A LEADING crime professor has revealed the "warped psychology" of the serial killer behind the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Professor Peter Squires, who teaches criminology at the University of Brighton, said Levi Bellfield's prison confession to the murder is "attention-seeking".
His comments come after yesterday's news that Bellfield's shock revelation has prompted police to review probes into a number of other crimes.
The killer was given a whole-life prison sentence in June 2011 for killing the 13-year-old schoolgirl.
Commenting on Bellfield's first-time admission, Prof Squires said: "I think you have to look at his own fairly warped psychology.
"He felt a certain entitlement to women and drip-feeding more information gets his name back in the limelight, albeit for awful reasons.
"It's a kind of attention-seeking. He has ensured himself a front page as a criminal celebrity.
"It's about him trying to control his own story. Part of that serial killer make-up is that he wants to be in control.
"In a lot of these serial killers there is a narcissistic personality there."
Bellfield's confession came during an investigation into whether he had an accomplice, police said, bringing the case back into the public eye.
Prof Squires added: "For Milly's family, I can't think of anything that will lighten the burden really. It will be devastating every time it comes up, but I don't think that factors into his thinking one iota.
"In terms of life in prison it must be pretty boring for him and it has generated increased interest."
A Met Police spokesman said the force was "liaising with a number of other UK police forces regarding a number of criminal investigations" and would not elaborate on the details.
Bellfield has been linked to several other crimes.
At the time of his conviction in June 2011, detectives said they believed Bellfield may have been responsible for around 20 attacks on women which were never solved.
These included the killing of Judith Gold, who was hit over the head in Hampstead, north London, in 1990.
Bellfield's schoolfriend Patsy Morris, 14, was also strangled in Hounslow Heath, west London, in 1980.
Anna Maria Rennie identified Bellfield as the man who tried to force her into a car in Whitton, west of London, when she was just 17 in October 2001. But the jury at Bellfield's 2008 trial for the murders of two other women could not agree and the charge was left on file.
Bellfield was already in jail for the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18, when he went on trial accused of killing Milly.