Fears over Crossbow Cannibal secrets

The serial killer, currently being held in Wakefield Prison for murdering three women, has refused food since November and has tried several times to kill himself while in custody.

He was given three life sentences at Leeds Crown Court in December after he admitted killing and dismembering Susan Rushworth, 43, Shelley Armitage, 31, and Suzanne Blamires, 36, who all worked near his flat in Bradford’s red light district.

Body parts belonging to Ms Armitage and Ms Blamires were found in the river Aire at Shipley but Griffiths, 41, has refused to reveal what he did with Ms Rushworth, despite an emotional appeal from her family.

Detectives at West Yorkshire Police, who are also investigating whether Griffiths is responsible for more killings, fear they are running out of time.

“We are still working with him, but he is still maintaining his hunger strike,” a senior police source told the Yorkshire Post.

“He has signed a document to say he doesn’t want force-feeding and our worry is that we will soon get to a stage where his body will be so damaged that he probably won’t respond to our questions.

“We aren’t quite at that stage yet. He is compos mentis, but he has said he won’t eat food and he wants to waste away.”

Griffiths, a former PhD student at Bradford University, was arrested in May last year after a CCTV camera in his block of flats recorded him killing Ms Blamires with a crossbow.

He told police he ate pieces of his victims, and sentencing judge Mr Justice Openshaw said there was no reason to doubt his account.

Griffiths has swallowed batteries, tried to suffocate himself and slashed his wrist and neck with broken glass in a series of desperate attempts to end his life in prison.