A notorious killer already serving 22 years behind bars for drugging and robbing train passengers has had his sentence doubled after new killings emerged.

Alexei Vygovsky, dubbed the Station Poisoner, was found guilty in 2011 of doping Moscow train users with the powerful sedative Azaleptin.

Then the 37-year-old killer would rob them when they passed out or died from an overdose.

Now he has been convicted of 22 new killings bringing his grim toll up to 39 victims.

Vygovsky had been expecting to be released early on parole but now faces the prospect of remaining behind bars until 2055.

Ramenskoye City Court in Moscow sentenced him to an extra 22 years and six months hard labour behind bars in a harsh, high-security penal colony.

Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 19th September that he was also fined RUB 550,000 (GBP 4,660).

Vygovsky’s cold-blooded murder method which was to fill a flask with cognac and the powerful sedative.

Then he would offer a swig to well-dressed, successful-looking targets who had already been drinking.

His accomplices would follow them from the train and rob them when they either dropped dead or passed out.

Several froze to death after collapsing in the snow.

According to investigators, Vygovsky poisoned passengers on trains around Moscow from 2007 to 2009.

During the two-year killing spree, Vygovsky and two accomplices lived a VIP lifestyle from valuables and cash stolen from their victims.

But recently, the Western Interregional Investigation Department of Transport of the Investigative Committee of Russia had unearthed 22 new cases of passenger deaths from the same method of poisoning.

The statement also said that investigators “carried out a colossal amount of work” on the new cases.

At his original trial, Vygotsky showed no remorse for his victims, and his only regret was that he had been caught, local media reported.

Among his original victims was a 30-year-old athlete called Maxim Pakhomushkin, who died in 2008.

Vygovsky escaped capture for years because the deaths were initially recorded as heart failure.

It was only when Azaleptin was found in one victim’s bloodstream that the link between them was discovered.

Police arrested Vygovsky and accomplices Ilya Trubanov and Shukhrat Dzhuraev.

Trubanov died in custody, while Dzhuraev was jailed for 15 years for his part in the murders.

Vygovsky, who was born in Vladivostok, was the son of a police inspector and ran away to Moscow at the age of 14 when he joined a gang of pickpockets.

He was first convicted of theft aged just 16.

Vygovsky was later jailed for another theft that halted the killings while he was in prison.

When he came out, he carried on with the same murderous scam using the drug and recruited two neighbours to help him.