Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright admits murdering, girl, 17, before killing spree

Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright has pleaded guilty to killing 17-year-old Victoria Hall, his sixth murder victim.

Wright, known as the Suffolk Strangler for murdering five women in Ipswich, is on trial at the Old Bailey this week.

Victoria Hall, 17, was last seen after an evening out with friends at a nightclub in Felixstowe, Suffolk, on September 19, 1999.

Victoria was walking home from the Bandbox nightclub with a friend in the early hours of the morning when she vanished.

They stopped at a takeaway before saying goodbye at 2.30am, 300 yards from Victoria’s home.

She never returned home, and her body was discovered by a dog walker in a water-filled ditch 25 miles away in Creeting St Peter near Stowmarket five days later.

The investigation reopened in 2019 after cold case detectives received new information.

Wright, 66, formerly of London Road, Ipswich, previously denied the murder and kidnap of Victoria.

Ahead of Wright’s Old Bailey trial this week, judge Mr Justice Bennathan ruled that the jury could be told about his previous convictions for five other murders.

The five girls vanished in 2006, and over six weeks, naked bodies started appearing in isolated locations around the Suffolk town.

Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls were killed over the ten-day period in December 2006.

On October 30, 2006, Tania Nicol, 19, vanished from Ipswich’s red light area, followed by Gemma Adams, 25, around two weeks later, triggering a major inquiry.

Miss Adams’ body was found in a stream at Hintlesham on December 2, followed by the discovery of Miss Nichol’s corpse in a pond at Copdock on December 8.

Two days later, the body of Anneli Alderton, 24, was found in the woods at Nacton and sex workers in the town were urged to stay off the streets.

On December 12, the bodies of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were found near woods at Levington.