Unsolved crimes in the UK examined for link to German sex killer

New DNA evidence obtained by French detectives on a sex killer from Germany is leading to the re-examination of many unsolved rape and murder cases in Britain, police in the UK said today.

This emerged during the visit of a French court of appeal examining judge to the Wiltshire town of Swindon, England, where convicted murderer Ulrich Muenstermann used to live, working as a television repair man.

Judge Charles Prats asked for the public’s help in building a case against Muenstermann over the rape and murder of a woman in France nearly 20 years ago.

Muenstermann, 52 – jailed for life in 2004 for the rape and murder of another woman in Germany in 1983 – has been transported to France where police are questioning him over the murder of French student Sylvie Baton, 24, at Avallon, near Auxerre in Burgundy in May 1989.

He has, in a separate inquiry, been questioned over the rape and murder of English student Joanna Parrish, 20, whose body was found in 1990 in a river near Auxerre, around 30 miles from Avallon.

Police in Auxerre say they have obtained fresh DNA evidence which sheds light on Muenstermann’s suspected involvement in the death of Miss Baton, found raped and strangled at her house in Avallon.

Muenstermann was living in Swindon a month after this murder – and, police believe, probably before it too.

Judge Prats, speaking at Swindon police station, said: “We need every piece of information about that man. I do not know if he was living in Swindon before the murder but I do know he was living in Swindon afterwards.”

Muenstermann went to Britain in 1986 after a spell in a German jail for two sex crimes. He was arrested in Swindon in 1993 for two more rapes for which he served a further three years in a German jail before returning to Swindon.

He was jailed for life in 2004 after DNA linked him to the rape and murder of Karen Oehme, whose body was found near Dulman, Germany, in 1983.

Detective Chief Inspector Kier Pritchard, attending today’s appeal on behalf of Wiltshire Police, said: “We are looking into why he came to Swindon and what attracted him back to Swindon again in the 1990s.

“Any unsolved cases over this period of either murder or sexual assault will be re-examined in relation to Mr Muenstermann. Forces across the country are doing this too.”

A Wiltshire Police spokesman added: “How many people about 20 years ago in Swindon would have had a German TV repair man?”

Police issued a picture of Muenstermann today, believed to be the first circulated through official channels.