Series of murders in England during 2006
The Ipswich serial murders, commonly known as the work of the Suffolk Strangler, took place between 30 October and 10 December 2006, during which time the bodies of five murdered sex workers were discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Their bodies were discovered naked but there were no signs of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, were confirmed to have been killed by asphyxiation. A cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, was not established.
Suffolk Constabulary linked the killings and launched a murder investigation codenamed Operation Sumac. Due to the size of the investigation police officers were drafted from several other police forces. Two arrests were made in connection with the murders. The first suspect, who was never officially named by police, was released without charge. Forklift truck driver Steve Wright, age 48, was arrested on suspicion of murder on 19 December 2006 and charged with the murders of all five women on 21 December.
Wright was remanded in custody and his trial began on 14 January 2008 at Ipswich Crown Court. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, although he admitted having sex with all five victims and that he had been paying for sex workers' services since the 1980s. DNA and fibre evidence were presented to the court that linked Wright to the victims. He was found guilty of all five murders on 21 February 2008, and was sentenced the following day to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he should never be released from prison.
The murders received a large amount of media attention, both nationally and internationally. The press often compared the murders to those committed by Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered thirteen women and attacked seven others (mostly sex workers) in West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester between 1975 and 1980. There was some concern that the level of media coverage at the time could jeopardise a fair trial. The murders also sparked debates in the media over the laws surrounding prostitution.
Police investigation.
On 2 December 2006, the body of a young woman was discovered in the water of Belstead Brook at Thorpe's Hill, near Hintlesham, Suffolk, by a member of the public who was working as a Water Bailiff. The body, later identified as 25-year-old Gemma Adams, had not been sexually assaulted. Six days later, on 8 December, the body of 19-year-old Tania Nicol, a friend of Adams who had been missing since 30 October, was discovered in water at Copdock Mill just outside Ipswich. On 10 December, a third victim, found by a member of the public in an area of woodland by the A14 road near Nacton, was later identified as 24-year-old Anneli Alderton. According to a police statement, she had been asphyxiated and was about three months pregnant when she died.
In a press conference, investigators from the Suffolk Constabulary warned all women to stay away from the red light district of Ipswich. On 12 December, police announced that the bodies of two more women had been found. On 14 December, the police confirmed one of the bodies as 24-year-old Paula Clennell. Clennell had disappeared on 10 December and was last seen in Ipswich. According to Suffolk Police, she died from "compression of the throat". On 15 December, the police confirmed that the other body was that of 29-year-old Annette Nicholls, who disappeared on 5 December. The bodies of Clennell and Nicholls were found in Nacton near the Levington turn-off of the A1156, close to where Alderton was found. A member of the public had seen Clennell's body twenty feet (six metres) from the main road and a police helicopter dispatched to the scene discovered Nicholls' body nearby.
Suffolk Constabulary linked the killings and launched a murder investigation, codenamed Operation Sumac. Chief Constable Alastair McWhirter acknowledged that his police force would be reliant on external assistance owing to the magnitude of the investigation.
During press conferences on 13 and 14 December, Detective Chief Superintendent Gull revealed that police believed the locations where the five bodies were found to have been 'deposition sites', not murder scenes, indicating that the victims were all killed elsewhere and transported to the locations where they were later found; no comment was made on where the women may have been murdered. DCS Gull also revealed that some items of women's clothing and accessories, including a handbag and jacket, had been recovered and were being forensically tested to establish whether they belonged to any of the murdered women. During the course of the press briefings, DCS Gull stated that over 300 police officers were involved in the investigation, and some 400–450 calls were being received daily by detectives.
On 15 December, Suffolk Constabulary's website revealed that a total of 7,300 telephone calls had been made to police regarding the investigation, and that over 300 police staff and specialists were working on the cases, with support from at least 25 other police forces. As of 18 December, the number of officers involved in the investigation had increased to 650 including 350 officers from forty other police forces who had assisted in the inquiry. The number of calls received regarding the case had also increased to around 10,000.
Victims.
Tania Nicol.
Tania Nicol, aged 19, from Ipswich, disappeared on 30 October. Her body was discovered by police divers on 8 December in a river near Copdock Mill; there was no evidence of sexual assault and a post mortem could not establish a definite cause of death.
Nicol attended Chantry High School but had left home at 16 to live in a hostel, engaging in sex work to fund her addiction to heroin and cocaine. She had originally worked in massage parlours, but was asked to leave on suspicion that she was using drugs. Her mother was unaware she was a sex worker, and thought she had been working in a bar or a hairdresser's.
Gemma Adams.
Gemma Rose Adams, aged 25, born in Kesgrave, was last seen on West End Road in Ipswich, where she had been living; she disappeared on 14 November at about 01:15 (UTC). Her body was found on 2 December, in a river at Hintlesham. The first victim found, she was naked but had not been sexually assaulted.
Adams had been a popular child from a middle-class family. As a teenager, she became addicted to heroin.
She had been working as a sex worker to finance her drug addiction, which had already led to loss of her job with an insurance firm. Her partner was at the time also a heroin user, and knew she was a sex worker, although her family did not.
Anneli Alderton.
Anneli Sarah Alderton, aged 24, a mother of one and also in the early stages of pregnancy, had been living in Colchester, Essex. Alderton disappeared on 3 December and was last seen on the 17:53 train from Harwich to Manningtree. Alderton got off the train at Manningtree at 18:15 before going on to Ipswich on another train, arriving at 18:43. Alderton's body was found on 10 December near Nacton, in woodland in front of Amberfield School.
Alderton had been asphyxiated and was found naked, and was posed in the cruciform position. Her pregnancy was also revealed by the autopsy and her family were first informed of it by police officers.
Alderton moved to Cyprus with her mother in 1992 after her parents separated, and they returned to Ipswich in 1997. She attended Copleston High School and gained good grades in her exams. Alderton had been addicted to drugs since age 16, shortly after her father's death from lung cancer in 1998.
Annette Nicholls.
Annette Nicholls, aged 29, a mother of one from Ipswich, was initially thought to have gone missing on 4 December, but at the trial it was revealed she was last seen in Ipswich town centre on 8 December. Her family reported her missing after they grew concerned at the news of the other murders. Nicholls' body was found on 12 December near Levington, naked but not sexually assaulted, and also posed in the cruciform position; a definite cause of death could not be established, but her breathing had been hampered.
Nicholls, the oldest victim, had been a drug addict since the early 2000s, shortly after completing a beautician's course at Suffolk College. Soon afterwards, she had started carrying out sex work to fund her addiction. After moving to a housing association home from her council house, Nicholls asked her mother to look after her son. She was thought to be staying with a man in Ipswich at the time of her death.
Paula Clennell.
Paula Lucille Clennell, aged 24, born in Northumberland and living in Ipswich, disappeared on 10 December in Ipswich at approximately 00:20. Clennell's body was found on 12 December near Levington on the same day as Nicholls'. Clennell was found naked, but not sexually assaulted and a post mortem reported that she had been killed by a compression of her throat. Prior to her death, Clennell commented on the then recent murders in an interview with Anglia News, stating that despite them making her "a bit wary about getting into cars" she continued to work because "I need the money."
Clennell moved to East Anglia ten years before her death, following the breakup of her parents' marriage. Clennell had three children with her partner; all had been taken into care and adopted due to her drug addiction. Clennell herself had spent some of her childhood in a referral unit, and it was shortly after being placed there that she started taking drugs.
Victoria Hall.
On 22 May 2024, Steve Wright was charged with the murder and kidnap of 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.
Hall was last seen alive in the early hours of 19 September 1999, in High Road, Trimley St Mary, Suffolk.
Her body was found in a ditch near a field, about from where she was last seen.
Arrests of suspects.
On 18 December 2006, Suffolk Constabulary reported that they had arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of murdering all five women. The man was arrested at 07:20 at a house in Trimley St. Martin near Felixstowe, Suffolk. The detention of the suspect was extended by magistrates by a further period of 24 hours, to the maximum of 96 hours allowed under English law.
At 05:00 on 19 December, police arrested a second suspect, a 48-year-old, at a residence in Ipswich, on suspicion of committing murder. The following day, 20 December, police were granted a 36-hour extension to question the second suspect in detention.
On 21 December, a joint statement was issued by DCS Gull and Michael Crimp, senior prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Suffolk, announcing that the second suspect identified as Steve Wright had been charged with the murder of all five women.
Police said that the first suspect, who was not officially named, was released on police bail. Bail conditions were cancelled on 6 June 2007 for the first suspect, as no more inquiries concerning the case were planned involving this person.
Court appearances.
Wright appeared before magistrates in Ipswich on 22 December 2006, and was remanded in custody.
His trial began 16 January 2008. A second jury (of nine men and three women) was selected after a member of the first jury could not continue to serve because of ill health.
The court heard how the bodies of Anneli Alderton and Annette Nicholls were deliberately posed in the cruciform position, with DNA evidence linking Steve Wright to three of the victims and fibre evidence also connecting him to the victims.
The defence argued that Wright frequented sex workers and had "full sex" with all of the victims except Tania Nicol, whom he picked up with the intention of having sex, but apparently changed his mind and returned her to Ipswich's red light district.
This contradicted Wright's earlier statement when stopped by police in the district in the early hours of the morning: he implied he was unaware he was in the red light district and was driving around because he could not sleep. Wright's rented flat was located in the red light area.
Jurors were taken to sites involved in the case, including the exterior of Wright's rented house and the sites where the victims were found.
The prosecutor suggested that Wright may not have acted alone, as the remains of Anneli Alderton were found some distance from the road but with no evidence that her body had been