Siberian serial killer cop convicted of 56 more murders

A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens of more murders on Monday, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times.

Mikhail Popkov, 53, murdered 55 women and a policeman near Irkutsk. He was already in jail for 22 other murders.

The court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015.

He hacked women to death after offering them rides in his car late at night. At least 10 were also raped. In three cases he was on duty in his police car.

His murderous spree initially went unnoticed during a period of rampant mafia killings in the crime-ridden city.

He killed his victims using weapons including a hammer and an axe, then dumped their bodies in the woods, at the side of the road and in a cemetery.

The victims were all women between the ages of 16 and 40 apart from one male, a policeman.

Popkov described himself as a "cleaner" who was purging his home city of prostitutes.

He intends to appeal against the sentence, regional prosecutor Alexander Shkinev told Russian news agencies.

Prosecutors on Monday described Popkov as having "a pathological attraction to killing people" and "homicidal mania with sadistic elements", but he was ruled sane enough to stand trial.

Investigators had suspected a policeman because of the way the killer carefully covered his tracks.

The murders took place while he was a serving police officer and after he left the force in 1998.

Popkov was caught in 2012 after investigators re-examined the case and carried out DNA testing of residents, focusing on those who drove a make of car that matched tracks found at crime scenes.

Investigators said they uncovered the remains of some of the victims' bodies based on Popkov's account, as well as finding murder weapons including axes, screwdrivers, and knives.

The death toll exceeds the 48 murdered by "chessboard killer" Alexander Pichushkin, and the 52 murdered by Andrei Chikatilo during the Soviet era.