Commuters at Earls Court underground station, awaiting the arrival of a train (Picture: Reuters)

An ex-detective has claimed that Scotland Yard covered up the murder of 18 people in the 1970s by a serial killer who pushed them onto London Underground tracks.

Former detective, Geoff Platt, said he first learned of these shocking alleged crimes while interviewing Kiernan Kelly who had just murdered his cellmate, William Boyd.

During this routine interrogation, Kelly apparently confessed to the string of murders which Platt alleges was ‘buried’ by police bosses to prevent widespread panic.

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Mr Platt told the Daily Star: ‘He was high – high on adrenaline, testosterone…aroused. You could see it in his eyes.

‘He was proud of that murder [of his cellmate] and when we went to speak to him he just confessed to killing 18 other people.’

Commuters getting on the tube (Picture: EPA)

According to Platt, Kelly’s confessions were found by police to correlate with a series of reported suicides on the Northern Line near his home in Clapham.

He added: ‘It was a coverup. Think about it, the police don’t want it getting out – there would be mass panic.

‘They didn’t want people knowing a serial killer got away with pushing innocent people on to the tracks – they’d be afraid it could happen again.

‘The public would stop using the Underground which would put more traffic on the roads. It would be chaos.’

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Having written a book on the subject, the former police officer said the lack of CCTV and funding were contributing factors as to why the Metropolitan Police did not prosecute Kelly for the full extent of his crimes.

Kelly was sentenced to life imprisonment of William Boyd and a separate murder.

Metro.co.uk contacted Scotland Yard which explained the allegations were being dealt by British Transport Police who in turn made the following statement: ‘We are aware of the claims included in this book but given the passage of time since they are alleged to have been committed these would prove difficult to substantiate without further evidence.

‘We would invite Mr Platt to submit any information he has on these matters to us.’