British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ gets another life sentence for 1999 murder

A police custody van is driven under police escort from Ipswich Crown Court where Steve Wright was remanded in custody, in Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

LONDON -- A British serial killer dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media after he killed five young women was on Friday sentenced for an earlier murder of a teenager committed over 25 years ago.

Steve Wright, who was already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for a 2006 killing spree, on Monday admitted kidnapping and murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.

Wright also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of then 22-year-old Emily Doherty the day before Hall’s murder, the first time he had ever admitted any offences.

The 67-year-old appeared in the dock at London’s Old Bailey court for sentencing, with prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward saying Wright had been “on the prowl” in Suffolk, northeast of London, over the weekend of the crimes in September 1999.

Wright tried to abduct Doherty, who managed to escape, but he was “undeterred (and) struck again the following night,” Ledward said.

Hall disappeared from the eastern coastal town of Felixstowe while walking home in the early hours from a nightclub. Her naked body was found in a stream five days later.

Judge Joel Bennathan told Wright: “For reasons only you know and most people will never start to comprehend, you snatched her away and you crushed that young life.”

He sentenced Wright to a minimum jail term of 40 years, though Bennathan told Wright it would make little difference to the fact that “it is well-nigh certain you will die in prison.”

Crimes unsolved for more than 25 years

Wright was convicted in 2008 of the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich in Suffolk.

The bodies of Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls were discovered scattered around Ipswich over a 10-day period in late 2006, causing panic in the town and the surrounding area.

Wright had asphyxiated the women and left two of their bodies in a crucifix position with arms outstretched.

His killing spree was compared with that of the 19th-century serial killer “Jack the Ripper,” who targeted women in the East End of London.

Wright was given a whole-life order, meaning he could never be released from prison, for what the sentencing judge described as “a targeted campaign of murder.”

Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Mark Heinrich, Reuters