A former nightclub bouncer was convicted yesterday of beating two female students to death near bus stops and attempting to kill another, becoming the second serial killer found guilty in Britain in less than a week.

Police say Levi Bellfield, 39, may also be behind almost two dozen other attacks on women in and around the capital, including one of Britain's most notorious unsolved murders.

Mr Bellfield, from West London, was convicted at the capital's Old Bailey court yesterday of the murders of French student Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Briton Marsha McDonnell, 19, who were attacked with blunt instruments near bus stops in 2003 and 2004.

He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, who suffered horrific injuries when she was deliberately run over by a car after getting off a bus in 2004, aged 18.

All three attacks took place in London's leafy southwestern suburbs. Mr Bellfield, who had denied the charges, showed no reaction as the verdicts were returned.

He will be sentenced today.

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, who led the investigation, said police would investigate another 20 attacks on women in and around London over the past few years in which they suspect Bellfield was involved.

Officers especially want to question him over the 2002 killing of school girl Milly Dowler who was 13 when she was abducted on her way home from school.

Her body was found in woods in Hampshire, southwest of London, six months after she disappeared from a suburban street in broad daylight.

Last week , Steve Wright, 49, was jailed for life without parole for killing five prostitutes in the eastern town of Ipswich.