Judge Susan Bouch. About 40 people were in the courtroom, eight of them relatives of the women. When the clerk asked his name, he answered, "The crossbow cannibal." Asked for his address, he said, "Erm, here, I guess." He confirmed his date of birth and said nothing more. The hearing lasted only a few minutes. Later the same day he appeared briefly at Bradford Crown Court, where he spoke only to confirm his name, and he was remanded in custody to HMP Wakefield.
The new prime minister, David Cameron, called the murders a terrible shock.
West Yorkshire Police called the investigation Operation Pinstripe. More than 130 staff worked on it, including 60 murder squad detectives and 70 specialist officers. Divers searched the River Aire at Shipley, and searches and excavations took place in Bradford city centre, on Thornton Road, around Sunbridge Road, in Lister Park and in undergrowth behind his flat. The National Policing Improvement Agency helped plan the search. Items recovered were examined at forensic laboratories in Wetherby, with help from teams in London and Birmingham.
On May 29 police recovered a suitcase from the river; it contained tools and was sent for forensic examination. Possible remains found on May 28 were later confirmed to be animal, not human. A holdall containing a hacksaw and knives was pulled from the river at the end of May. Police told the Yorkshire Post that his flat would be dismantled in the search for evidence, and forensic tests later found bloodstains from all three women there. A police spokesman described the work as lengthy, detailed and painstaking.
Police condemned a short animated film made by a Taiwan-based company that depicted Suzanne Blamires's death and demanded its removal from YouTube, and a man posted abuse on a Facebook page set up in memory of the three women, the Yorkshire Post reported in June 2010.
Griffiths had also recorded material on a mobile phone, which he lost on a train. NBC News reported that the phone was sold twice before police traced it. Police recovered photographs and video from his flat as well. The court was later told about video recordings and images he had kept.
On Monday, June 7, 2010, Griffiths appeared by video link from Wakefield prison at Bradford Crown Court before Judge James Goss QC. He sat with his arms folded and spoke only to confirm his name. The prosecutor, Heather Gilmore, said extensive forensic inquiries were continuing, including three more weeks of work at the flat. His barrister, Ian Howard, said the defence would examine his mental state and wished to consult experts at Rampton Hospital. The judge set a review hearing for July 16 before Mr Justice Openshaw at Sheffield Crown Court and a provisional trial date of November 16, 2010 at Bradford Crown Court. He reminded the media and the public of their duties under the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
On June 9, Griffiths was found unconscious on the floor of his cell at Wakefield with a sock tied around his neck. A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman confirmed that a prisoner had received treatment in the prison's care wing after an incident of self-harm.
In July, West Yorkshire Police said they would write to every police force in the country asking them to check their records for any information about Griffiths. Detective Chief Superintendent Max McLean, head of the force's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said the National Policing Improvement Agency was helping to build a timeline of Griffiths's movements in the years before his arrest, checking the movements of suspects and missing people for any overlap.
On Friday, July 16, 2010, Griffiths appeared by video link at Sheffield Crown Court and sought to plead guilty to all three murders. Mr Justice Openshaw refused to accept the pleas because of concerns about his mental state. Psychiatrists then examined him. They agreed that he was highly dangerous and had an untreatable personality disorder, but they did not consider him mentally ill, and they found him fit to plead.
On October 14, 2010, he appeared at Bradford Crown Court before Mr Justice Openshaw. He sat with his arms crossed and his head down for most of the 25-minute hearing and spoke only to confirm his name. The case was adjourned to Leeds Crown Court on December 21.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 21, 2010, Griffiths stood in the dock at Leeds Crown Court in a grey sweatshirt and jogging bottoms and answered "guilty" quietly as each of the three murder counts was read. The families sat in the seats normally kept for the jury, and many of them wept during the hearing.
The prosecutor, Robert Smith QC, set out the case. He described the caretaker's discovery, the footage of Suzanne Blamires, and the forensic evidence from the flat showing that Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth had bled there. Suzanne Blamires's clothing was found in a bin near the flat. The footage of Griffiths leaving the building with bags was matched by records of him taking a train from Bradford to Shipley, where a rucksack and tools were later recovered from the river. Searches there recovered remains linked to Shelley Armitage. Susan Rushworth's remains have never been recovered. The court heard what he had said to police after his arrest: "I've killed a lot more than Suzanne Blamires," according to Reuters, and a remark comparing himself to Peter Sutcliffe.
Mr Justice Openshaw imposed life sentences with whole life orders on each count, meaning Griffiths will never be considered for release. The judge said he had no doubt the crimes were so wicked and monstrous that Griffiths should spend the rest of his life in prison. He said Griffiths had shown no remorse and had never said he regretted what he did, or apologised "in even the most perfunctory way." The judge also found that Griffiths had already been targeting another woman who worked in the area, identified in court only as "R," who would probably have been his fourth victim. Griffiths showed no emotion as he was led away.
The judge allowed reporters to send live text updates, such as messages on Twitter, from the courtroom. The Yorkshire Post said this was thought to be the first time a judge had allowed it in practice, following an interim practice direction issued by the Lord Chief Justice.
The judge said there was no question that Griffiths was fit to plead, NBC News reported.
Outside court the families spoke about the women and about him. Nicky Blamires called Griffiths a coward for pleading guilty and said she thought about her daughter every day. Gill Armitage said her daughter's death "will haunt us for the rest of our lives." Christine Thompson, Susan Rushworth's mother, appealed again to Griffiths to tell the family what he had done with her daughter. Susan Rushworth's daughter, then 21, walked out of court shouting at Griffiths.
Detective Superintendent Sukhbir Singh, who led the investigation, described Griffiths as heartless and controlling. Peter Mann of the Crown Prosecution Service in West Yorkshire called him a cold-hearted and manipulative individual and said the case was beyond understanding. Police said they hoped the convictions would bring some comfort to the families.
On the day of the sentencing, Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Brennan, acting head of the force's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said police had no evidence linking Griffiths to any other crime. Everything in the flat had been taken apart and no material from another victim had been found. Detective Superintendent Singh said Operation Pinstripe had finished its first two phases, securing the charges and the convictions. The third phase would compare a timeline of Griffiths's life, from the age of about 14 or 15, with other disappearances and killings, working with national and local partners and with criminologists. He said police would offer Griffiths another interview.
Among the unsolved cases named by police and the press as ones the national review would examine were the murders of Rebecca Hall, 19, in Bradford in 2001; Yvonne Fitt, 33, whose body was found at Norwood Edge in 1992; and Vicky Glass, 21, of Middlesbrough, found on moorland near Danby in 2000. Rebecca Hall was the mother of a four-month-old son. She disappeared from her home in Little Horton on April 13, 2001, and her body was found in an alleyway off Thornton Street on April 26, about half a mile from the flats where Griffiths later lived. None of these cases has ever been linked to him by any charge, and no evidence connecting him to them has been reported. In April 2016 West Yorkshire Police's cold case team reopened the review of Rebecca Hall's murder; the detective leading it said police believed someone in the community knew who was responsible. Griffiths was not mentioned.
NBC News and CBS News reported at the time of the sentencing that police believed, or that he had indicated, that he had killed six women in all. Those figures rest on what he said in interview, which he withdrew the next day according to the Yorkshire Post, and on police suspicion. They are claims, not findings.
In February 2011 the Yorkshire Post reported that he had been on hunger strike at Wakefield since November 2010, that his health was declining, and that he had signed a document refusing to be force-fed. He had made several attempts to take his own life in custody. A senior police source told the paper that he remained mentally competent but had said he wanted to waste away, and that detectives feared he might die without saying what had happened to Susan Rushworth. The same report said West Yorkshire Police were still questioning him about possible further killings. How or when the hunger strike ended was not reported.
In November 2024 the Yorkshire Post carried an agency report, drawn from unnamed prison sources, that Griffiths had been assaulted by another prisoner; the Prison Service said only that it was investigating an incident and that violence in prisons is not tolerated. The report described him as still serving the whole life order imposed in 2010.
No appeal against his convictions or sentence has been reported.
The case prompted a debate about the safety of women in street sex work. In late December 2010 the Association of Chief Police Officers backed a national database of men suspected of attacking sex workers, building on local "ugly mugs" warning schemes. Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne, who led its work on the issue, said the existing laws were too complex and that it was time to debate decriminalising some parts of the sex trade. "Any murder is one too many and if we can do something simple and effective to stop that then we should do so," he said. The Home Office was examining a national scheme and planned new policing guidance.
Suzanne Blamires was buried in August 2010. More than 100 people attended her requiem mass at St Columba's Catholic Church in Bradford. Her coffin was carried by a horse-drawn hearse, a brother helped carry it, and she was buried privately at Bowling Cemetery. Her mother read a family poem about losing her. The inquest into her death had been opened the month before by the coroner, Roger Whittaker. Susan Rushworth's family has never had a body to bury.
Griffiths is serving life imprisonment with whole life orders and cannot be released. In November 2024 he was reported to be still serving that sentence.
Proven by final judgment: the murders of Susan Rushworth, Shelley Armitage and Suzanne Blamires, by guilty pleas at Leeds Crown Court on December 21, 2010.
His own claims: that he had killed "loads" of women, which he withdrew the next day; the figure of six women in all, reported by NBC News and CBS News; and his claim to have eaten parts of the women. None of these was charged or proven in court. The Yorkshire Post reported in February 2011 that the judge had said he saw no reason to doubt the cannibalism claim; it remained a claim that formed no part of any charge.
Investigated, never linked: the deaths of other women reviewed in the national check, including Rebecca Hall in 2001. Police said in December 2010 there was no evidence linking him to any other killing.
Details that vary between accounts: Susan Rushworth's age (43 in the charges and most reports; 42 in one Yorkshire Post sentencing report; 40 in one Channel 4 News report), and the number of women he claimed to have killed.
December 24, 1969: Stephen Shaun Griffiths is born; he grows up in Wakefield.
1983 to 1986: attends Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield.
1987: at 17, slashes a store manager's face; assessed at Waddiloves Hospital and sentenced to three years in youth custody.
1991: a psychiatrist describes him as a sadistic schizoid psychopath; assessed at Rampton Hospital and discharged.
2004: begins part-time postgraduate research at the University of Bradford, after a psychology degree at Leeds.
June 22, 2009: Susan Rushworth is last seen getting off a bus in Manningham, Bradford.
July 6, 2009: her son appeals for information; police divers search Lister Park on July 20.
April 26, 2010: Shelley Armitage leaves her flat in Allerton and is last seen heading towards the red-light district; reported missing April 28.
May 21, 2010: Suzanne Blamires is last seen; reported missing the next day.
May 24, 2010: the caretaker of Holmfield Court finds the camera footage; armed police arrest Griffiths, who admits the three killings in interview.
May 25, 2010: remains of Suzanne Blamires are found in the River Aire at Shipley; Griffiths withdraws his claim of further killings.
May 27, 2010: charged with three murders.
May 28, 2010: gives his name as "the crossbow cannibal" at Bradford Magistrates' Court; remanded to HMP Wakefield.
June 3, 2010: tissue from the River Aire is confirmed as Shelley Armitage's.
June 7, 2010: video-link hearing at Bradford Crown Court; provisional trial date set.
June 9, 2010: found unconscious in his cell after an act of self-harm.
July 2010: West Yorkshire Police write to every force in the country asking for checks.
July 16, 2010: at Sheffield Crown Court, Mr Justice Openshaw refuses to accept guilty pleas until his mental state is assessed.
October 14, 2010: hearing at Bradford Crown Court; case sent to Leeds for December 21.
November 2010: begins a hunger strike at Wakefield, according to a February 2011 report.
December 21, 2010: pleads guilty to all three murders at Leeds Crown Court; life with whole life orders.
December 28, 2010: police chiefs back a national database of men who attack sex workers.
February 2011: reported to be on hunger strike and to have refused force-feeding.
April 2016: cold case review of Rebecca Hall's murder announced; Griffiths not named.
November 2024: reported still serving the whole life order.