Mother reveals her belief that Halliwell is behind murders of four other women

“He is definitely a serial killer,’ 55-year-old Karen Edwards told the Mail on Sunday.

“I believe he has been up and down the country murdering young women.”

Speaking after Halliwell was told he would spend the rest of his days behind bars on Friday, Karen said she believed he was responsible for the death of at least four other women.

In a chilling coincidence, two of the women, as well as Halliwell’s first victim Sian O’Callaghan, went missing on the same date – March 19 – albeit in different years.

She linked him to the disappearances of Sally Ann John, Melanie Hall and chef Claudia Lawrence from York who went missing in 2009, and whose body has never been discovered.

“He used to be a groundworker up north – I know somebody who worked with him on the same building site. He would go and have a pint with the lads and then disappear,” she said.

“Serial killers are usually triggered by dates. That was the day that Halliwell broke up with one of his partners. Halliwell was familiar with York – his father lived in Huddersfield – and the description of Claudia’s murderer is identical to him – a left-handed smoker, 5ft 8-10in, with slightly receding hair and a skinny build.

“Claudia was reported missing from her home on March 19, 2009 – exactly two years to the day before Sian. It is also the same date that Linda Razzell disappeared.

Karen said: “Halliwell was besotted with Linda. He first met her in 1998 when he dug the footings on her property and used to stalk her. He used to sit in his taxi and watch her walk to work through an alleyway – they later found her mobile phone there. He even used to sketch pictures of her.”

Her beliefs come from years of carrying out her own investigations into Halliwell and the disappearances of other women, and she believes even more women may have suffered at his hands.

“During my campaigning, I uncovered numerous stories which I passed on to the police of girls who had lucky escapes in the back of his taxi, He drove one girl who got into his taxi, to a wooded area, which terrified her and she screamed. It was only after he was disturbed that he drove her back to Swindon,” she told the Sunday newspaper.

“Quite a lot of the people I encountered have given statements to the police so hopefully Halliwell will face more charges.

“I had to watch Halliwell try and defend himself against the indefensible.

"When he was found guilty, he smirked. But he is not smirking now. We are finally having the last laugh. Now I can change her death certificate to say she was strangled – and I can put the date of her murder on her headstone.”

Karen's moving victim impact statement was read to Bristol Crown Court during the sentencing of Halliwell.

She said the heartbreaking news of her daughter's death - delivered on what would have been her 29th birthday - would "haunt me for the rest of my life".

"I will never forget the day that Steve Fulcher and three other police officers knocked on my front door, to tell me the most devastating news," Mrs Edwards said.

"News that no parent should ever hear. My world had fallen apart, shattered in seconds, and that emotion I have woken up with every day since.

"That feeling of total devastation, disbelief, loss, pain, the flash of sudden panic that hits me in the stomach and just repulses me. It has changed my world. The world as I knew it has been totally destroyed and will never be the same, complete, ever again.

"It is such an effort some days just to get up and function. My thoughts every day are of my little girl. The little girl that can never be replaced. What must she have gone through that night? Anyone who is a mother or father, your instinct is to protect your children," she said.

"I see her photo when I open my eyes on my bedside table and all around the house, I see my beautiful child, Becky.

"I will never be able to give her a hug ever again and make things right for her, or take her shopping, brush her hair, have a moan at her for not keeping her room tidy or taking my make-up.

"No waiting up half the night for a phone call to pick her and her mates up after a night out.

"The little things we all take for granted every day. I go to the supermarket and see her favourite biscuits and sweets and I go to put them in the trolley for a split-second, then I remember she is not here.

"She is dead. That sends a wave of panic and pain in my chest, just like a knife through my heart.

"The only thing I can buy her is flowers for her grave. I kneel down beside her grave still disbelieving she is there. I have only been told she is dead.

"I never had a body to kiss goodbye before she was buried. But of course she had already been buried, in a lonely field in the middle of nowhere, for years. Just left to rot.

"I think of all those winters when we used to talk about Becky, wondering where she was, hoping she was somewhere warm, hoping she was not living out on the streets and wishing she would get in touch, wondering why she had not, feeling angry with her for being so stubborn.

"She did come home, but not in the way we all wanted. No, she was brought back home in that coffin. I was told not to open it and the reason for that was because all that was in it was just my daughter's bones and part of Becky's skeleton... I stayed with her coffin for three weeks until the day of her funeral."

Mrs Edwards, who married husband Charlie when Miss Godden was a teenager, said she had nine years of sleepless nights worrying where she was.

"Where was she? What was she doing? Sleepless nights, paranoia, angry with her for not getting in touch with me," she said.

"I spent hours driving around the town at all hours of the day and night. I should have known there was something seriously wrong when that first Mother's Day went by with no word from Becky.

"She never, ever forgot Mother's Day, just as I never forgot Christmas during that period. Every year I bought her a card and presents and I put them under the tree, anticipating that she would return home.

"My world has shattered. My husband Charlie watched over me after the news had been delivered.

"My head was in a whirl of endless questions about what had happened, and when. I couldn't think straight. My concentration was all over the place.

"I couldn't make decisions about anything. Charlie in turn suffered with his own health, trying to look after me and everybody else, while feeling his own personal grief for Becky was like his own daughter.

"Since Becky was found, my future has become very different. Tell me, how can anyone get over such an enormous ordeal and loss? Just pictures and memories, a broken heart and a grave. That is all I have left of my beautiful daughter."

"Becky was a wonderful girl who now deserves to be at rest," Mr Godden's statement said.

"Whatever she did in her life, she was loved by her family and did not deserve to be murdered.

"There have been things that I have heard during this trial that have made me feel that I failed her as a father.

"I knew some of what was happening in her life and I always hoped that she would turn her life around and would improve.

"But I tried to block it out, as a parent you don't always want to hear things about your child as the jury have heard about Becky.

"I have not liked to hear how Becky was used or see her remains in the grave where she was found.

"I would never want anyone else to have to go through the things that I have over the years and during this trial.

"Becky's death caused misery through the families and all I have ever wanted is for us to know the truth.

"I feel sorry that this trial has reopened things about Sian O'Callaghan's murder and I just wished that we could have had closure all those years ago when Becky's remains were first discovered.

"The truth has been too long coming and Becky's murder has consumed me and changed me as a person and affected my trust in people.

"I have shut the world out and said things that I regret.

"Having seen and heard the evidence, I feel that Halliwell should have put us out of our misery as a family long ago and I am of the opinion that he has played games with us and the investigation team.

"It has killed me as a father and at times I have not been in the right place, but I do hope now that I can turn a corner and have the opportunity to move on.

"But Becky will always remain with me and never forgotten. I will not be able to see my daughter grow up any more, I will live with my memories of her as a child and young girl and those cannot be taken away."