Video captures serial killer's chilling defiance

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 31, 2010 -- Updated 0058 GMT (0858 HKT)

London, England (CNN) -- Closed-circuit television footage that led British police to identify Stephen Griffiths as a serial killer shows the self-proclaimed "Crossbow Cannibal" carrying the weapon in the hallway outside his apartment shortly after he killed one of his victims, then raising his middle finger to the camera.
Griffiths, 40, was arrested May 25 after his building's caretaker saw the video showing Griffiths assaulting a woman, then alerted authorities, according to the West Yorkshire Police in northern England.
London's Daily Mirror has posted on its website the video of Griffiths in his apartment building on its website. The video was recorded minutes after he killed Suzanne Blamires, one of three prostitutes Griffiths confessed to killing, police said.
The video, some of which was obtained by CNN from the Daily Mirror, then shows the Bradford man carrying a sack down the stairs of his apartment building. The newspaper said it chose not to publish video showing Griffiths dragging Blamires' apparently dead body by the shoulders down the corridor to his apartment.
Police said they found human remains linked to his victims in the nearby River Aire.
Griffiths was sentenced December 21 to three terms of life in prison after pleading guilty to the murders of Blamires, 36; Susan Rushworth, 43; and Shelley Armitage, 31.

"What he did can never be forgotten by the families of his victims. Suzanne, Susan and Shelley all came from families who cared for and supported their daughters," Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent Sukhbir Singh said after the sentencing.