Warning: This post contains distressing content
A former Siberian police officer, 53-year-old Mikhail Popkov, convicted of murdering 22 women in 2012, stood trial again after confessing to the murder of another 59 people.
He has since been charged with the murders, which makes him Russia’s worst serial killer in recent history and the world’s third most prolific serial murder.
Popkov, who has been given the nickname “The Werewolf”, told reporters he sees himself as a “cleaner” cleansing the streets of his hometown, Angarsk of prostitutes.
“They abandoned their husbands and children at home and went out to party as if it was the last day on earth,” he told Meduza press.
“Any society condemns the behaviour of a debauched woman”.
Interfax news agency previously reported the murders took place from 1992 to 2010. He would approach women off duty while still in uniform. Popkov offered women lifts late at night, he would then attack his victims with an axe.
The majority of The Werewolf’s victims were not prostitutes, rather all kinds of women from drug addicts to ordinary women on their way home to their families. One victim was confirmed as the music teacher at his daughter’s school.
Popkov, who has since been diagnosed by psychologists as a homicidal maniac, said he targeted women who he thought to be drunk.
He has served 15 years of his life sentence and will continue to remain in prison in Siberia.
