Britain:A 49-year-old forklift truck driver from the east of England, is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of killing five women who worked as prostitutes in what the prosecution called a six-week "campaign of murder" at the end of 2006 .
A jury at the crown court in Ipswich in Suffolk, eastern England, yesterday took fewer than six hours to find Steve Wright responsible for the murders, which terrified the Suffolk town and led to one of the country's biggest police investigations.
There were gasps and loud sobs from the murdered victims' families as the verdicts were read out. Wright, biting his lip, then slumped forward, resting his head on his knees as he stared at his shoes. He was handed a glass of water by a court official, before being led from the court.
Tania Nicol (19), Gemma Adams (25), Anneli Alderton (24), Paula Clennell (24) and Annette Nicholls (29) were all drug addicts who were working as prostitutes when they were picked up and murdered by Wright, a regular customer who lived in the red light district and whom several of them knew well.
Their naked bodies were found dumped around the town, two in a stream, the other three in woods, over a 10-day period in December 2006. Wright will be sentenced to five life sentences today. Mr Justice Gross said he was considering ruling that he should never be released; he will serve no less than 30 years.
Speaking in court after the verdict, Wright's lawyer Timothy Langdale QC said: "It may be that there are indications that the defendant was doing very little to conceal anything. It's almost as if everything was being made more and more obvious to those who investigated these crimes." Speaking after the verdicts, the families of two of the murdered women, Tania Nicol and Paula Clennell, called for the death penalty to be reintroduced.
In a statement, the Nicol family said: "While five young lives have been cruelly ended, the person responsible will be kept warm, nourished and protected. In no way has justice be done. These crimes deserve the ultimate punishment." Robert Sadd, crown advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Suffolk, said the conviction had been "based on science".
Wright was identified because his DNA had been added to the national database following an earlier conviction for theft. New techniques allowing microscopic fibres to be identified also proved critical; a single black nylon fibre from the footwell of Wright's car was found in the hair of Tania Nicol, despite the fact that her body had lain in water for five weeks before it was discovered.
Detective chief superintendent Stewart Gull, who led the investigation, said outside the court: "These appalling crimes left a community, a county and a nation in a state of profound shock." Wright's DNA was found on three of the women's bodies, while microscopic fibres from his clothing, car and home were discovered on all five. Blood belonging to two of the women was found on his reflective jacket, along with specks of blood in his car. CCTV and number-plate recognition technology had also placed his car in the red light district at the time several of the women disappeared.
The court heard that he had picked up the women while they worked in the streets around his home, before killing them while they were incapacitated by heavy doses of drugs. Wright had argued that he had had sex with the women but had not killed them, and that it was merely coincidental that forensic evidence linked him to all five.
Though the jury's verdicts were decisive, prosecutors admitted yesterday they remained puzzled as to the motive behind the killings. Wright's only previous conviction is for minor theft and CPS sources said yesterday that they were not aware of any evidence linking him to unsolved cases. "No doubt our police colleagues will be looking at whether this fits with anything else, but we are not aware of any other link at this stage," a source said.
A number of "cold cases", including several unsolved prostitute murders, have been examined by forces across Britain since Wright's arrest.
- (Guardian service)