Bradford serial killer

[Patrick Bateman]

Blimey!...just what I was going to type,Trevor.

Everything you've put is 100%..how on earth could he not have known he was on CCCTV...unless the residents take it for granted that it never gets viewed unless something happens like a break in..and that it just gets wiped every day or so.

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster. I thought with my proximity to this case (I presume I live very close to Mr. Firth), it was about time I joined.

My job means that I have to visit houses in some of Bradford's most run down area's & I've had the misfortune of visiting this block of “apartments” on several occasions. I can assure you Griffiths knew he was on CCTV because every apartment can view the CCTV footage on there own TV.

Finally a few things from a local Bradford messageboard from someone who knew him well. You might find this interesting.

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I chuffing well know this 'person', know his background, know his personality, know he isn't a 'stranger' to violent crime. He wants this 'infamy', will be loving every second of it. I repeat: He shouldn't have been allowed his freedom, without being supervised and monitored closely.

I'm just very sorry that what i believed to be 'bluster' ultimately wasn't and I'll always regret not having done something before he did what he did. So I sit here, hating every second of it to be honest. Hoping any information I have is of some use in helping find the other victims quickly.

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I never really believed that a person could be pure evil! I thought it was something that you only really found in films and yes some people can be a bit weird and unsettling but I always try to see the best in people etc etc.

However, Mr Griffiths was the only person who has ever given me a shiver down the spine and made me feel really uncomfortable in his presence. In the last year-ish I would not attend somewhere where I knew he would be attending and i would make my excuses and leave if he was there when I didn't know he would be, sometimes I had to be there when he was and I really didn't like it.

Not everyone felt like me though. He certainly wasn't someone who you'd 'cross the road to avoid'. He's had at least 3 girlfriends in the time I've known him and was very concerned with his image to the point of narcissism. He managed to get a degree and onto a Ph.D program so he wasn't a 'social leper' and in the right mood he could be quite funny and charming. I'm finding it really difficult to come to terms with the fact that I've been in the presence of someone who is capable of this literally dozens of times, shared a coffee/pint with him, discussed murders in Bradford over the decades [his Ph.D project and favourite topic of conversation].

I'm just relieved that this looks like a 'cast iron' case now, as more body parts have been found in the river this afternoon [Saturday] and I'm glad I'll never have to see his face again. I hope he eventually admits all of this and it is a quick procedure in court for the victims families. To be honest though, I think he'll probably drag it out to the bitter end as he'll love all the pain and shock he can cause in court.

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I'm all too aware that he's sick not thick. I purposefully haven't revealed all i know about this case/individual
as I know that certain things can scupper cases through 'Sub Judice appeals'. I've added no more than you could read in most papers over the last few days and I'm suprised that so much info has been released [or leaked]. The last thing i want to do is contribute to this 'person' being released on a technicality. I could have made a few quid from the press from this, but I couldn't live with myself if I profited from all this misery. I only think I'm posting this on here because it has affected me deeply [can't sleep, can't stop thinking about the 'if onlys'] and this forum gives me a degree of anonymity and in a small way helps me get things 'out' instead of bottling it up.

[Ally]

I am wondering how long before there is a cry for a ban on crossbows.

[Fleetwood Mac]

sometimes just being 'weird' is not enough

Just being 'weird' is never anywhere near enough.

After all...one person's sanity is another person's insanity...it's all very subjective.

There has to be solid evidence put before a court of law.....as opposed to..."well....he dresses in black....and he has an interest in murder".

In order for justice to be served.....people like Barry George and the Americans girl in Italy should never have even been brought to court let alone charged with murder....as quite simply the evidence wasn't in place. In the case of Barry George....he dressed up in army gear and harrassed women.....that isn't evidence.....in the case of the American girl...she has been painted as a sexual deviant by the Italian media and police....well...yeah...she likes sex.....who doesn't?...and apparently she liked to leave used condoms lying around.....must be a killer then.

[Phil Carter]

Hello Mark,

Thank you. A perfect posting

best wishes

Phil

[silverstealth]

Tributes to those poor girls.

[Rigby]

I know the British Press and at some stage it's going to be pointed out that this is not the most ringing endorsement of Bradford University's Psychology/Criminology Department and/or of the subject area itself. I mean if high-level academics can't spot the serial killer they are tutoring (one-to-one in his case) then what does it say about their expertise blah-di-blah. But I guess it just goes to illustrate how well certain individuals can conceal their other selves - though I don't doubt that much of this guy's persona will be pored over by other "experts" now and they'll point out how "the signs were there" etc.

[Suzi]

I vote we dont talk about the inadequate failure full stop.

He'd relish this.

Monty

I agree- allegedly there's a possibility of a 'gagging order' for the press to avoid the case dissolving in a media frenzy of sensationalism...bring it on I say

[Suzi]

Was this guy a member of Casebook or Forums I wonder........ as allegedly he was 'specialising in JTR'........hmmmmmmm

AND he went to the same school as Haigh- Mr Acid Bath!!! (Not at the same time hehe)
Hmmmmmmm another thing to blame teachers for!!!

[anna]

Blimey!...just what I was going to type,Trevor.

Everything you've put is 100%..how on earth could he not have known he was on CCCTV...unless the residents take it for granted that it never gets viewed unless something happens like a break in..and that it just gets wiped every day or so.

I think therefore your conclusion is correct..that it was meant to be seen.

The other bit of gallows humour,being when he was asked his address,and he said,"this one..I suppose".

[Stephen Thomas]

I vote that we agree to never give this man the satisfaction of calling him by the very Hollywood-esque serial killer epithet he chose for himself.

The name was invented by the Sun newspaper and he was being sardonic.

Gallows humour, I suppose

[tnb]

I don't think we need worry about all the 'Steve's or 'SG's or even 'Griffin's that posted a few times and seemed to disappear, as his 'Ven Pariah' alter ego seems to have been pretty exclusively on the internet. I think 'Steve G' or anything similar would have been too boringly normal for him.

The whole 'let's not discuss it' argument is a difficult one, because let's face it we - and others - are happy enough to discuss many other serial killers, modern-day and historical, and to refer to Richard Ramirez for example as 'the Night Stalker'. It's a bit like Rigby's reply to NugNug's point earlier - when IS the right-time then?

However, in this case there does seem to be something altogether more sinister going on. To my mind the whole thing SINCE his arrest has the air of a well-planned perfomance. I hate to say it, but is almost as if the murders were nothing more (to him) than the prologue, the means to an end - that end being this, now (in the media, not just here). I completely agree that the fact that a phd student, of anything but especially criminology, would not consider the possibility of CCTV seems unbelievable - and for my money it is literally unbelievable, in that I don't believe it. I also find it extremely unlikely that, with the opportunity to get the victim into his flat either without attacking her (she was a prostitute, after all) or even by dragging her once knocked to the ground into at least the entrance hall, that he would choose to leave and return with, of all things, a crossbow, and commit the murder in plain sight of anyone passing. Even for a 'disorganised' offender that beggars belief. The only conclusion you can come to (for my money) is that he KNEW he would be caught, and that was the whole point. 'Crossbow murder caught on CCTV' - it would be, and has proved, a media sensation.

What we seem to have is a new kind of 'big brother' serial killer, not killing for killing's sake (bad enough) but in anticipation of the furore it would cause.

For that reason I support Monty's statement, at least up until the sick individual is locked up safely away from his so-called 'fame'.

[Limehouse]

I vote that we agree to never give this man the satisfaction of calling him by the very Hollywood-esque serial killer epithet he chose for himself.

Best regards,
Archaic

I was thinking exactly this yesterday and hoping that the press would agree collectively not to refer to him by this self-label. It's unlikely that the press will decide to do so though as a killer actually handing them his own subriquet is a real gift for them.

[Monty]

I vote that we agree to never give this man the satisfaction of calling him by the very Hollywood-esque serial killer epithet he chose for himself.

Best regards,
Archaic

I vote we dont talk about the inadequate failure full stop.

He'd relish this.

Monty

[Archaic]

Isn't it interesting that this Griffiths guy was a PhD student Criminology student and had gone so far as to give himself a dramatic SK nick-name,
yet apparently didn't realize that his own apartment building was monitored by closed-circuit camera?

Thank God someone actually reviewed the footage.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Garry Wroe]

I don't envisage this site coming under too much press or police scrutiny. Apart from putting Griffith's life under the microscope, the press will doubtless busy itself with establishing potential links with other murders and missing persons' cases - Claudia Lawrence, for example, who disappeared in York a little over a year ago.

Interestingly enough, the BBC reported this evening that Griffiths has engaged Peter Sutcliffe's defence team. With any luck, the two of them will get to share many a decade together rotting away in Broadmoor.

Garry Wroe.