March 2000 -
Grim theory as killer gets life; 'City women may have been victims'.
POLICE believe the killer of two prostitutes could be responsible for attacks against women in Coventry and Warwickshire.
Former Stafford motor mechanic Alun Kyte was yesterday jailed for life for strangling the women and dumping their bodies a few miles north of Rugby. He is also currently serving a sentence for rape.
Detectives are convinced the 35-year-old drifter is a serial attacker who targeted women and have released his photograph and a tape of his voice to jog memories of victims or people with whom he may have had dealings.
Two Coventry women have disappeared in recent years while Kyte was on the prowl. Their whereabouts have never been discovered.
Barbara Finn was last seen in October 1991 after leaving her daughter with relatives to ply for trade on her Hillfields patch.
Mother-of-three Marie Garrity went missing from her home in Bretts Close, Hillfields in September 1995. She told a baby-sitter looking after her three children that she would return home shortly, possibly after visiting a client. A spokesman said the two were still being treated as missing persons, adding: "The files on both these cases remain open."
A judge at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday jailed Kyte for the murders of Samo Paull and Tracey Turner in 1993. He was caught when DNA tests linked him to Ms Turner.
Leicestershire assistant chief constable David Colman said: "Alun Kyte is an evil man who has travelled the length and breadth of Great Britain committing crimes.
"I do not believe that we have uncovered the full extent of his criminality and, in particular, there is every reason to believe he may have been responsible for other serious attacks on women."
Kyte began drifting around the country, stealing cars and staying in cheap hotels and lodging-houses, after falling out with his family in 1991.
Police want to hear from women who were attacked before to December 28 1997 and did not report it to police, any owners of lodging houses or hotels who recognise the man, and anyone who thinks they may have bought or sold a vehicle from him.
Grim theory as killer gets life; 'City women may have been victims'. - Free Online Library