Outrage at police failings that left Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright free to homicide six ladies
Suffolk strangler Steve Wright smirked on Friday as a court heard how he got away with murder for 26 years due to police blunders.
The 67-year-old serial killer grinned in the dock, revelling in how detectives missed opportunities to stop him killing six women – as he was sentenced over the death of his first victim, 17-year-old Victoria Hall.
Even being told by a judge that he would die behind bars failed to wipe the smile off his face, as Wright – who is already serving a whole life sentence – merely shrugged at receiving an additional sentence of 40 years.
Now police fear he may be responsible for even more bloodshed, launching an appeal on Friday night for information about ‘possible previous offending’ after Wright was linked to several unsolved murders.
Seven years before he became one of Britain’s most notorious murderers for killing five women in 2006, it emerged on Friday that Wright could have been captured back in 1999 when he made a botched bid to snatch a 22-year-old woman from a street in Felixstowe.
His only surviving victim, Emily Doherty, told of her fury after being dismissed as a ‘silly little girl’ by misogynistic officers who told her to ‘forget about it’ after Wright’s failed attempt to kidnap her on September 18, 1999.
Just 24 hours later, the predator would rape and murder Victoria, 17, abducting her from a nearby road in identical circumstances as she walked home from the same nightclub Ms Doherty had attended.
On Friday, Mr Justice Bennathan interrupted proceedings to ask the prosecutor: ‘Has there been an inquiry by the police into what went wrong?’
Serial killer Steve Wright (pictured in 2008, left, and 2026, right) was sentenced over the death of his first victim on Friday – 17-year-old Victoria Hall
Victoria Hall, 17, who vanished while walking near her home in St Mary, Suffolk, was Steve Wright’s first victim
Jocelyn Ledward, KC, said Suffolk Police will decide whether to hold a probe into ‘missed opportunities’.
But the force refused to commit to any inquiry and offered no apology on Friday night after Victoria’s family said they had been put through ‘26 years of hell’ waiting for justice.
The Old Bailey heard Ms Doherty had given an accurate description of Wright, his car and number plate which should have identified him.
But blundering officers did not believe Ms Doherty, failed to make notes, log it as a crime and did not take a formal statement from the victim until two years after Victoria’s murder.
The two attending male officers told Ms Doherty to ‘just forget all about it’ and claimed she probably made it up just to get a lift home.
Officers later did a check on the partial vehicle registration she gave, but failed to enter the full details which would have identified Wright as the sole local suspect.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Doherty recalled jumping over a wall and knocking on a stranger’s door as Wright tried to abduct her. ‘I have never been so scared in my life,’ she said.
‘When the police arrived, their first question to me was, “How much have you had to drink tonight?” They didn’t believe me. To this day I am furious.
Wright’s victims from his 2006 rampage. From left: Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, Annette Nicholls, 29
Wright smirked as the court heard how he got away with murder for 26 years due to police failings
‘I wasn’t taken seriously. I was made to feel like a silly little girl. They told me to forget all about it.’ Ms Doherty added: ‘For 25 years, I have wondered what if.
‘What if they had taken my statement, could Victoria still be alive right now?’ ‘I have survivors’ guilt.’
Wright’s name was deleted from a list of suspects in June 2000, just a month after police arrested an innocent businessman for Victoria’s murder.
Although an action had been raised to research Wright, the head of the investigation directed there be ‘no further action’, claiming the attack on Ms Doherty did not ‘accord’ with the later murder.
Instead, Detective Roy Lambert led a £2million wrongful prosecution of a local man who was acquitted of Victoria’s murder in 2001 after soil evidence supposedly tying him to the scene was found to be common throughout East Anglia.
Meanwhile, fearing arrest, Wright sold the car he used in both attacks, went off sick from work and fled to Thailand, returning only when he realised he had got away with it.
Seven years later, Wright stalked Ipswich’s red-light district, murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29 over six weeks in 2006.
Even after he was locked up for life in 2008, Suffolk Police continued to tell Victoria’s family Wright was not responsible for her death. It wasn’t until a cold case review in 2000 that he was first declared a suspect.
Wright was charged in 2024 after new DNA analysis provided a link to Victoria’s body.
On Friday, Mr Justice Bennathan told Wright: ‘Given the sentence from your other dreadful crimes, it is almost certain you will die in prison.’
Outside court, Suffolk Police congratulated investigating officers, without acknowledging any mistakes. The force merely said of Ms Doherty’s complaint: ‘The Constabulary is very sorry that the victim was disappointed by the initial response.’
Outside court, Victoria’s father did not criticise the police, but said the family had ‘endured 26 years of hell which will continue from today onwards and forever’.
Graham Hall added: ‘I miss Victoria every day and will do for the rest of my life.’
