Whole life term for Ipswich serial killer Steve Wright
Steve Wright given whole life term over murders of five women in Suffolk
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Friday, 22, Feb 2008 08:10
Steve Wright has been sentenced to a whole life term in prison after being convicted of the murders of five women in Suffolk in 2006.
The bodies of Gemma Adams, 25; Anneli Alderton, 24; Tania Nicol, 19; Annette Nicholls, 29; and Paula Clennell, 24; were found within ten days in December two years ago.
Passing the maximum sentence available, Mr Justice Gross said Wright had set out on a "campaign of murder".
Yesterday, a jury at Ipswich crown court found Wright guilty of murdering all five women after a six-week trial.
In court, the forklift truck driver from Ipswich admitted having sex with four of the women, who were all prostitutes, but denied killing them.
A statement from the crown prosecution service said the murder trial had been one of the biggest cases in Suffolk's history.
Case lawyer Michael Crimp explained outside court the crown had always regarded Wright as "the common denominator" who linked all five victims.
"Significant amounts of his DNA were found on three of the victims and fibres from his car, home and clothing were found on all five," Mr Crimp said.
"Steve Wright [was] connected to all these women and that connection was not just a coincidence. He was the last person to see them alive and the scientific evidence proved he was responsible for their deaths."
Robert Sadd, another crown advocate, added that people "will probably never know why" Wright killed the five women.
"Quite often in a murder case we do not know the motive or understand it if we do," he said. "The evidence leads us to who did it and that's more important.
"During the trial it was particularly harrowing for the families of Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls to hear what happened to their loved ones. We hope they can take some comfort from today's verdicts and our thoughts are with them."
Police from across the country were drafted into Suffolk at the height of the murder inquiry, which attracted international press coverage.
Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, who led the investigation into the murders, said the force's sympathies were with the victims' families.
"We can only imagine the grief of the families, who lost their loved ones in such brutal circumstances. But I hope that [the] guilty verdict on their killer brings a little comfort to them.
"These appalling crimes left a community, a county and a nation in a state of profound shock."
Families of two of the women murdered by Wright have called for the death penalty to be reintroduced.
Ms Clennell's mother Isabella said: "I wish we still had the death penalty as this is what he truly deserves."
And Ms Nicol's family said Wright did not deserve the same human rights he had stolen from his victims.