British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ pleads guilty to 1999 murder

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – A British serial killer dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media after he killed five young women two decades ago pleaded guilty on Monday to another murder from 27 years ago.

Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court and admitted kidnapping and murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.

Wright, 67, also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the day before Hall’s murder. He will be sentenced on Friday.

“Justice has finally been achieved for Victoria Hall after 26 years,” Samantha Woolley from the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.

Wright was convicted in 2008 of the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, northeast of London in Suffolk. Wright left two of the bodies in a crucifix position with arms outstretched.

He was give a whole-life order, meaning he could never be released from prison, for what the sentencing judge described as “a targeted campaign of murder”.

Wright had consistently denied the allegations even though his DNA was found on three of the victims and bloodstains from two of them were found on his jacket at his home. His victims’ bodies were found in the space of just 10 days around Ipswich.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Michael Holden)