Serial killer Steve Wright confesses to the murder of Victoria Hall before taking the lives of 5  more women 

In 2006, terror was experienced in Ipswich, where an unidentified killer killed and discarded the bodies of 5 women. Their murders would also put Steve Wright into jail,l where he would serve life imprisonment, and their murder would be a relief to the town.

However, in 2024, he was recharged with a previous offense the kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999. Through the sudden plea of guilty, Wright was taken aback to stand trial at the Old Bailey on Monday, at the age of 67.

The fact that he had confessed to having killed seven years prior to becoming a serial killer, only a short distance away at Ipswich, was confirmation.

On 30th October, Tania Nicol, a 19-year-old season cadet, went out of her home to the town centre, which was busy at 22:45 GMT. Her mother reported her missing when the next day she did not come home, and an investigation was initiated. Suffolk Police then issued an appeal for the whereabouts of another woman on 15 November, two weeks after.

Gemma Adams (25) of Blenheim Road was also a sex worker. Concerns were heightened because on 2 December, Gemma was discovered with her naked body in a brook at Hintlesham, near Ipswich, by a member of the public. A second naked body, which was identified as that of Tania, was discovered by police divers in a spot in the area of Copdock Mill, some two miles (3km) from Hintlesham, a week later.

Anneli Alderton, 24, was discovered dead in Woodland at Nacton, some five miles (8km) southeast of Ipswich, on 10th December. She had been placed in the form of a cross and with her arms spread.

On 12 December the bodies of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were discovered in the area around the adjoining village of Levington. A supermarket employee was arrested on suspicion of killing all of the five women on 18 December. Wright, a forklift driver, was subsequently arrested and on 21 December charged with all five murders. 

In March 2007, Wright appeared at the Ipswich Crown Court, where he pleaded not guilty to all the charges. During his trial, which commenced the next January, the prosecution informed the jury that Wright was systematically choosing and killing all five women in a 6 and a half week period. Most of the evidence provided before the jury was circumstantial, but a DNA sample assisted the police in connecting Wright to his victims. The DNA sample taken when that arrest was made was later compared with DNA taken from three of the murder victims. The prosecution maintained that it painted a very convincing image of his guilt, and any DNA on the other two victims might have been isolated in the water in which their bodies were discarded.

Wright testified and claimed that a lot of the prosecution’s arguments were coincidences. He confessed having sex with some of the women but still denied having killed them. He was found guilty of all five charges by the unanimous verdict of the jurors on 21 February 2008 and sentenced to a whole life jail term. By admitting to Wright that he was also the murderer of Victoria Hall in a totally different case,  Wright solved a 26-year-old cold case and gave her family some relief.