Police quiz killer on other deaths

Brian Field could be linked to other deaths

Detectives are to question a convicted child murderer about a number of suspicious deaths over the past 40 years.

Last week 65-year-old Brian Field was jailed for life at the Old Bailey after he admitted strangling to death schoolboy Roy Tutill in 1968.

Officers from Surrey Police and the Metropolitan force are believed to have agreed to reinvestigate the deaths of two other children.

The forces are also sharing information with West Midlands Police, who are looking at the death of a 15-year-old boy and the disappearance of two teenagers in 1996.

Unsolved cases

One of the cases being re-examined by detectives from Surrey and London dates back to the 70's and involves a boy of 14, the same age as Roy Tutill when he was murdered by Field in 1968.

The decision to return to the case was taken during a meeting between the National Crime Faculty and officers.

Records also show that there are hundreds of unsolved cases of child murders and other sex crimes, and some of them could be linked to the paedophile.

Officers from the three forces involved would not confirm the total number of deaths being re-investigated.

Since he was jailed for life, West Midlands police have had a call from a man, who claimed he had been violently abused by Field.

A spokesman for the force told BBC News Online they would also be looking at the death of 15-year-old Mark Billington, found hanged from a tree seven miles from his home.

The spokesman said: "We're looking at possible links between Field and the death of Mark Billington."

Mark's parents always maintained he had probably been attacked by a man who murdered him.

Officers are expected to visit Field in prison.

Abducted

Field abducted, raped and strangled Roy Tutill in 1968 as the schoolboy hitch-hiked to his Surrey home from school, to save his bus fare for a new bike.

He pleaded guilty to his murder after being arrested at his home in Solihull in the West Midlands.

Field was trapped only after a tiny speck of DNA was matched to him when he was stopped by police for drink-driving.

He killed Roy Tutill to "eradicate a witness" and police fear other boys may have met the same fate.