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| Modern 'Ripper' jailed for life | |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A serial sex attacker convicted of killing two mothers whose bodies have never been found, has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey. | |
| Derek Brown, 47, denied murdering Xiao Mei Guo, 29, and Bonnie Barrett, 24, after taking them back to his flat in Rotherhithe, east London. | Derek Brown, 47, denied murdering Xiao Mei Guo, 29, and Bonnie Barrett, 24, after taking them back to his flat in Rotherhithe, east London. |
| He picked up his victims in the Whitechapel area, famously stalked by Jack the Ripper in the 1880s. | He picked up his victims in the Whitechapel area, famously stalked by Jack the Ripper in the 1880s. |
| Brown was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years. | |
| Police believe Brown may have tried to emulate Jack the Ripper. | Police believe Brown may have tried to emulate Jack the Ripper. |
| 'Soft targets' | |
| Officers think he could have been embarking on a killing spree. The court heard he sought notoriety and had expressed a desire to be "famous", according to a friend. | |
| Following his conviction on Friday officers launched a nationwide review of unsolved cases to see whether Brown had links to any of them. | Following his conviction on Friday officers launched a nationwide review of unsolved cases to see whether Brown had links to any of them. |
| During the trial the court heard Brown was a convicted rapist and a serial sex attacker who was a suspect in another murder case outside London. | During the trial the court heard Brown was a convicted rapist and a serial sex attacker who was a suspect in another murder case outside London. |
| He was also identified by victims in five other rapes over the past two decades. | He was also identified by victims in five other rapes over the past two decades. |
| The bodies of Bonnie Barrett and Xiao Mei Guo have never been found | |
| Brown admitted paying Mrs Guo, a DVD seller and illegal Chinese immigrant, and Miss Barrett, who was a prostitute and crack cocaine addict, for sex before their disappearance last year. | |
| Mrs Guo was last seen in August 2007 selling DVDs in Whitechapel market. CCTV pictures showed her with Mr Brown by Whitechapel Tube station. | |
| Miss Barrett disappeared from the same area on 18 September 2007. | |
| Bodies of Mrs Guo and Miss Barrett have never been found, despite 800 hours of police searches and a trawl of the Thames by divers. | |
| Prosecution said he targeted the vulnerable as they were "soft targets" and would not be missed. | |
| Brown stopped giving evidence in the trial in the middle of the cross-examination by the prosecution, last month. |