Steve Wright, 67, has today admitted to the murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall who disappeared more than 25 years ago, as well as the attempted kidnap of Emily Doherty, then aged 22
Steve Wright, known as the Suffolk Strangler, has confessed to the murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall, who vanished over 25 years ago. The serial killer, now 67, also admitted to the attempted kidnapping of Emily Doherty, 22, in Felixstowe the previous day.
In 2008, the former QE2 steward was given a rare whole life order for the brutal murders of five Ipswich sex workers, earning him the reputation as one of the UK’s most notorious criminals.
While serving his sentence, Wright sent a shocking letter from prison to Reach reporter, Anthony Bond, in which he maintained his innocence, despite the overwhelming evidence against him.
Now, looking back at that letter, Wright’s blatant lies and lack of empathy for the victims’ families seem even more chilling. Anthony Bond writes:
The murders of the five young sex workers from Ipswich’s red light district nearly two decades ago sent shockwaves throughout the UK.
The naked bodies of Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were discovered in isolated areas near Ipswich over the course of 10 days in December 2006. The women had all been strangled or suffocated.
As a reporter in Ipswich at the time, I covered the trial of the then 49-year-old Wright, who prosecutors claimed had “systematically selected and murdered” the women after stalking the streets around his home.
Evidence found included DNA and fibres from Wright’s clothing, home, and car.
Shortly after his imprisonment, Wright penned a three-page letter to me from the high-security Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire.
The contents of his letter understandably sparked outrage among the victims’ families. Wright wrote: “What I would say to the people of Suffolk is be on your guard because the real killer is still out there, although the injustice that has been done to me I feel no malice or contempt for the people of Suffolk and for the families of the five girls that were cruelly taken away from them.”
He continued: “I feel sorrow and heartfelt pain for their loss….but believe me when I say he is still out there contemplating his next move.”
However, now that the twisted killer has confessed to murdering Victoria Hall, the magnitude of his heinous lies is even more glaring. One paragraph from the letter stands out in particular: “People should believe I am innocent because I have gone through my whole life trying to be as fair and considerate to other people as I possibly could. I do not have a violent bone in my body and to take a life I would have thought would be the ultimate form of aggression.”
Responding to the letter at the time, Brian Clennell, Paula’s father, expressed his outrage: “How can he say that he is innocent when there is so much evidence against him?
“He can do what he wants. He has hobbies and a TV and the gym and meals every day…. If Paula could have been rescued from what she was into she maybe could have another chance but she does not have a chance.
“I say let him rot in hell.”
Following Wright’s first-time admission to being a killer, the families of Gemma, Tania, Anneli, Paula, and Annette will be hoping he will finally find the courage to confess to their murders as well.