Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 16 January 2008 the Telegraph reported “Ipswich prostitute murders: the victims”.

It said as the trial of former pub landlord Steve Wright begins at Ipswich Crown Court, the jury hears what may have happened to the five victims.

Tania Nicol, 19, was the youngest of the victims and the first to go missing, the court heard. A last possible sighting of her was made at 11pm on October 30, 2006 in Ipswich’s red light area close to the town’s football stadium, south west of the town centre. Her naked body was found five and a half weeks later on December 8 in a stretch of water called Belstead Brook close to an area called “Copdock Mill". The site was off an old and practically disused stretch of trunk road that runs next to the A12 and close to the A14, the jury heard. Her body was trapped in debris within the brook a short distance from a road bridge which carried a quiet stretch of road over the brook. It was likely Miss Nicol was already dead when she entered the water, having been asphyxiated, but it could not be ruled out that the final cause of death was drowning, the court heard. A bruise on the back of her knee may have been due to “forcible restraint” but there were no other obvious injuries. She was placed in the water at around the time she went missing, the court heard.

Gemma Adams, 25, was the second woman to go missing from the streets of Ipswich and her naked body was the first to be found on December 2, 2006. She had been missing for two and a half weeks and was last seen either at 10.30pm on November 14, 2006 or in the early hours of the following day. Her body was found in the same brook as Miss Nicol, further upstream towards Hintlesham. She was discovered near a bridge over the brook that is on the road out from Ipswich. The disappearances of Miss Adams and Miss Nicol happened at a time of “inclement” weather when Belstead Brook had flooded and it was only after the water level fell that their bodies were found, the court heard. They may have been carried some distance downstream from where they were dumped. Like Miss Nicol she was asphyxiated but drowning could not be ruled out as the final cause of death. The deaths of Miss Adams and Miss Nicol were “inextricably linked,” the court heard.

Anneli Alderton 24: Her naked body appeared to have been deliberately “posed” in a “cruciform” shape with the arms outstretched, the court heard. The jury was told they will hear evidence later about the positioning of Miss Alderton’s hair on the ground and other matters about the state of her body. She had gone missing on December 3, 2006 the day after the first body, that of Gemma Adams, was found. Miss Alderton’s body was discovered on December 10, 2006 in a stretch of woodland just off the A14 to the south east of Ipswich. She had been asphyxiated and her body had lain at the scene for some time. She was probably murdered elsewhere and then dumped at the isolated spot, the court heard. A post mortem showed she had been left at the spot where her body as found soon after her death. Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said: “The site at which her body was abandoned indicated a degree of local knowledge on the part of her killer or killers. They, we say therefore, had chosen well. It was relatively isolated yet readily accessible.”

Annette Nicholls 29: Her naked body also appeared to have been posed in a “cruciform” pose with outstretched arms, the court heard. She was last seen alive on the afternoon of December 8, 2006 and her naked body was found four days later just off Old Felixstowe Road, a short distance from the A14 southeast of Ipswich. An expert on fly infestation established that the she had been dead and in the position she was found for three or four days. Her body was found by a police helicopter which had been called to the scene following the discovery of the body of the fifth victim Paula Clennell. The two bodies were only a few hundred yards apart along the Old Felixstowe Road. Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told the jury: “You may conclude that by now the disappearance of these women and the discovery of their bodies was the work of someone, either alone or with the help of another, who was engaged on a quite deliberate campaign of murder directed at the working prostitutes of Ipswich. "The chances of each of these women having met wholly unrelated deaths was by now, you may conclude, so unlikely as to be capable of being excluded.”

Paula Clennell, 24, was last seen alive on December 10, 2006. Her naked body was spotted by a pedestrian just off the Old Felixstowe Road southeast of Ipswich two days later. When a police helicopter arrived officers spotted the bodies of both Miss Clennell and Miss Nicholls from the air. The cause of death in Miss Clennell’s case was “compression of the neck", the court heard. Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said: “The findings were consistent with compression having been applied to her neck of the type that would arise from the use of a forearm or the crook of an elbow in order to restrict her breathing and eventually to kill her.” Mr Wright demonstrated how the forearm would have been used and added: “Such a mechanism would restrict the breathing of the victim and eventually kill. It had done in her case.” He said that at the time she was killed Miss Clennell was “heavily” under the effect of drugs. Her body had not been “posed” like those of Miss Alderton and Miss Nicholls and instead “had all the signs of being hurriedly dumped", Mr Wright said. He said: “Whether her body had been abandoned in haste by someone anxious to leave the scene, or fearful of being disturbed by reason of some particular event, it is not possible unequivocally to assert”.

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