Remember this story in December 2006 - it rocked the cyber world of tfk and many of us were heavily involved in trying to help the police bring the perpetrator to justice. Anyway, Steve Wright was eventually arrested and the trial’s been ongoing for the past few weeks. He took the stand yesterday and, with his dna found all over the bodies, his defence is that like many other local men he used the prostitutes but he didn’t kill them. There’s a lot of circumstantial evidence such as neighbours hearing his washing machine in the middle of the night, the fact that the first murder took place only 2 weeks after Wright and his partner moved into a flat near the red light area and none since his arrest and some other things I can’t recall. Myself and Rocko will be travelling to Ipswich next week to report exclusively for tfk on the conclusion of the trial.
Here’s the original thread:
http://www.thefreekick.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=370&highlight=ipswich
That was an awesome storyline. I think we should draw our own conclusions over the weekend Bandage and then we can try and influence the verdict over there by whispering really loud about “the stuff they weren’t allowed to say in court” beside the jury box.
They found your man Wright guilty of those murders today.
Steve Wright was today found guilty of murdering five women in Suffolk during a six-week killing spree that triggered one of Britain’s biggest ever manhunts.
Wright, a former forklift truck driver, picked up his victims, all of whom worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, from the town’s red light district.
Jurors took eight hours to convict him unanimously on all counts following a six-week trial at Ipswich crown court.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Gross, said he would sentence 49-year-old Wright at 10.30am tomorrow. He thanked the jurors for their "time and attention’’ in what he said was an "extremely disturbing case’’.
The prosecutor, Peter Wright QC, called on the judge to impose a “whole life term”.
He said the criteria for passing such a sentence were met because there was “a substantial degree of premeditation or planning” behind the killings and because of their sexual nature.
The judge indicated that his only alternative in sentencing would be to start on the basis of a life sentence with a minimum 30-year term.
Timothy Langdale QC, defending, said Wright should serve no longer than 30 years in prison.
Wright showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out, staring straight ahead as he stood in the dock and avoiding eye contact with the jurors and family members.
He dumped the naked bodies of his victims in remote locations. Some were found with their limbs arranged in the form of a cross.
The trial heard the killings began a few weeks after Wright, who once worked as a steward on the QE2 cruise ship, moved to Ipswich with his partner.
He was convicted largely on the strength of forensic evidence that revealed his DNA on three of the women and fibres linking him to all five.
Wright admitted frequently using prostitutes in Ipswich and having sex with four of the victims. He denied murdering Gemma Adams, 25; Tania Nicol, 19; Anneli Alderton, 24; Paula Clennell, also 24; and Annette Nicholls, 29.
As each verdict was read out, there were cries of “yes” from the public gallery, where the families of three of the dead women had gathered.
Members of the Clennell, Nicholls and Nicol families clenched their hands together as they listened to the verdicts.
Nicholls’s mother, Kim, sobbed, and Clennell’s sister and mother broke down.
Adams’s father, Brian, said: "I am very relieved and pleased for all of the families that this is now over and we can now start to get on with our lives.
“I can’t speak highly enough about the police in this case. I don’t have any feelings about Wright.”
Speaking outside the court, Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, of Suffolk police, said the murders of the “vulnerable young women” had left their families “devastated”.
“I hope that today’s guilty verdict on their killer gives them some comfort,” he added.
Robert Sadd, the Crown advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Suffolk, said Wright’s motive for the killings may never be known.
“We will probably never know why. 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.”
His CPS colleague Michael Crimp said Wright was the “common denominator” linking all five murdered women.
“Significant” amounts of Wright’s DNA were found on three of the victims and fibres from his car, home and clothing were found on all five, he said.
“Our assessment was that Steve Wright was connected to all these women, and that connection was not just a coincidence,” he added.
“He was the last person to see them alive and the scientific evidence proves he was responsible for their deaths.”
A “particularly telling” piece of evidence was a single black carpet fibre from Wright’s car that was found in Nicol’s hair, he said.
“This is despite her body being put in water,” he said. "Her killer failed to destroy this significant piece of evidence.
“Steve Wright also failed to give a satisfactory explanation of why blood from two of the victims was on his jacket.”
Wright’s brother Keith said he was “surprised the verdict has been so quick”, adding: "I would have thought there is enough things for them to have some doubt.
“I don’t know if surprised at the verdict is exactly the right word. I just didn’t think it would be so quick. Whatever the sentence, it’s all over now.”
His other brother David and sister, Jeanette, left the court building in tears.
The trial heard that the first woman to be killed was Nicol who - like many of Wright’s victims - was alienated from her family by her drug addiction.
He picked her up on October 30 2006 and her body was found on December 8.
From the time she was reported missing on November 1 to Wright’s arrest on December 17, the police investigation involved 600 officers from nearly every force in the country.
The inquiry team received more than 12,000 calls from members of the public.
Almost 11,000 hours of CCTV footage were scrutinised. Other prostitutes in Ipswich were interviewed about their clients and told to stay off the street.
The crucial breakthrough came when Wright’s DNA - which was on the police computer database after he was convicted of stealing 80 from his employer in 2002 - was found on one of the bodies.
During the trial, he told the jury he had used prostitutes for nearly a quarter of a century.
He said that after moving to Ipswich, he began to pick up women off the streets after dropping off his partner for nightshifts at a call centre.
Wright said he paid between 65 and 80 for sex in massage parlours, but only between 20 and 40 for street prostitutes.
He told the court it was “quite possible” he was the driver of a car seen in CCTV images that showed Nicol getting into a vehicle on the night of her killing.
Wright admitted having sex with Adams in his car at around the time she disappeared, and said that at later times he took the other women - Alderton, Clennell and Nicholls - back to his home for sex.
He would take them to his bedroom but would not use the bed in case his partner was able to smell them on the bedclothes.
Instead, he had sex with them on two jackets on the floor. The court heard bloodstains from Clennell and Nicholls were found on one of the jackets.
CPS lawyers said after the hearing that they had no evidence to link Wright with any other crimes, but sources said it was likely that detectives would review unsolved murders and cold cases.
Nuts.
A deeply fucked up person.
At least they got him though.
I hope it’s a comfort to the families that he paid for the sex before killing the prostitutes.
What about that other guy in London accused of murdering an 18-year-old model? His dna was found all over her and his defence is that he didn’t kill her, rather he happened upon her dead body and had sex with it.
[quote=“Bandage”]I hope it’s a comfort to the families that he paid for the sex before killing the prostitutes.
What about that other guy in London accused of murdering an 18-year-old model? His dna was found all over her and his defence is that he didn’t kill her, rather he happened upon her dead body and had sex with it.[/quote]
He was quoted as saying ‘Alright, I did take advantage of the situation’. Crazy fook.
She was very hot as I recall.
Yep, she was a very good looking girl alright - here’s the sickos story from the BBC:
Man ‘had sex with victim’s body’
A man accused of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman confessed to having sex with her after she was killed, a court has been told.
Miss Bowman, 18, was repeatedly stabbed and bitten outside her home in Croydon, south London, in September 2005.
Chef Mark Dixie, 37, of no fixed address, denies murdering Miss Bowman.
Prosecutor Brian Altman said: “The defendant confesses that he had sex with Sally Anne and that he had sex with her after her death.”
The court heard Mr Dixie had said he had been drinking, took drugs and had “taken advantage of the situation”.
Mr Altman said: “That astonishingly is his defence. It is born out of desperation.”
‘Gruesome discovery’
Miss Bowman had been driven home after a night out in Croydon Town Centre by her boyfriend Lewis Sprotson at about 0400 BST, the court was told.
The couple began to argue as they sat in the car outside Miss Bowman’s house with each accusing the other of seeing other people, Mr Altman added.
She had tried to stop Mr Sprotson driving off by sitting on the bonnet of the car, but as he left he had seen Sally Anne walking into her drive.
Mr Altman said Lewis believed someone had been watching them and at one stage had “looked angrily” into the car.
Neighbours heard screams at about 0420 BST but it was not until over two hours later that the “gruesome discovery” of the model’s body was made.
The defendant’s DNA was found on Miss Bowman’s body, his bloody fingerprint on her shoe and his bite marks on her cheek, neck and breast, the jury was told.
Mr Altman said Mr Dixie, a father of three and a “recreational drug user”, had a history of sexual violence.
The court was told that, at the age of 17, he indecently assaulted a female Jehovah’s Witness in London, and a match to his DNA was found by police investigating the rape and stabbing of a student in Perth, Western Australia.
He had been celebrating his 35th birthday drinking and taking cocaine in a pub on the night Miss Bowman died, the court heard.
The party later retired to a flat in Avondale Road, two streets away from where Miss Bowman was killed.
The case continues.
Prostitution is an unforgiveable crime, but Steve Wright was wrong to take the law into his own hands
as an old midlands mate once pointed out to me - some rides are a joke, but no ride is no joke.
The sicko in London has been found guilty - from the BBC:
Man convicted of model’s murder
A man has been found guilty of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman outside her home.
The 18-year-old’s body was found next to a skip in Croydon, south London, in September 2005.
Mark Dixie, a 37-year-old pub chef, was found guilty of murder after a trial at the Old Bailey.
During the three-week trial, Dixie denied the charge. He claimed he found Miss Bowman dead and had sex with her body after a drink and drugs binge.
‘Tortuously painful’
Miss Bowman’s family cheered as the verdict was delivered by the jury foreman.
Her mother, Linda, tried to console her daughters, while Miss Bowman’s boyfriend Lewis Sproston wept with friends.
Dixie shook his head before being taken down to the cells.
Miss Bowman’s father, Paul, said: “The last two-and-a-half years have been tortuously painful and immensely difficult and I do not think we could have got through it without the love and support that has been hugely available from family and friends.”
On the day of the murder, Dixie had spent a drug and drink-filled day celebrating his 35th birthday. He went on the prowl later that night.
He attacked a woman motorist whose mobile phone was stolen before a taxi driver came to her aid.
Later, at about 0430 GMT, neighbours heard Miss Bowman’s screams.
Dixie stabbed her repeatedly before having sex with the body.
Police said Dixie enjoyed hearing details of his crimes being re-told in court by his victims.
Det Supt Stuart Cundy said: “Dixie has made his victims re-live horrific ordeals. He made Sally Anne’s family sit through horrific evidence.”
At one point during the evidence Miss Bowman’s mother fled the court in tears.
Detectives believe he may have targeted other women while living in Australia. He lived there from 1993 to 1999 working as a cook in bars and restaurants.
He was deported to England from Western Australia after jumping out of a bush naked and making lewd suggestions to a woman jogger.
It was only after British police made inquiries following Dixie’s arrest that his DNA was matched to an unsolved attempted murder and rape of a student in Perth.
Det Supt Cundy said: “I am still convinced he has done something somewhere in Australia.”
Police appealed for any victims to come forward so they can receive counselling.
Real Crime - The Suffolk Strangler. The story of the Ipswich prostitute killer is on ITV1 at 9pm. Might be worth a watch.
[quote=“Bandage”]I hope it’s a comfort to the families that he paid for the sex before killing the prostitutes.
What about that other guy in London accused of murdering an 18-year-old model? His dna was found all over her and his defence is that he didn’t kill her, rather he happened upon her dead body and had sex with it.[/quote]
Remember this sicko’s defence? Well, I was browsing the internet on my phone while taking a shit in work today and I read an equally fooked up and sick defence from some lad in Southampton accused of abducting, raping and strangling a 17-year old girl.
Again, his dna was found all over her body so under cross examination he said that he was blackmailing a work colleague who was having an affair and the colleague plotted a revenge plan which involved kidnapping him, tieing him up, blindfolding and gagging him and forcing him to have sex with a random person who he never saw or spoke to.
He didn’t know what they were seeking to gain by forcing him to do it but they later released him and drove off with the girl. So he claims that they must have subseqently killed the girl and he can only presume she’s the girl he had sex with and that they knew he’d be implicated because of it and that he was set up all along.
What a sick cunt. Imagine being a family member of the dead girl listening to that. Don’t get me started on those cunts who tortured the baby in London either. Some sick animals out there.
Good documentary about this now on channel 4…