POLICE are re-investigating the brutal crimes of serial killer Philip Smith amid fears that as many as 20 other deaths could be linked to him, it has been claimed.

Smith was given three life sentences in July 2001 after pleading guilty at Leicester Crown Court to murdering three women during a 96-hour spree in November 2000.

One of the victims, Rosemary Corcoran, aged 25, was found on Remembrance Sunday, behind the Robin Hood pub at Rashwood, near Droitwich.

She had been driven, badly injured, from Birmingham, to the quiet Worcestershire lane where Smith dragged her from the vehicle, beat her beyond recognition and ran his car over her.

Smith, who was 22 stone and 6ft 3ins tall, had knocked out his victim's teeth and left tyre marks on the body.

At the weekend, a report in a regional newspaper claimed that the National Crime Faculty is now studying the routes of travelling funfairs where Smith worked for two decades to identify up to 20 more victims.

According to the report, the case has been taken over by the crime faculty - which is involved in major, national cases such as the Soham murders - to hunt for fresh evidence.

Officers are allegedly looking for any rapes, murders, suspicious deaths or robberies that took place along the fairs' routes.

The newspaper claims the investigation will focus on Nottingham and inquiries will spread outwards.

In October 2001, West Midlands Police held a meeting with regional forces including West Mercia who had unsolved killings in their area.

However, a lack of information and the 39-year-old killer's refusal to talk to police about other cases to which he has been linked has meant no other charges have been brought.

The father-of-three, of Braithwaite Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, spent around six years working as a fairground hand in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, including events at Worcester's Pitchcroft and in Droitwich.

Today, neither West Midlands Police nor the National Crime Faculty were willing to speak about the newspaper report.

A National Crime Faculty spokesman said: We can't comment. We don't discuss any work we do for another force.