Ohio murder suspect denied bail

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Anthony Sowell, 50, was also charged with rape, assault and kidnapping

A suspected serial killer living in an Ohio house where several bodies have been found has been denied bail.

Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender, was charged with five counts of aggravated murder on Tuesday.

Judge Ronald Adrine refused bail because of the "macabre nature" of Sowell's alleged crimes. He also faces rape, assault and kidnapping charges.

Ten bodies have been found, and police were preparing to pull down walls in the house in their search for more.

Prosecutor Brian Murphy told the judge that Sowell, 50, was "an incredibly dangerous threat to the public".

Sowell appeared in court briefly, represented by a court-appointed defence lawyer, Kathleen DeMetz.

She argued her client should be granted bail because he had a heart condition which forced him to wear a pacemaker.

'Insatiable appetite'

The court appearance came a day after police said they had possibly found another four bodies and a skull at the property where he was living.

The bodies of six African-American women where found there last week. Coroners have ruled five of them were strangled.

Police chief Michael McGrath said the latest bodies had been found buried in the back garden of the house, in the city of Cleveland, and the skull was in a bucket in the basement.

Addressing a news conference, he said detectives were searching the home and backyard for further evidence.

"It appears that this man has an insatiable appetite that he had to fill," Mr McGrath said.

The BBC's North America correspondent Matthew Price says the nondescript wooden house on a residential street is slowly giving up its secrets.

Our correspondent says people living nearby held a vigil outside the house this week, in memory of those found so far.

Some clutched photographs of women who have gone missing from the area in recent years.

Sowell - who spent 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape - was arrested on Saturday not far from his home.

Originally, it was reported that Sowell had been convicted of rape, but the Associated Press says the Ohio prison system states his crime was attempted rape.