Ipswich Jury Convicts Steve Wright of Murdering Five Women, and the Judge Orders He Never Be Released
Wright, a former forklift truck driver, denied killing the five women found around Ipswich in December 2006. DNA linked him to three of them.
Published
In December 2006, the bodies of five women were found in the countryside around Ipswich. On February 21, 2008, a jury at Ipswich Crown Court found Steve Wright, 49, guilty of murdering all five.
After two days of deliberations, the jury of nine men and three women convicted Wright of murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, who had worked in Ipswich's red-light area. Wright, a former forklift truck driver, had denied the murders. He admitted in evidence that he had used women working as prostitutes, and the court heard that in the three months before his arrest he had sex with a dozen of them, including four of the five women. His DNA was found on the bodies of three of the women, and bloodstains from two were found on his jacket.
The next day, Mr Justice Gross ruled that Wright should serve a whole life term and never be released. In what prosecutors called a six-week "campaign of murder," the killings had prompted one of Britain's biggest manhunts. Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull of Suffolk Police said the "appalling crimes left a community, a county and a nation in a state of profound shock."
Sources
- Serial killer sentenced over 1999 murder and kidnap after advancements in DNA techniques, Crown Prosecution Service (East of England)
- Wright faces life in jail for Ipswich murders, Reuters, via Christian Today
- Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright jailed for life, The Guardian (digest via the Inner Temple Library)
- Ipswich murders: Accused used prostitutes for 25 years, Daily Gazette (Colchester)
Related News
- December 19, 2006: Suffolk Police Arrest Steve Wright, Then Charge Him With Murdering Five Women in Ipswich