An Australian criminologist says one of Britain’s most notorious sex killers should be investigated over unsolved crimes in Western Australia.

Mark Dixie, 50, was jailed for at least 34 years over the 2005 stabbing murder and rape of 18-year-old model and hairdresser Sally Anne Bowman in Croydon, south London.

The father of three, who worked as a pub cook, finally admitted the killing to detectives in January 2015. He also confessed to two more London attacks which led to two more life sentences – raping a woman in 1986 when he was only 16, and bludgeoning a woman with a knife sharpener and threatening to kill her in 2002.

He also confessed to the rape of a woman in Spain in 2003, for which another man spent 12 years in prison.

Criminologist David Keatley, from Perth’s Murdoch University, says Dixie should also be investigated over other crimes in Western Australia, where he lived for three years until being deported in 1999 for overstaying his visa.

An investigation by the West Australian newspaper has revealed Dixie was questioned by police after a woman was savagely assaulted in a Perth park in 1997. Dixie was arrested nearby but was not charged due to a lack of evidence.

Dixie was also linked to the non-fatal stabbing and rape of a 19-year-old Thai university student in Perth in 1998.

The woman testified at Dixie’s 2008 trial for Ms Bowman’s murder that a man had broken into her home before the attack took place. The trial was also told Dixie’s DNA matched a sample taken from the woman’s underwear, but no arrests were made.

Dixie was also charged with wilful exposure after jumping out naked in front of a female jogger in Dunsborough, 150 miles south of Perth.

Dr Keatley told the West Australian there was a strong possibility Dixie had committed other crimes in the state and called for further investigations and a review of DNA evidence.

“If time and resources permit, the police should be setting up a task force to see if he is responsible for other unsolved or unknown crimes,” Dr Keatley said.

“I agree that based on the pattern of evidence and cases that I have looked at it is highly likely that Mark Dixie is responsible for more crimes, almost certainly crimes of a sexual nature.”