Robin Stanislaw Ligus

A SHROPSHIRE MAN confessed to being one of the county’s most prolific serial killers during a series of police interviews, a court was told this afternoon.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Robin Stanislaw Ligus, formerly of Monkmoor, Shrewsbury, made “wholesale confessions” to the murders of  Trevor Bradley, Brian Coles and Bernard Czyzewska, who were all found dead within the space of seven months in 1994.

He is already serving a life sentence for the murder of 75-year-old Robert Young, of Shrewsbury.

At the opening of his trial today, prosecuting counsel Mr James Curtis said there was “compelling evidence” of Ligus’s guilt.

He told the court Ligus committed all four murders in “something of a series” to get cash to fund a drug addiction.

Mr Curtis said Ligus was recorded making the admissions in interviews with police as well as medical, legal and academic parties.

Mr Curtis said some of the first confessions were made to a psychology professor who was assessing the risk offenders posed to other people in the prison system.

Mr Curtis said Ligus’s mental state had only deteriorated in recent years following a stroke in 2006 and his admissions of guilt were made from 2000.

Ligus is accused of murdering 53-year-old Ludlow antiques dealer Trevor Bradley, whose body was found in a burned-out car near Melverley.

Ligus has also been charged with the murder of 57-year-old Brian Coles, who was found dead in his home in Higher Heath, near Whitchurch.

He faces another charge of murdering Bernard Czyzewska, 36, whose body was found in the River Severn. All three men died within seven months of each other in 1994.

In May, Judge Mr Justice Colman Treacy ruled that Ligus was unfit to enter a plea.

Mr Treacy today instructed the jury they would be passing a verdict at the end of the trial of whether Ligus was responsible for unlawful killing, rather than guilty or not guilty.