Stephen Griffiths trial: Police examine human remains

FORENSIC examinations have been carried out on what police in West Yorkshire believe to be human remains after an underwater search team looking for two missing prostitutes made the grim find.

The team recovered the body parts yesterday from the River Aire in Shipley, close to where the remains of another prostitute, Suzanne Blamires, were found on Tuesday.

Criminology student Stephen Griffiths, 40, who dubbed himself the "crossbow cannibal", appeared in court on Friday charged with murdering Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth, who all went missing in Bradford.

Blamires, 36, was last seen last Friday, while Armitage, 31, has been missing since Monday 26 April, and Rushworth, 43, disappeared on 22 June last year.

On the banks of the river yesterday two police tents and a police van were sectioned off from the road by police tape.

A police spokesman said: "At around midday today (Saturday] officers from West Yorkshire Police's underwater search unit recovered from the River Aire what are believed to be human remains.

"The remains were found about 200 yards from where the remains of Suzanne Blamires were found on Tuesday.

"The remains will now be forensically examined to identify them and at this stage it is too early to speculate on who the remains belong to."

Griffiths is charged with murdering Blamires between 20 May and 25 May; murdering Rushworth between 22 June, 2009 and 25 May this year, and murdering Armitage between 25 April and 25 May this year.