Ipswich serial killer arrested over 1999 murder of 17-year-old girl, report says

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Serial killer Steve Wright has been arrested in connection with the unsolved murder of a 17-year-old girl who died in Felixstowe in 1999, according to a report.

Wright was convicted of the killings of five prostitutes in Ipswich in 2008. All were found in isolated locations near the town between 2 December and 12 December 2006. He was ordered to spend the rest of his life in jail for the crimes.

Now, The Daily Telegraph has reported that detectives investigating the death of Victoria Hall more than two decades ago have arrested the 63-year-old, who is serving his whole life tariff at Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire.

He was said to have been brought in for questioning about Hall’s murder on Wednesday.

Hall left home on the evening of 18 September 1999 to go for a night out with a friend at the Bandbox nightclub in Bent Hill, Felixstowe, where they remained until around 1am on the morning of 19 September.

They then got food at the Bodrum Grill in Undercliff Road West, before beginning the walk back to Trimley St Mary, where Hall lived.

The pair parted at around 2.20am when Hall was just metres away from her home.

When her parents woke-up and discovered that she had not returned home, police were called and a missing person inquiry commenced.

Five days later, on 24 September, her naked body was found in a ditch beside a field by a dog walker roughly 25 miles away from where she was last seen.

Wright had been living in the area at the time, the Telegraph reported, but has never previously been arrested in connection with that crime.

In September 2019, Suffolk Police revealed that the case – known as Operation Avon – was a live inquiry again and was being reinvestigated by a new team of detectives after fresh information had been received that was not previously known.

Suffolk Police said that as a result of the work that has been ongoing for the last two years, officers had arrested a man on suspicion of murder on Wednesday, but did not provide further details other than to say that the individual was not someone who had previously been arrested as part of this inquiry.

At his 2008 trial, a jury took less than eight hours to find Wright guilty of murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

The former steward on the QE2, who lived in Ipswich, Suffolk, had denied any involvement in the women's deaths.

Prosecutors said Wright, who lived in the red light district, “systematically selected and murdered” women after stalking streets around his home.

A pathologist said the evidence showed all the women had been choked or strangled.

The judge noted during the trial the “macabre” way in which Wright had arranged two of the women's bodies in a crucifix shape.

The Independent contacted Suffolk Police for comment.