The Crossbow Cannibal

Stephen Griffiths starts 2009 with a conviction in January for harassment. He’ll end it as a murderer.

Susan Rushworth is, at 43, already a grandmother, a heroin addict, and a prostitute. She’s been selling her body on the streets for the last three years to fund her drug habit. But her life could have been so different. Her brother, Paul, remembers Susan and him having a happy childhood growing up in the country. She married in her early 20s, has children, and life is good. Even after they separate, she finds love again and starts another family. When, however, this relationship breaks down, one of the new men in her life introduces her, aged 35, to heroin.

Her concerned mother, Christine, pays for rehab. It works, but only for a few months. A cycle of creeping addiction and cleaning out begins.

It’s the day after Father’s Day, Monday 22 June 2009. Susan leaves her mum’s at 1 p.m. She takes a mobile phone with her, saying she’ll be gone for a few hours. She goes to the chemist and picks up her prescription of methadone as part of her latest attempt to break her addiction. But when her mother calls, no one answers the mobile. Susan, despite her lifestyle, always kept in contact with her mum.

Christine rings the police. Missing posters go up and TV appeals are made by Susan’s son. The police interview potential witnesses such as local drug dealers and men known to use prostitutes. They comb nearby woodland and drain a local lake. But her bank cards haven’t been used since the day she disappeared. Her brother Paul starts his own inquiries, and one of the prostitutes he talks to is Shelley Armitage.

Shelley Armitage was a ‘bubbly’ girl who went to Catholic school. Holiday photos taken on a beach show a carefree child. She grows up wanting to be a model that travels the world. Aged 31, she’s a prostitute who walks up and down Thornton Road in Bradford. She first became a heroin addict at just 16.

On 26 April 2010, around lunchtime, Shelley bumps into her father and mother out shopping. They chat. It’s the last conversation they’ll ever have with their daughter. When she doesn’t return to her boyfriend, Craig, in the evening, the police are called. Shelley never turns up for her social security payment. The police release CCTV footage of Shelley on the streets of Bradford, hoping to jog memories. For the second time in less than 12 months, police and family comb the area for a missing loved one.

Suzanne Blamires is Bradford born and bred. Photos of her childhood and teenage years capture her attractiveness, confidence, and cheekiness. She began training as a nurse. But when she starts going to raves, she starts taking recreational drugs. Around 21 years old, she discovers heroin. By 25, she starts sex working to pay for it. When her mother, Nicky, confronts her, Suzanne confesses everything. But it doesn’t stop her ‘merry-go-round’ of scoring, sleeping, and selling herself for her next hit. Her street name is ‘Amber’.

On 21 May 2010, Nicky drops Suzanne, now aged 36, off at her flat early in the morning. But, unusually, Suzanne never rings her mum that evening. On Saturday, at about 4 p.m., her boyfriend, Gregg, knocks on Nicky’s door asking if she’s seen Suzanne. Nicky knows instantly something is wrong. The police are called. But ‘Amber’ has met ‘Ven Pariah’.

"I don’t have much time for the Human Race"

Griffiths during police interview. It takes the police three days to interview Griffiths despite his initial confession because of his rambling. His confession alludes to his alter ego, Ven Pariah.

Griffiths: I, or part of me, is responsible for killing Susan Rushworth, Shelley Armitage and Suzanne Blamires, who I know as Amber... Police: Why did you feel the need to kill her? Griffiths: ...Like I say, you just...sometimes you kill someone to kill yourself or kill part of yourself. I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s like deep issues inside of me.

He also indicates in an interview that he’s killed six women in total. He appears depressed but is initially helpful with the police. However, he won’t reveal the location of Susan Rushworth’s body.

Then the press obtain the CCTV footage of Griffiths killing Suzanne Blamires and release it. Seeing her daughter’s last moments made into a spectacle is devastating to her mum.

The police are able to build up a detailed picture of what happened to Shelley Armitage partly because, sickeningly, Griffiths records some of it on his phone. After dragging Shelley back into his flat, he ties her up in the bath. On her back, sprayed in black paint, are the words, ‘My Sex Slave’.

As he films, he provides his own voiceover: "I am the Ven Pariah, I am the Bloodbath Artist. Here’s a model who is assisting me."

He then dismembers her in his bathroom, his self-styled slaughterhouse. He uses knives and power tools. He places parts of her in a rucksack and then leaves the flat with it. He catches a train and is captured on camera at one of the stations. He dumps the rucksack and is then filmed again returning home.

Once home, he tries to disinfect surfaces and eradicate all evidence of his kill. A small piece of Shelley’s spine is found in the same stretch of river as Miss Blamires’ remains. In total, the police recover 81 different pieces of Miss Blamires from the river.

The police conclude that all of his victims entered Griffiths’ flat willingly, as seen on the footage showing the last moments of Suzanne Blamires. The approximate cost of a gram of heroin is around £50. Street prostitutes can sometimes charge as little as £20 for sex. Their need to fund their addiction makes them easy prey to predators like Griffiths.

To further put them at ease, and along with offers of drugs and money, Griffiths tells police that he pretended to the women that he was a photographer. He tells them they will need to lie on the bed with their backsides in the air so he can take ‘portraits’ for a new art gallery exhibition. In fact, he photographs them dead, and the photos become part of his trophies collection.

Professor of Criminology David Wilson is brought in to advise police on the prosecution approach if Griffiths doesn’t confess at trial. He suggests the reason Griffiths was so careful in covering up evidence of his first kill, and so brazen with his third, is that to be defined as a serial killer, a person must have killed three times over a period of time. As a student of criminology, Griffiths would have been well aware of this.

Three days after the disappearance of Suzanne Blamires, the caretaker of Holmfield Court reviews the CCTV tapes from the weekend. He routinely checks them for any evidence of petty crimes in the flats. He’s fast-forwarding through the silent footage of the third-floor corridor when he comes across a resident, Stephen Griffiths, leading a woman into his flat.

Within minutes, the woman runs out looking like she’s running for her life. Griffiths follows with a crossbow, fires, misses, fires again, and fells her with a bolt to her head. He turns to a nearby CCTV camera and raises his crossbow to it like a winning footballer raises a trophy cup. He drags her lifeless body back by her leg and into his flat. He then returns to the camera with a drinks can, which he raises as he ‘toasts’ his triumph while giving the finger.

Later, he goes back and forth in front of its silent gaze dragging bin bags and a rucksack. The camera has captured the last moments of Suzanne Blamires.

On Monday at 1 p.m., the distraught caretaker phones the police. Armed police race to arrest 40-year-old Stephen Griffiths. He’s arrested and handcuffed and tells police, “I’m Osama bin Laden.” He will have to wait for the tabloids to come up with his nickname.

Police search his flat and find two crossbows and bolts, along with shelves stacked with books on serial killers. The flat looks like Griffiths had recently tried to eradicate evidence by ripping up carpets and tiles.

The next afternoon, a member of the public discovers a woman’s head and other body parts in a rucksack on the banks of the River Aire, five miles north of Griffiths’ flat. The crossbow bolt and knife are still embedded in the head. The head has been skinned.

Nearby is a ‘killer’s kitbag’. It contains hacksaws and knives used in the dismemberment of bodies.

On 28 May 2010, Griffiths goes to Bradford Magistrates' Court for his first court appearance. The day before, a tabloid had referred to him as the ‘Crossbow Cannibal’. So when the magistrate asks for his name, Griffiths replies, “The Crossbow Cannibal.” He’s fully aware that all the tabloids will splash this across their front pages, and they do. When the court asks for his address, he says, “Erm, here I guess.”

On the morning of 21 December 2010, Griffiths, dressed in a grey tracksuit, stands in the dock for his trial at Leeds Crown Court. He is surrounded by five security guards. The judge, Mr Justice Openshaw, tells the court that the defendant’s mental health has been carefully examined and there is “no question that he was fit to plead.”

Each of the families has heard from the police what they suspected had happened to their daughters. Now, they have to endure listening to what he did to the others.

Susan Rushworth’s body has still not been found, but her DNA, found in bloodstains on his bathroom wall and in his bedroom, links her to Griffiths. It’s revealed that forensics found DNA on the cooker belonging to Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth. It is likely that he cooked them before consuming them. It’s reported he told officers that he ate the flesh of Suzanne Blamires raw, adding, “That’s part of the magic.”

Griffiths shows contempt and utter disdain for the whole proceedings, often folding his arms and scowling.

The trial lasts just two hours and 20 minutes because he pleads guilty to all charges. Griffiths’ QC tries to argue that the system is at fault, as his client was diagnosed as psychopathic nearly 20 years earlier.

This mitigating factor doesn’t stop Griffiths from being given three life sentences. The judge says he will never be released.

"He was weedy and needy. He was the ultimate epitome of the banality of evil... He was like a nightmarish version of a wannabe X Factor contestant, desperate to grab the attention of the British public... Stephen Griffiths saw murder as his passport to fame."

David Wilson.

The law. Many, including Wilson, believe the case again highlights the need for reform of Britain’s laws, where prostitution is not in itself illegal, but working in a brothel is. Instead of being able to operate in a controlled environment, vulnerable women are forced to work alone on the streets, making them easier targets for the very worst elements in society. It is claimed that in Holland, where prostitution has been decriminalised, there has never been a case of a serial killer targeting them, precisely because they work in the open and together.

Even the women’s groups, which oppose measures such as decriminalisation because they believe they legitimise the sexual abuse of women, agree that the present situation is the worst of all worlds.

The families. On 4 August 2010, the remains of Shelley Armitage are laid to rest. So little of her is recovered that a child’s coffin, measuring just two and a half feet, is used. 

"My daughter’s pieces are still missing. What I have got of my daughter, I can’t bury my daughter."

Daryl Armitage, father of Shelley Armitage.

The body of Susan Rushworth can’t be buried as it has never been found. "As a family, we have not been able to put our daughter to rest... so we want to appeal to this man to tell us what he has done with Susan." – Christine Thompson, mother of Susan Rushworth.

"People say, oh, it gets easier with time. I’m not quite convinced that I believe that."

Nicky Blamires, mother of Suzanne Blamires.

Griffiths has refused to reveal any further details about the murders. He has never expressed any remorse for taking away three daughters from their families. Now in Wakefield Prison, Griffiths has repeatedly self-harmed, including a ten-month hunger strike, and attempted suicide. He is 42 when he makes his sixth attempt. However, none of this should be seen as the actions of a repentant man who is in some way overcome by guilt. They are the only options left to a narcissist who craves attention and wants his name repeated in the papers. His suicide attempts are indeed duly reported and printed by the press.