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A serial killer who was convicted of five murders 20 years ago has admitted killing a sixth victim, the teenager Victoria Hall.
Victoria was 17 when she disappeared during a night out more than 25 years ago. On Monday, Steve Wright admitted her kidnap and murder in September 1999, as well as the attempted kidnap of Emily Doherty, then aged 22, in Felixstowe the day before.
Wright, 67, had been due to go on trial at the Old Bailey for the murder but changed his plea at the last minute. Mr Justice Bennathan said he would sentence Wright on Friday to give Victoria’s family the chance to attend and submit victim impact statements.
It is the first time Wright has admitted to a murder, despite pleas from his family to come clean. Balding and bespectacled, Wright appeared in the dock of the Old Bailey in London on Monday in a navy and grey jumper, and spoke only to confirm his name and enter pleas.
The prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC confirmed Victoria’s friend Gemma Algar and Doherty would also submit statements.
Wright, a former merchant seaman who is being held at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, is already serving a whole-life prison sentence for the murders of five women.
The guilty plea came after the judge ruled jurors could be told of the murder convictions despite his defence complaining the prejudice would be too great.
Last month, the prosecution highlighted similarities between the murder of Victoria and those for which Wright had already been convicted, saying that all six women were asphyxiated and left in similar places, and that they shared a physical type.
The prosecution also argued for the trial to include evidence of a sex worker Wright knew well, who would say he was familiar with the area linked to Victoria’s murder.
Victoria, from Trimley St Mary in Suffolk, had left her home on the evening of 18 September 1999 for a night out with Algar at the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe.
Five days later, her body was found in a ditch in Creeting St Peter, about 25 miles from where she was last seen. Sixth-former Victoria had been hoping to study sociology at university in Roehampton, Surrey, before she was killed.
A year after her murder, her parents, Graham and Lorinda Hall, had appealed for help to bring her murderer to justice. Her father said at the time he remained optimistic, saying: “Whoever did this must be under as much pressure as we are. They have got it on their conscience all of the time.” Her mother died in December, before her daughter’s killer could be brought to justice.
In 2006, the people of Ipswich endured six weeks of terror while detectives hunted for the serial killer.
On 30 October that year, 19-year-old Tania Nicol vanished from the town’s red-light area, followed by 25-year-old Gemma Adams about two weeks later. The latter’s body was found in a stream at Hintlesham on 2 December, followed by the discovery of Nicol’s remains in a pond at Copdock on 8 December.
Two days later, the body of 24-year-old Anneli Alderton was found in woods at Nacton, and sex workers in the Ipswich area were urged to stay off the streets. On 12 December, the bodies of 24-year-old Paula Clennell and 29-year-old Annette Nicholls were found near woods at Levington.
Wright was arrested at his Ipswich home a week later. Pathology evidence suggested all the women had been choked or strangled. During a trial at Ipswich crown court in 2008, prosecutors said Wright “systematically selected and murdered” the women after stalking streets around his home. He had been seen cruising the red-light district around the time each of the women vanished. DNA and fibres linked to his clothes, house and car were found on the women.
Following his conviction for five murders, the victims’ relatives – and Wright’s father, Conrad Wright – said he should have been executed. Handing him a rare whole-life order, Mr Justice Gross said the killings involved premeditation and planning.
