For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Fresh claims against serial killer Levi Bellfield are to be investigated after several women came forward to allege they had also been attacked by him.
They came forward after watching the ITV drama Manhunt which was based on the memoirs of the police officer who eventually saw Bellfield jailed for life for the murders of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell and French student Amelie Delagrange.
Martin Clunes played dogged detective chief inspector Colin Sutton.
A spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police said the women who have come forward following the show will "be assessed by officers from the child abuse and sexual offences command.”
DCI Sutton, who has retired since the case, said he personally, had been approached by three women on Twitter, to say "I was attacked by Levi Bellfield and I never reported it to police".
He said: "I’ve made contact with them ... and I’ve made arrangements to speak to those who want to be spoken to and to try and help them."
He added: “It’s not a complete surprise, to be honest. We just don’t know what the boundaries of this man’s offending were.”
He has previously claimed that police had evidence Bellfield had committed more crimes than those he was convicted of.
Last month, a report by Hillingdon Council in west London which linked Bellfield to a local paedophile grooming gang was published for the first time by The Sunday Times.
A National Crime Agency report leaked two years ago, also connected the serial killer to at least 24 violent assaults against women over 20 years before he was imprisoned in 2008.
These included six rapes of teenage girls, three rapes of older women, an attempted murder, one kidnap, an indecent assault and three hammer attacks.
Both McDonnell and Delagrange were murdered by Bellfield by being beaten over the head with a hammer or other blunt instrument.
In 2016, 10 police forces across Britain spent months looking into unsolved rapes and murders which Bellfield had reportedly confessed to in prison.
However, the investigations were ended after detectives concluded there was no evidence to link him to “any case for which he has not already been convicted”.