Prostitutes’ bodies ‘left in shape of crucifix’
Former pub landlord Steve Wright, of Ipswich, Suffolk, might not have been alone when he killed the women in late December 2006 before dumping their bodies in isolated spots, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Wright, who lived in the Ipswich red light district when the women died, denies murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC yesterday outlined evidence against Wright at the start of a trial expected to last at least six weeks.
He told jurors the women vanished between late October and early December 2006. All worked as prostitutes in Ipswich and were found in isolated locations near the town between December 2 and 12, 2006.
He said the bodies of Ms Alderton and Ms Nicholls had been left in similar positions, adding: “As with Anneli, [Annette’s] body appeared deliberately to have been posed in a cruciform shape with her arms outstretched.”
Mr Wright said: “It is the prosecution case that, either alone or in conjunction with another or others, these deaths were the handiwork of the defendant and for a period of some six and a half weeks he preyed upon women working as prostitutes in and around Ipswich, killing five before his campaign was brought to an end by his arrest.”
Mr Wright told the court all five victims had a drug problem and had resorted to prostitution to fund their addiction.
He said that decision was “ultimately to prove fatal” for all five.
He said all five women were thought to have been asphyxiated or strangled.
Each was totally naked and all were “vulnerable”.
“The disappearance of these women, the circumstances of their deaths and the state of their bodies revealed striking similarities,” Mr Wright told the jury.
“Each of them met their death in circumstances with their being either asphyxiated or by manual compression of their neck.
Mr Wright said the five women were “systematically selected and murdered”.
“All of them were slim, slightly-built young women,” he said. “It is the prosecution case that there was a common denominator in each of their deaths and that common denominator was the defendant, Steve Gerald James Wright.
“The state of their bodies and the circumstances in which they were systematically stripped and dumped is consistent with a campaign of murder.”
The hearing continues today.
