Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright was a ‘predator stalking for his prey’ when he killed Victoria Hall
Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright was a “predator stalking his prey” when he kidnapped and murdered teenager Victoria Hall 26 years ago, a court heard.
The sixth boy, 17, was snatched by the predator as he walked home after a night out with his best friend at a club in Felixstowe in 1999, when he was 41.
Her naked body was found five days later by a dog walker in a ditch in Creeting St Peter, about 40 kilometers from where she was last seen.
His gruesome murder remained unsolved for 26 years until Wright, known as the Suffolk Strangler, shockingly changed his plea and pleaded guilty on Monday. He also admitted trying to kidnap 22-year-old Emily Doherty the night before; Doherty feared Ms Hall would still be alive today if police had taken her ordeal more seriously.
Seven years later, it is the first time Wright, who is serving a life sentence for strangling five women in Ipswich in 2006, has taken responsibility for any of his crimes.
At his sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, the elderly serial killer, now 67, wore a gray Nike tracksuit and was flanked by three dockers as details of the harrowing crimes emerged in court.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said: “On the weekend of 18-19 September 1999, the defendant was prowling around Felixstowe, a port town on the Suffolk coast, driving a maroon Ford Granada Scorpio.
“He was almost undoubtedly a sexually motivated predator stalking his prey: looking for a young woman to kidnap.”
The Old Bailey heard that Wright, who was working on the mooring crew at Felixstowe docks at the time of the attacks, was “very physically strong”.
When Ms Doherty, who was newlywed and was due to travel to India for her honeymoon the next day, saw Wright in the early hours of September 18, 1999, she sensed danger and armed herself with a stick. She ran away and escaped the killer by frantically knocking on the front door of a couple who let her in.
But she refused to let 17-year-old Miss Hall “escape her predatory clutches” in the early hours of the next morning, Ms Ledward said.
The schoolgirl, from Trimley St Mary, had left home on the evening of September 18, 1999, for a night out at Bandbox nightclub in neighboring Felixstowe. She and her best friend left the venue at around 1am the next morning and walked back at 2.20am, saying goodnight, just 300 meters from Ms Hall’s home.
“Separated from her best friend Gemma Algar just 300 yards from her front door, she never returned home and seemingly disappeared, the only clue to what had happened to her being a scream in the night at the small housing estate in the village of Trimley St Mary, not two miles from where the defendant attempted to attack Emily Doherty.
“But Victoria didn’t just disappear. The defendant kidnapped her and killed her within a very short time, as well as sexually assaulting her in some way.”
The prosecutor said Ms Hall’s body was disposed of, naked except for her jewellery, “as if it were no more important than a disposable item”.
The discovery of his body in the open had caused “untold” grief to Wright’s family, including his mother, who tragically died before he was brought to justice.
Following the murder, Wright reported he had been injured at work and sold his Ford Granada Scorpio as he prepared to leave the country, the court heard. He went to Thailand for two months in November 1999.
In 2001, police charged an innocent businessman with Ms. Hall’s murder, but he was acquitted by a jury in less than 90 minutes.
In a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor, Emily Doherty said she was followed by the killer for what appeared to be 40 minutes.
“I’ve never been this scared in my life,” he said. “I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest when a couple finally let me into their house to call the police.”
However, when the police came, they did not take him seriously and the first question they asked was “How did you drink tonight?” happened.
“To this day, I’m angry,” he added. “I wasn’t taken seriously. I was made to feel like a stupid little girl.”
He questioned whether Victoria would still be alive if police had reacted differently and took the attacker’s statement, which included his partial license plate number.
“For 25 years I wondered what would happen,” he said. “What if they had taken my statement, would Victoria be alive now? Or at least they could have found the killer sooner.”
Ms Ledward explained that Wright was identified as the custodian of one of 56 cars matching Ms Doherty’s description, details of which were printed on 14-15 October 1999. This short list was narrowed further the following year when Ms Doherty remembered one more number on the license plate and reduced the number of matching vehicles to 10, including Wright’s car.
Surprisingly, Wright was not officially identified as a suspect in Ms Hall’s murder until the cold case review in June 2020.
Ms Ledward added that Suffolk Police would consider an investigation into missed opportunities to catch the killer following today’s sentencing hearing.
Ms Algar, who broke down in tears in court, said she and Ms Hall were “inseparable” and were excited to turn 18.
But life “changed forever” on that fateful day, she added, and she will never forget the “sick feeling” in her stomach after realizing her friend had failed to return home safely.
He added: “I have replayed countless ‘if onlys’ and ‘if onlys’ over the years. We felt safe in our hometown, and that sense of security has been taken away from us forever.”
Ms Hall’s grieving father said he would miss her “every day for the rest of my life”.
In a statement read by her son Steven, she added: “Steve Wright deprived us of seeing her grow into a woman, including “achieving her dream” of going to university.
In his own victim impact statement, Steven said their family had been forced into “an exclusive club no one wants to be a part of” as a result of the horrific murder that turned their world upside down.
“Victoria was only 17 and had so much life left to live: college, career, marriage, kids.”
“It’s an excruciating pain to know that my parents can’t see him do any of these things.”
He added: “I spent 26 years not knowing what happened to my sister. I received a life sentence in itself. The outcome of this brings no results, it just answers the question of who did it.”
Wright is already serving a rare life sentence after terrorizing Ipswich in a six-week killing spree in 2006, targeting five women he abducted from the town’s red light district.
Tania Nicol, 19, disappeared on October 30 that year, followed nearly two weeks later by Gemma Adams, 25, triggering a major investigation. Ms. Adams’ body was found in a stream on December 2nd, and then on December 8th, Ms. Nicol’s body was found in a pond.
The remains of 24-year-old Anneli Alderton were found in woods two days later, prompting calls for sex workers in the town to stay off the streets. The bodies of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were also found on 12 December.
The sentencing hearing continues.
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