Green River Killer set to avoid death penalty by pleading guilty to 48 murders

A MAN, who has been married three times and is the father of a child, is to stand before a judge in Seattle this week accused of 48 charges of murder.

Gary Leon Ridgway, aged 54, slight and bespectacled, is expected to admit being the Green River Killer, named after the river south of Seattle where the first victims were found.

Ridgway is expected to plead guilty to all of the charges, sources have said and after the case he will have more murders on his record than any other serial killer in America's history.