Australia's 'Hannibal Lecter' allegedly confesses to 14 Outback murders

Convicted killer Andy Albury is said to have confessed to a killing spree on a stretch of the Flinders Highway

Flinders Highway, where Queensland police are said to be focusing their investigation (Getty)

An ex-abattoir worker, who was dubbed Australia’s Hannibal Lecter, is the prime suspect in up to 14 unsolved murders in the Australian Outback.

Andy Albury, who is already serving a life sentence for the 1983 murder and mutilation of an Aboriginal woman in Darwin, has allegedly admitted to butchering more victims in a random killing spree on a lonely stretch of the Flinders Highway between 1970 and 1982.

Queensland police are investigating a possible cold case breakthrough and links to a tiny slaughterhouse in outback Queensland, The Courier Mail reported.

Former Northern Territory Police Detective Sergeant Les Chapman told The Sunday Mail that Albury had boasted of killing 14 others.

"He confessed to 14 murders to me," Chapman said. "We only got him for one. That got him life in prison. But we know he killed others."

Acting on a tip-off, Queensland Police are focusing on Hughenden on the notorious Flinders Highway to investigate fresh leads.

One of the unsolved murders is that of 20-year-old hitchhiker, Tony Jones, who disappeared without trace while backpacking in North Queensland in 1982.

Detectives have refused to confirm if they have a prime suspect in the 32-year-old investigation but claim they are close to cracking the case.

"I told police Albury was active in northwest Queensland," Chapman said.

"He’s a prime suspect. If it’s not him, it has to be someone in the same category, but there are very few psychopaths on the planet as dangerous as him. He’s a real-life Hannibal Lecter."