Alice Gross case prime suspect Arnis Zalkalns profiled

Arnis Zalkalns bludgeoned and stabbed his wife to death in 1998

The disappearance of schoolgirl Alice Gross is now a murder inquiry after a body was found in west London.

BBC News takes a look at the prime suspect in the case, named by police as convicted murderer Arnis Zalkalns.

Mr Zalkalns was filmed on CCTV riding a bike along a canal towpath 15 minutes after Alice walked past the camera.
The 41-year-old Latvian has been missing since 3 September, a week after Alice was last seen.
At the time Alice went missing, he was working as a general labourer on a building site in nearby Isleworth.
Shallow grave He is believed to have come to the UK in 2007, following his release from jail, where he had served seven years for his wife Rudite's murder.
Latvian court documents about the 1998 murder case, which BBC correspondent Damien McGuinness has seen, revealed a psychologist assessed Mr Zalkalns as mentally stable and said he knew exactly what he was doing when he murdered his wife and buried her in a shallow grave.
During his confession Mr Zalkalns told police his wife had told him she was a lesbian and started regularly going out without him.

Alice Gross was last seen near the Grand Union Canal on 28 August

One night when she did not return home, he made a metal pole and an eight-inch knife, which he used to hit and stab her, he said.
After killing her he smoked a cigarette and went home, sleeping well for two nights, before reporting her missing to police.
When her decomposed body was discovered he confessed to having murdered her, but claimed it was her fault because she had allegedly molested his daughter.
The Latvian court documents also contained details of medical notes detailing how, in 1995, Mrs Zalkalns was shot in the stomach.

Arnis Zalkalns smoked a cigarette and slept well for two nights before confessing to the murder of his wife

No-one was convicted in that case, but Mr Zalkalns' former mother-in-law, Viktorija Zalkalns, blamed him. He however, claimed his wife had tried to kill herself while she said she was shot by passing teenagers.
As the search for Alice intensified, Mr Zalkalns's brother Janis Daksa said he had been made to look like a "monster, a villain".
"What I know and what I have read, differ. No-one is interested if he is a good man," he said.
"Everyone is looking for a sensation, where he is shown as a monster, a villain. That's what they want."