A 40-year-old criminology student with a special interest in Jack the Ripper was charged Thursday by British police in the deaths of three prostitutes, including one victim whose death from a crossbow bolt to the head was captured on security camera.

Local media reported the security footage shows Suzanne Blamires, 36, being chased in a corridor outside her flat in Bradford, England and knocked to the floor.

Her pursuer leaves briefly and re-enters the shot with a crossbow in his hands. He then shoots her in the head. Moments later, Blamires's corpse is dragged out of the frame. The assailant returns to her apartment and removes several garbage bags full of material.

Police believe that Blamires's body was dismembered and thrown into a nearby river. Human remains were discovered in the water Tuesday about 5 km from Blamires's home. The Telegraph reported that they included a human head in a rucksack.

The killing took place early Saturday morning. The footage was discovered Monday morning by a building superintendent reviewing tape from the weekend.

Stephen Griffiths was arrested that afternoon. Police charged Griffiths with the murders of Blamires and two other prostitutes in the last year. He will appear in court Friday.

Griffiths has told the police that he ate at least some of his victims, the Times of London reported.

Thus far, authorities and neighbours have painted a portrait of Griffiths that verges on clichéd.

He was studying criminology, with an emphasis on homicide, and told acquaintances that he was doing “a PhD in Jack the Ripper.” He had a fascination with Nazi symbology and famous serial killers that he expressed online under the handle “Ven Pariah.”

“Humanity is not merely a biological condition. It is also a state of mind,” Griffiths/Pariah wrote in one post. “On that basis I am a pseudo-human at best. A demon at worst.”

Locals told reporters that Griffiths was a familiar presence in the neighbourhood because of his habitual outfit of round glasses and black leather overcoat. He was known as a loner who kept up to 100 rats at a time in a large trunk to feed his pet lizards.

According to witnesses, 40 heavily armed police stormed Griffiths' apartment with a battering ram Monday afternoon. He was dragged out and handcuffed at gunpoint.

“As he was taken away he had his usual cold expression on his face. There was no shock, surprise or emotion. The only thing he was bothered about was the police locking his door properly,” an unnamed neighbour told the Times.

He used the Internet to try to find a girlfriend, and joined The Guardian's dating site in December 2008, exchanging emails with a woman.

At the time of Griffiths's arrest, detectives had found no physical trace of three prostitutes reported missing over the previous year. But after the discovery of Blamires remains Tuesday, her death was quickly linked to the disappearance of two other prostitutes, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth.

Police may also probe the deaths of three other women in the area.

The Daily Telegraph reported Griffiths had been treated in hospital for psychiatric problems.

The same streets that Griffiths is now suspected of stalking were the hunting grounds of the Yorkshire Ripper in the 1970s.

Peter Sutcliffe, a 34-year-old truck driver when arrested in 1981, was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders.