Becky Godden killer Halliwell linked to Claudia Lawrence death

The detective who brought double murderer Christopher Halliwell to justice says his "pattern of behaviour" also fits the disappearances of Claudia Lawrence and Melanie Hall.

Halliwell, 52, abducted Sian O'Callaghan from a Swindon nightclub before murdering her in March 2011.

He was already serving a life sentence for her murder when he was convicted and sentenced to another life term for the killing of Becky Godden, 20, in 2003.

Former detective superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is now a security consultant in Somalia, said that, after Halliwell confessed to both murders, his links to the area where Miss Lawrence went missing should be looked at.

The 35-year-old chef was last seen on 18 March, 2009, and was reported the next day after she failed to turn up for work in York.

Police believe she was murdered but her body has never been found.

Mr Fulcher told the Sunday Express: "Halliwell's father lived a few streets away from where Claudia went missing.

"It fits his pattern of behaviour - abducting women walking alone either late at night or early in the morning."

Mr Fulcher also thinks Halliwell may also be linked to the unsolved murder of 25-year-old Melanie Hall, who disappeared after leaving a nightclub in Bath in 1996.

Her body was found in vegetation off the M5 at Thornbury in 2009.

Sky News understands that Avon and Somerset police are not currently linking Haliwell to the Melanie Hall investigation.

Mr Fulcher said: "The circumstances match his modus operandi in abducting a girl, late at night, from a nightclub.

"Evidence of her being tied up with rope is consistent with Halliwell's interests."

Mr Fulcher was found guilty of gross misconduct by a police disciplinary panel after it was found he had failed to correctly caution Halliwell, breaching police rules for interviewing a suspect.

For this, Halliwell's confessions were ruled inadmissable by a High Court judge but Miss Godden's mother Karen Edwards said her daughter's body may never have been found if Mr Fulcher had not acted in the way he had.