Ex-cop held over Portuguese serial killings, reports say

LISBON - Portuguese police have arrested a former policeman in connection with the murders of three teenage girls, according to local media.

The three disappeared at six-month intervals from May 2005 to May 2006 and a 53-year-old man is in preventive custody while the crimes are investigated, Jose Almeida Rodrigues, deputy director of the plainclothes Judiciary Police, said.

He declined to name the suspect, but newspapers have identified him as a former corporal in the paramilitary National Republican Guard.

"There was a period of six months between each one of these three crimes, which indicates that there is a period of emotional refreshment for the author of the crimes," said Almeida Rodrigues, who called the suspect a "psychopath".

The young women, ages 16 to 18, were killed near Coimbra, a university city about 150 km north of Lisbon.

"We are going to investigate whether there are only three victims or if there are any more," Almeida Rodrigues said.

- REUTERS