Broadmoor patient confesses to murders of vulnerable women

Graham Fisher attacked Clare Letchford, 40, and 75-year-old Beryl O'Connor in their homes in Hastings.

Both women were discovered strangled and burned in their flats less than 100 yards apart in January 1998.

Ten years after the horrific attacks, Fisher confessed while he was being held at the high-security psychiatric hospital.

The 37-year-old also admitted attempting to murder and trying to rape a 19-year-old Czech student on a train, and to repeatedly raping a woman in her 40s in her own home.

Prosecutors told Lewes Crown Court at the opening of Fisher's sentencing hearing yesterday that he targeted lonely, vulnerable women, some of whom he knew, to get sexual kicks.

He was transferred to Broadmoor part-way through serving a five-year jail term for indecently assaulting two Spanish students at knifepoint in Eastbourne, East Sussex, in May 1998.

The transfer, under the Mental Health Act, followed concerns he was a "grave danger" and it was there that he confessed to his historic crimes.

Fisher, deemed to have a severe and enduring complex personality disorder, told a doctor he felt it necessary to confess "because it's so hard to live with it in my head".

Richard Barton, prosecuting, said Ms O'Connor and Ms Letchford were both widows and were lonely former neighbours of Fisher. It emerged that police had questioned Fisher about their killings but during one interview in April 1998 he was deemed unfit to be interrogated and on a later occasion he declined to answer questions.

Mr Barton said there was insufficient evidence at the time to link him to their deaths.

He told the court that after Fisher's attack on Ms Letchford, he confessed to cutting a piece of flesh from her arm and eating it.

Days after Ms Letchford's killing, Fisher tried to murder and attempted to rape the teenage Czech student on board a train from Hastings to London on January 25, 1998.

Mr Barton said he tricked his way into the toilet cubicle after seeing her walk in before launching his violent attack, rendering her unconscious.

As a result of being strangled, she suffered a stroke, was left in a coma for three days and her injuries leave a lasting legacy to this day, Mr Barton added.

In a victim impact statement, she said she has since married but has had to learn to speak and walk again.

The day after the attack on the student, Ms O'Connor, known as Dornie, was killed in her top-floor flat in Holmesdale Gardens, Hastings, close to Ms Letchford's home.

He went on to attack two Spanish students at knifepoint in Eastbourne in May 1998 for which he received a five-year jail term at Lewes Crown Court.

Fisher also confessed to raping a woman he knew at her home in Bromley, south-east London, on two separate occasions in 1991, Mr Barton said.

He will be sentenced today for two counts of manslaughter, attempted rape and attempted murder and two counts of rape.