FLORENCE -A plumber who admitted murdering a Romanian prostitute and leaving her body in a crucifixion-like pose in Tuscany was arrested Thursday night.

 The police identified Riccardo Vitti as the so-called crucifixion killer based on reports from a number of victims he had raped, and arrested him at his house in the northern periphery of the city, where he has been living with his elderly parents. The 55-year old plumber confessed to being responsible for sexually torturing and killing the 26-year-old woman Monday, while Florence police has linked him to at least four other brutal attacks in and near the Tuscan capital over a period of ten years.

 The young victim found strapped to an iron bar on the outskirts of Florence in a Christ-like pose was an “occasional” sex worker, friends told the police Friday.

 The police are now conducting investigations at the site to reconstruct the events of the night between 4 and 5 May. Based on analysis of traffic camera footage, the investigators were able to trace the route taken by Vitti’s car, a grey Fiat Doblò, from the Parco delle Cascine area where he picked up his victim, to the road towards the fields of Ugnano, blocked by the iron bar to which the woman was strapped. Further investigations into similar cases linked to Vitti, using analyses of DNA samples collected at crime scenes, are ongoing.

“I’m sorry to offend animals with this comparison but this man is a beast,” Florence police chief Raffaele Micillo told reporters.