Polish police hold man who confessed to 23 murders

WARSAW (Reuter) - Polish police are holding a man suspected of killing at least 23 people, mainly women, in towns across the country between 1984 and 1992. Leszek P hit his victims with fists or a blunt object and then strangled them; sometimes he used a knife, prosecutors in Slupsk said.

The man, thought to have been driven by sexual urges, was arrested near Slupsk in the north last year on suspicion of killing a woman in the area in June 1991. Details of nearly two dozen other killings between February 1984 and November 1992 emerged during the investigation and Leszek P confessed to the murders, even describing his methods.

The murders were committed in regions as far apart as Wroclaw in south-west Poland, Szczecin in the north-west, Lodz in the centre and Koszalin in the north.

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Leszek P committed other murders and are continuing their investigation. Leszek P is undergoing psychiatric examination and no trial date has been set yet.