TANIA NICOL, 19
Miss Nicol was the first of the five women allegedly killed by Steve Wright to
be murdered and the youngest victim of the so-called Suffolk Strangler.
She was last seen in the red light area of Ipswich late on October 30, 2006,
and the prosecution argues that she was killed that night, probably close to
the time that her mobile phone stopped working at 11.42pm.
Her badly decomposed body was found in a stream known as Belstead Brook on
December 8 and is thought to have been washed downstream after heavy rain
and flooding.
She had been caught on CCTV walking past a petrol station and a witness
thought she saw her about 11.15pm beside a dark-coloured car. The witness
thought there was more than one person in the car. Low-quality CCTV footage
captured a woman talking to the occupant or occupants of a Ford Mondeo
similar to the one owned by Mr Wright.
Other CCTV cameras on Sir Alf Ramsey way picked up the Mondeo, apparently
circling the red light area and, later in the night, the defendant's car was
recorded by an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera driving out
of Ipswich.
Dr Nat Cary, the pathologist, was unable to provide a definite cause of death
because of the decayed state of Miss Nicol's body. However, he found damage
to the thyroid cartilage, tissue close to the windpipe, which suggested
compression or squeezing of the neck. He also found very high levels of
morphine in her body, indicative of heroin ingestion.
Peter Wright, QC, prosecuting, said: “The expert evidence in this case is
consistent with Tania Nicol not having drowned but of having been murdered
and placed either into or close to running water.”
GEMMA ADAMS, 25
Miss Adams's body was the first of the five to be found. It was discovered on
December 2, 2006, at Hintlesham and was in the same stretch of water where
Miss Nicol was later discovered.
She was last seen working the streets of Ipswich on the night of November 14
and earlier that day had collected her methadone prescription from a
pharmacy.
The court heard that she had resorted to prostitution to fund her addiction to
heroin. Mr Peter Wright said: “It was a decision that cost her her life.”
Her mobile phone became detached from its network in the early hours of
November 15, by which time it is believed she had been killed.
CCTV cameras picked up a Ford Mondeo driving around the red light area shortly
after 1am.
Mr Peter Wright said: “It is the prosecution case that the defendant, Steve
Wright, was again cruising the streets of the red light district in search
of a suitable victim. Furthemore, we say that on this occasion the victim
was Gemma Adams.”
The cause of death could not be firmly ascertained but Dr Cary found
hyperinflation of her lungs “consistent with a woman fighting for her
breath” and a haemorrhage in her left eye that was consistent with asphyxia.
In the period between Miss Nicol's disappearance and that of Miss Adams, the
defendant's partner had been off work on leave or with illness.
The prosecutor added: “When she returned to work he resumed his activities”.
In the early hours of December 1 Mr Wright was stopped by police when
driving in the red light area and asked why he was there. He said he had not
been able to sleep and had gone for a drive.
ANNELI ALDERTON, 24
Miss Alderton went missing on December 3, 2006, two days after Mr Wright was
stopped by police, and a day after Miss Adams's body was found. The night
before her disappearance, a police inspector had spoken to her in the red
light area. She told him she was working the streets to get money for
Christmas presents for her young child.
On December 4 she failed to keep an appointment with her probation officer,
something she had never done before. Her body was found a week later in
woodland at Nacton. It had been stripped and arranged in a cruciform
position.
The defendant was familiar with the Nacton area, having worked their
previously, and it was close to where his partner worked at a call centre on
an industrial park. She was at work on the night Miss Alderton disappeared
and the Mondeo again featured in CCTV footage from the red light area that
evening.
Examination of Miss Alderton's body revealed that she was pregnant. Although
it was a long way from the road, through thick vegetation, there were no
drag or snag marks on her remains. The prosecutor said: “One possible
explanation for this is that her naked body may have been carried by more
than one individual or was wrapped in something.”
A post-mortem examination concluded that she died of asphyxia either by
smothering or compression of the neck in an arm lock.
Swabs were taken from her body and a male profile found on one of her breasts
matched the defendant's DNA.
Mr Peter Wright said: “It is estimated that the probability of obtaining this
matching profile by chance if the DNA originated from a person other than
and unrelated to him is in the order of one in one billion.”
ANNETTE NICHOLLS 29
Three witnesses have told police that they last saw Miss Nicholls in the early
afternoon of December 8. Her body was found in woodland near the village of
Levington on December 12 by a police helicopter that had been sent to the
scene of the discovery of the body of Paula Clenell.
Miss Nicholls's body is believed to have been disposed of first and had been
stripped, then “posed” in the cruciform position.
On December 8 a dark Ford Mondeo was seen parked on the roadside near where
the body was later found. Three-hundred yards further along the road another
car, possibly a Renault Clio, was parked in a lay-by with its interior light
on.
There were no drag marks on Miss Nicholls's body and no signs of violence but
there were numerous minor cuts and a scratch mark to the cheek that would
have shed blood. The cause of Miss Nicholls's death was recorded as
asphyxia.
Although her body lay in the open for four days during wintry weather, vital
DNA material was recovered which provided a match with the defendant's
profile. Fibres were also recovered from her remains which came from Mr
Wright's clothing and, in particular, a reflective jacket that he wore
frequently.
PAULA CLENELL 24
Miss Clenell was last seen on December 10 and her body was found by a
pedestrian two days later, close to where Miss Nicholls had been left.
Unlike Miss Nicholls and Miss Alderton, however, the body had not been
posed. The court was told that it showed “all the signs of having been
hurriedly dumped”.
The Crown argues that, given the high level of police activity in the Ipswich
area at the time, the killer may have been disturbed or startled by a police
cordon as he tried to dispose of the body.
There were some signs of a short struggle and bruising to Miss Clenell's neck,
indicating that she had been asphyxiated in an arm lock or by the use of a
forearm. Toxicology tests revealed that she had taken a “high dose of
illicit heroin” shortly before she died.
Mr Peter Wright emphasised, however, that drugs and prostitution had exposed
Miss Clennell to danger but she had not been killed by an overdose. He said:
“Whilst undoubtedly incapacitated to a degree by drugs, these women did not
die by accident or misadventure but were murdered by asphyxiation or
compression of the neck.
“The state of their bodies and the circumstances in which they were
systematically stripped and dumped is consistent with a campaign of murder.”
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