Prostitutes' bodies were left in crucifix pose

Published on Wednesday 16 January 2008 21:00

A FORKLIFT truck driver murdered five prostitutes and abandoned two of the bodies stretched out in the shape of a crucifix, a court heard yesterday.

Former pub landlord Steve Wright could have had an accomplice during his killing spree in winter 2006 in Ipswich, Suffolk, the town's Crown Court was told.

The first day of the serial murder trial heard that Wright – who used the services of prostitutes – strangled or asphyxiated the "young, vulnerable" women before dumping their naked bodies in isolated places.

Wright, 49, denies murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

Peter Wright, QC, laying out the prosecution case, said the women had turned to prostitution to fund their hard drug habits – a move that was "ultimately to prove fatal" for all of them.

He told jurors that the women vanished between late October and early December 2006 and their bodies were later found in isolated locations between 2 December and 12 December.

He claimed that Wright had the opportunity to commit the murders when his partner, Pamela Wright, who had changed her name to his through deed poll, was at work.

Mr Wright said the remains of Ms Alderton and Ms Nicholls had been left in similar positions, adding: "As with Anneli, Ms Nicholls's body appeared deliberately to have been posed in a cruciform shape, with her arms outstretched."

He told the court: "The state of their bodies and the circumstances in which they were systematically stripped and dumped is consistent with a campaign of murder."

Mr Wright claimed that the deaths were "the handiwork of the defendant", who had for six and a half weeks "preyed upon women working as prostitutes in and around Ipswich, killing five".

Mr Wright told the jury of three women and nine men: "The disappearance of these women, the circumstances of their deaths and the state of their bodies revealed striking similarities.

"All five victims were young or relatively so – the youngest, Tania, being 19 and the oldest, Annette, being 29.

"All were addicted to hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and were reduced at the time of their deaths to working the streets of Ipswich as prostitutes to survive and to fund their habit."

The lawyer said the common denominator between the deaths was the defendant, who had "the transport and the wherewithal" not only to pick up the prostitutes but to dispose of their bodies after killing them.

He said Wright was "no stranger to the prostitutes of Ipswich", and the women would therefore have been at ease in his company.

Mr Wright said the five slightly built women were "systematically selected and murdered" and had been "undoubtedly affected by opiates" when they died.

He said the women's build and their intoxicated state meant they would be no match for their attacker.

Jurors were told that a witness saw a Ford Mondeo, the same make of car the accused owned, in the Handford Road area at the time Ms Nicol was there on 30 October, the night she was last seen.

They also heard that Wright's car was later picked up by an automatic number plate recognition camera as it was driven out of Ipswich towards the area where Ms Nicol's body was found on 8 December.

They were told police had caught Wright "cruising" the red light district on 1 December, the day before the first body was discovered.

Mr Wright said officers stopped the car and asked Wright why he was in the area.

"His response was that he couldn't sleep and so he had gone out for a drive," said Mr Wright.

"He gave the impression that he was unaware the area of Ipswich in which he was driving was the red light district.

"This, we say, was palpably untrue.

"He lived locally and was a frequenter of prostitutes. His lie was not out of embarrassment, it was designed to conceal his real motive in being out that night."

The next day, Ms Adams's body was found, further upstream in the same brook as Ms Nicol's. Mr Wright said there was evidence to suggest Wright's Ford Mondeo was driven around the red light district near to the time Ms Adams vanished on 15 November, 2006.

Flanked in the dock by four security guards, Wright showed no emotion as the case against him was set out.

Wearing headphones his lawyer said were to help with the poor acoustics of the court, he turned the pages of a black ring-binder containing legal papers.

In the public gallery, unseen by him, his elder brother, David, watched proceedings, accompanied by a woman.

Wright sat close to relatives of the dead women, who were packed into the compact area set aside for the public.

Among them was Ms Adams's father, Brian, accompanied by a police family liaison officer.

Members of Ms Nicol's family, including her father, Jim Duell, were also in court.

The case is due to continue today.

FIVE WOMEN GONE IN TEN DAYS

PROSECUTOR Peter Wright, QC, told the jury the women all disappeared between late October and early November 2006. Their bodies were found in isolated locations around Ipswich and near the main A14 to Cambridge, between 2 December and 12 December, 2006.

&#149 Tania Nicol was the first to disappear. Police think she was last seen at 11pm on Monday October 30 in Ipswich's red-light area – near Wright's home in London Road and close to Ipswich Town's Portman Road football stadium. Her naked body was found on 8 December in a brook at Copdock Mill.

&#149 The second to go missing was Gemma Adams. She was last seen at about 10:30pm on 14 November. Her body was the first to be found – on 2 December. It was naked and discovered in a brook near Hintlesham.

&#149 Anneli Alderton, 24, disappeared late on 3 December. Her naked body was found on 10 December in woodland at Nacton.

&#149 Annette Nicholls was thought to have vanished on the afternoon of 8 December. Her naked body was found on 12 December near Levington.

&#149 Paula Clennell was last seen on 10 December. Her naked body was also found at Levington on 12 December – a few hundred yards from where Miss Nicholls's remains were found.

1 ANNELI ALDERTON was three months pregnant when she was found dead on 10 December. She had been a popular pupil at Copleston High School with ambitions to make it as a model but her behaviour began to change after her father died of lung cancer.

By the time of her death at the age of 24 she was a known prostitute working in Ipswich. A fluent Greek speaker, she had lived in Cyprus and leaves a son.

2 GEMMA ADAMS lived in a suburb of Ipswich having grown up in the nearby village of Kesgrave.

As a child she was a keen horserider and pianist, but left school at 16 to take up a course in health and social healthcare at Suffolk College. A year later she was using heroin and had become estranged from her family, turning to prostitution to fund her habit. The 25-year-old's body was found on 2 December.

3 TANIA NICOL grew up in a housing estate on the outskirts of Ipswich, living with her mother and younger brother.

The former pupil at Chantry High School had dreamed of becoming a pop star but she ended up in a string of low paid jobs.

The 19-year-old was reported missing by her mother before her body was found on 8 December, nine days after she disappeared.

4 PAULA CLENNELL's father Brian, who lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed, said he had not known his daughter was working as a prostitute when she was found dead.

She was schooled in a referral unit and her parents split up when she was 14.

She was a drug addict and had apparently predicted she would be dead by the time she was 25. She was 24 when she was found dead on 12 December 2006.

5 ANNETTE NICHOLLS had hoped to work as a beautician but began taking heroin three years ago.

She also worked as a prostitute in the Ipswich red-light district.

She had been seen in Ipswich town centre earlier on the day she disappeared, the court heard.

The 29-year-old, who vanished on 8 December 2006, was found in woodland at Levington, near Ipswich, on 12 December.