(dpa) - A British man who stalked young blonde women at bus stops in south-west London was Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two students and the attempted murder of an 18- year-old schoolgirl.
Police are investigating whether Levi Bellfield, 29, a former nightclub bouncer, could have been responsible for attacks on 20 other women.
"You will not be considered for parole and must serve your whole life in prison," judge Anne Judith Rafferty said, passing two whole life terms.
Bellfield was convicted of the murder in February 2003, of Marsha McDonnell, 19, as she walked home from the bus stop. She was struck over the head with a hammer.
Her German-born mother, Ute, said her grief had been compounded by the fact that there was "no explanation for such a barbaric act of violence."
Amelie Delagrange, a 22-year-old language student from France, was battered on the head with a hammer crossing a park in Twickenham, south-west London, after she got off the wrong bus stop in August 2004.
Her parents, who have attended the trial at the Old Bailey in London for every session, left the court in tears Tuesday saying that the wounds of their daughter's loss would never heal.
"Amelie Delagrange came to the UK expecting to be safe. You have reduced three families to unimagined grief," Judge Rafferty said.
Bellfield was convicted of the attempted murder of British school girl Kate Sheedy, who in May 2004, survived an attack in which he reversed a car over her to make sure she was dead.
Bellfield, who was not in court to hear the sentence, denied the crimes.
But prosecutor Brian Altman said: "He hated women. He hated blonde women."