London, United Kingdom. British serial killer Steve Wright, dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media, pleaded guilty on Monday to the 1999 kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall. Wright is already serving a whole-life sentence for the murders of five women in 2006.
Guilty pleas at the Old Bailey
Wright, 67, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court where he admitted kidnapping and murdering Hall in 1999. He also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the day before Hall’s murder. He will be sentenced on Friday.
Assistant Chief Constable Alice Scott of Suffolk Constabulary said Hall’s family had waited over 26 years, adding that they now know who was responsible for her murder.
Details of Victoria Hall case
Hall disappeared from the coastal town of Felixstowe in eastern England while walking home in the early hours from a nightclub. Her naked body was found in a stream 25 miles (40 km) away five days later.
2006 killings and 2008 conviction
Wright was convicted in 2008 of murdering five women who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, northeast of London in Suffolk. The naked 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 surrounding area.
Wright’s killing spree was compared with that of the 19th-century serial killer “Jack the Ripper”, who targeted prostitutes in the east end of London. He asphyxiated the women and left two of their bodies in a crucifix position with arms outstretched.
He 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”.
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