Australia's Hannibal Lecter 'confessed to 14 more victims'

A jailed killer dubbed Australia's "Hannibal Lecter" is the prime suspect in up to 14 unsolved Outback murders, a former Territory detective has revealed.

Andy Albury, who is already serving a life sentence for the 1983 murder and mutilation of a Darwin Aboriginal woman, allegedly boasted of killing 14 others to former NT Detective Sergeant Les Chapman following his arrest.

Mr Chapman said the former abattoir worker confessed to butchering the victims at random, in various locations, including a lonely stretch of the Flinders Highway between 1970 and 1982.

But there was never enough evidence to pin the crimes on Albury.

"We only got him for one," Mr Chapman told The Courier Mail.

"That got him life in prison … But we know he killed more."

Acting on a tip-off, Queensland Police are now investigating a possible breakthrough and links to a tiny slaughterhouse in Hughenden, 500km southwest of Townsville.

One of the unsolved murders is that of 20-year-old hitchhiker Tony Jones, who disappeared while backpacking in the state's north in 1982.

Detectives investigating the 32-year-old cold case refused to confirm if they have a prime suspect but claimed they were close.

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

Albury is serving life never to be released in a Darwin maximum security prison.

Author: Chloe Ross, Approving editor: Martin Zavan