A serial killer dubbed the Suffolk Strangler has been sentenced for abducting, sexually assaulting and killing schoolgirl Victoria Hall, before dumping her naked body in a ditch.
Steve Wright, 67, had admitted the kidnap and murder of the 17-year-old, who disappeared more than 25 years ago in a village on the outskirts of Felixstowe.
He also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of Emily Doherty, then aged 22, in the Suffolk port town the day before. The judge said Doherty knocking on couple’s door “saved her life”. Wright is already serving a whole-life prison sentence for the murders of five women in Ipswich but it is the first time he has admitted any killings.
Today (February 6), Wright has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years at the Old Bailey for the murder of Hall. He was sentenced to nine years for the attempted kidnap of Doherty.
Sentencing Wright, Mr Justice Bennathan told him you will likely die in jail. He told Wright: “Victoria Hall was a typical, bright, lively teenager.
(Image: PA)
“For reasons only you know, and most people will never start to comprehend, you snatched Victoria away and you crushed her young life.”
No life sentence could ever make up for the “loss and grief” suffered by Victoria’s family, the senior judge said.
However, the judge said it was “extraordinarily unlikely” Wright would ever be released from prison.
Mr Justice Bennathan continued: “Even if this was your only life sentence, given your obvious dangerousness … it is extraordinarily unlikely you would ever be released.
“Given the sentence from your other dreadful crimes, it is almost certain you will die in prison.”
On Friday, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC outlined the facts of the case as Wright appeared at the Old Bailey to be sentenced.
(Image: PA)
She said Wright had been “on the prowl” in Felixstowe, Suffolk, on the weekend of September 18 and 19 1999 in his burgundy Ford Granada Scorpio.
“Almost undoubtedly sexually motivated, he was a predator stalking for his prey: looking for a young woman to kidnap,” she said.
In the early hours of September 18, Ms Doherty, 22, had become separated from her friends.
Ms Ledward said Wright made a mistake and allowed her to see him from several yards away.
Her “instincts” alerted her to the danger and she escaped unharmed by running, hiding and frantically knocking on the door of a couple, who by “great good fortune” answered and “probably saved her life”.
(Image: Suffolk Police / SWNS)
Ms Doherty’s description of her attacker’s car later led police to identify 56 vehicles, with Wright’s among them.
In a victim impact statement read to court, Ms Doherty said she was “furious” that police treated her like a “silly little girl” and did not take her report of the attempted kidnap seriously at the time.
She said: “For 25 years, I have wondered what if. What if they had taken my statement, could Victoria still be alive right now?”
The court was told a decision would be made after the hearing on the “format and ambit” of any inquiry into Suffolk Police alleged “missed opportunities”.
Victoria was snatched after a night out with her friend Gemma Algar at Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe, where Ms Doherty had also been with her husband and friends on September 17.
(Image: PA)
Ms Algar heard “two female high-pitched screams” as Victoria was snatched by Wright and bundled into his burgundy Ford Granada Scorpio car.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC told the court that having abducted Victoria, Wright murdered her and sexually violated her.
She said he then “callously discarded her body, stripped naked of everything except for her jewellery”, in a farm ditch some 25 miles away, “as if she were no more important than a disposable commodity”.
Wright then returned to his work at the Felixstowe docks “as if nothing had happened”, Ms Ledward said.
(Image: PA)
Victoria’s mother Lorinda sadly died in December, before Wright was brought to justice, the court was told.
Steven Hall, Victoria’s brother who was aged 15 when his sister was killed, told the court: “It has been 26 years but time doesn’t heal, you just have to learn to live with it.”
His father, Graham Hall, said in his statement: “In 1999 we were a normal family and then Steve Wright came along and took Victoria from us. The pain of the week that followed will be with us forever.
“Steve Wright robbed us of seeing Victoria grow into a woman, fulfil her dream of going to university, get married and have children, our grandchildren. I miss Victoria every day and will do for the rest of my life.”
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.