All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S01E01.WEBRip.en

-During the winter of 2006,
Ipswich in Suffolk

was paralyzed with fear.

The bodies of five
missing prostitutes

had been found by police,

sparking the biggest-ever
manhunt in the east of England.

-And he's targeting these women
because they are vulnerable,

because they are easy for him

to access and easy
for him to control.

-As the horror began
to unravel,

it became a race against time
to catch the killer.

The police questioned over 2,000
motorists with no success.

-He had to be caught because
he wouldn't stop until he was.

-Steve Wright, through
this whole period,

was sitting at home watching
this whole drama played out

on 24-hour news channels,
thinking to himself,

"I'm doing this.
I'm controlling this.

I'm gonna try
and get away with this."

Steve Wright, the man
dubbed the Suffolk Strangler,

had earned his place as one of
the world's most evil killers.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Steve Wright is one of Britain's
most prolific serial killers.

In the space of just six weeks
during the winter of 2006,

he murdered five young women

who were working as prostitutes
on the streets of Ipswich.

As the girls disappeared
one by one,

the world's media
descended upon Suffolk.

There was an inevitability
with each breaking news report

that another body
would be found.

-Two bodies have been
found near Ipswich.

This is breaking news, and we're
giving it to you as we get it.

-But Steve Wright's story
begins over 40 years before.

♪♪

Wright was born in
the Norfolk village of Erpingham

in 1958,
one of four children.

He grew up in a military family,

living on RAF bases
around the world

with his father, Conrad,
a retired corporal.

-He's a normal child,
I mean, no aggression.

He's your typical boy --
just wanted to play.

-But family life
was far from happy,

and Wright's mother left
when he was just 8 years old.

Wright and his siblings
stayed with their father,

who went on to remarry.

-While Steve was living
with me,

there was never a problem.
Never -- You know?

Never see one, even.
He's happy.

He'd had little bounties,
I suppose, with his stepmother

at times when he went
a bit mischievous, if you like,

but it was nothing
that you'd sort of think

about an hour later.

-Steve was not a particularly
bright young man

but cheery enough
in his own way.

Left school at 16 without
any qualifications to speak of

and got a job working
as a chef on the ferries,

which sailed from Felixstowe
to the continent.

-By the early 1980s,
Wright had become a steward

on the cruise ship the QE-2,
and it was during this time,

he reported he spent money
on sex workers

during trips to Thailand,
which some experts believe

may have altered his perception
towards the opposite sex.

-I think he's got
an expectation of women.

Women are that who perform
a service for him,

to play a particular role.

They serve a function for him,
and that's something that

we continually see
throughout the rest of his life.

-He would often return home
from sea penniless.

-He was a bit of loner-like,
in a way.

He didn't learn
to mix that much,

but he did come over to me on
the weekends when he lived here,

especially 'cause
he looked after the dogs,

and I had two then,

couple of beers down
at the end of the road, normal.

-So Steve Wright
was a performer.

He was performing a role

as a guy who was interested
in playing golf

and going to the pub
and going on holiday.

He appeared to be somebody
who was normal,

somebody who fitted in,
but behind that,

there was something
altogether different going on.

-Wright's married twice,
but both ended in divorce

with rumors
of domestic violence.

He struggled to hold down a job
and ran up large gambling debts.

-Well, I knew he put money
on the horses

because when he got his wage
from the Langham Hall,

I used to take his wages
off him,

believe it or not, and I said,

"I'll give you enough to see you
through the week,"

'cause I wanted him to build up
a kitty to escort himself out.

-Wright continued to gamble

and was eventually
declared bankrupt.

Unable to see a way
out of his debts,

he tried, unsuccessfully,
to take his own life.

-For him to want to gas himself
in the car,

it must've been something
I wasn't aware of,

for him to get pushed
to that limit, you know?

Whether he was trying
to befriend young females,

I think the girls
that he was getting

were younger than him,
and whether they...

in the end,
they turned him down,

and he couldn't face it
or something,

and he felt rejected
or whatever.

I don't know.

When he was here,
it wasn't a problem.

Where did he get it, then?

Did he get so much into debt
that it pressurized him

so much that he just broke?

-I think Steve Wright's
alleged suicide attempts

are quite significant.

So, what does suicide represent?

It represents somebody trying
to get control back,

somebody whose life has kind of
gone beyond their grip,

and they're desperately trying
to reel that power back in.

And I think for Steve Wright,

if we look at some
of his earlier experiences,

this is somebody
who came to crave control.

He wasn't in control of his life
as a child.

The family were moving around,
it was quite transient,

it was quite chaotic,
and as an adult,

I think he felt an intense need
to be in control,

and that was what he was
essentially doing here.

He was internalizing, so he was
being violent towards himself.

-In 2002,
while working as a barman,

Wright, now age 44,

was arrested for stealing
80 pounds from the pub till

to pay off his escalating debt.

This petty theft would later
contribute to his downfall.

-He'd been to court because
he'd taken money from the till,

but he kept that from me,
anyway.

So, again, if he can keep
one thing from you,

can he keep others?

-By October 2006,
48-year-old Wright

was living with
a new girlfriend on London Road,

in the heart of Ipswich's
red-light district.

In the same month,
19-year-old Tania Nicol

went missing from her home.

-She came out around maybe
about 8:00 at night --

It was something like that --
and she wanted a lift home,

so I gave her a lift.

Well, I didn't want to tatter
off about anything, you know,

but we knew...
Far as I was concerned,

she was taking cannabis
and whatever,

and I didn't know that
she was into drugs so heavily.

You see, you don't know.

We just talked like friends.

When we got there,
she just got out of the car.

One of the things I noticed

was she just walked
straight into the house,

whereas, you know...

you might turn around
and give a little wave,

but she just walked straight in,

so I suppose that's the sort of,
like...

This drug stuff, it dulls
your senses to a lot of things,

so it robs you of your life,
really,

and that was the last time
I saw her.

-The family was unaware
that Tania was living

a double life as a prostitute
to fund her addiction to heroin.

-I didn't know
that until afterwards.

Obviously, she was doing that
to feed her habit.

Isn't it?
That's what they --

That's what I've been told,
you know?

-Before 2006, Ipswich,

like many market towns
of this size in the U.K.,

experienced problems with drugs,
and we had a quite vivid

and lively street
prostitution scene.

It was around...

In summer of 2006,
we'd done some research

and identified
around 70-odd women

that were working on the streets
of Ipswich as prostitutes.

The main issue, obviously,
why they're out in the streets

in the first instance,
all these women were out there

to feed their drug habit.

They were all Class A addicts.

-Another young woman working on
the streets of Ipswich in 2006

was Jade Reynolds.

-And every morning,
I'd wake up, you know,

and I have a heroin addiction
to fund, you know?

So, unless you've probably
saved money from working

on the streets the night before,
you worked out late,

and you're not very well
for the morning and for the day,

and then I'd get up
at the nighttime,

put on makeup and clothes
and pretty much go

and sell myself down
on the street, you know?

It was cold, dark, you know,
very dangerous,

but you don't think
about the danger.

All you really just -- go out
there and do what you got to do,

but it wasn't a good lifestyle.

It wasn't an easy lifestyle,
really.

There was a lot of emotion
that goes with it,

and you'd have to learn
to switch off

or let it overrun you, you know?

And heroin is an easy way
to switch off all your emotions.

-After Tania Nicol's family
haven't heard from her

for 48 hours,
they reported her as missing.

Police began to investigate,
but it appeared

she'd just vanished off
the face of the Earth.

-We possibly thought she went
with a load of people

down to London somewhere

and just stayed in a house
or something like that.

-Prostitutes go missing
all the time, change cities.

That's not unusual.

Very seldom do they have
many relatives

who will identify
their disappearance.

Sometimes, they do.
Sometimes, they don't.

-As time passed, Jim became

increasingly concerned
about his daughter.

-You're terribly --
You're worried beyond --

You just go out your head,
you know?

You just can't think straight,
you know, you're so worried,

and it really hits
your mistakes.

And I think after
about 2 or 3 weeks,

it was sheer hell
not knowing where she was,

and by then,
you know that something's up.

-While Jim waited desperately
for any news

about his daughter, Tania,

on November the 15th,

another young woman
was reported missing --

25-year-old Gemma Adams.

-For Gemma to go missing,
that's when you worry

'cause Gemma would never
go missing, you know?

She's not like that, you know.

She's always certain time,
certain place,

this, that, that, you know?

Yeah, so, that was --
When Gemma went,

that's when you knew
something was wrong.

-The police stop nearly 2,000
people and over 500 cars

traveling through Ipswich's
red-light district

to see if anyone recognized
photos of Tania and Gemma,

but they drew a blank,
and it was a similar story

when they spoke
to the local sex workers.

-You don't report every attack,
but there's loads of times

where we get people
trying to steal our handbags or,

like, trying to accost us,
you know,

because we're saying,
"No," to them, you know?

You are worried,
and you are scared thinking,

"Hang on. Gemma's gone now.

I didn't know Tania,
but she's gone.

Where are they?"

And you think,
"Yeah. It could me.

I could be next,
but I've got to go

and get my money for my drugs,"
you know?

And you have to go out there.

You have to learn
to put emotions

to the back of your mind
while you're out on the street.

I can then go home
and be really scared,

but if I was gonna be scared
that the girls had gone missing,

I'm not gonna be able to earn
the money for my drug addiction.

-Then on December the 2nd,
2006,

the police got the call
they'd be dreading.

A body had been found in a brook
on the outskirts of town.

-Right on the bend,
right on the corner was a head,

this end, facing upstream,
her legs downstream,

arms beside her body.

I saw the hair flowing
and a golden earring,

and the head was on its side,
and my immediate thought was,

"One of the missing girls."

-Tania's father, Jim Duell,
feared the worst.

-By this time, I concluded
that she'd gone, quite honestly.

I concluded this,
that she was dead.

That's what I concluded
'cause by this time,

she would've phoned her mother

'cause she always
phones her mother

if she's gonna be
back late or anything.

She was good.

-But it wasn't Tania.

Police identified the body as
that of 25-year-old Gemma Adams.

There was no sign
of a sexual assault,

but her naked body had been
dumped in flowing water,

so finding any DNA evidence
was going to be difficult.

-When someone dies,

then there will be all sorts
of evidence on the body,

in the body, that tells you
all sorts of information.

If you leave a body
in running water,

then the water will quite
literally wash away evidence.

Equally, the water will bring
other things onto the body

that can contaminate it,

so you've got a double problem,
really,

of things being lost and things
being brought to the body,

which make interpretation
more difficult.

-Unsurprisingly, the media
was starting to take notice,

including Paul Harrison
of Sky News.

-My boss said to me

that I should go to Ipswich
at the weekend.

One body had been discovered.

To him, something didn't seem
quite right.

He wanted me to get
under the surface

of what was happening
in the red-light district

because we knew that two
prostitutes had gone missing,

so what was this all about?

Was this going to be
something bigger?

-For a week, forensic teams

scoured nearby woodlands
for clues,

and divers explored the brook.

Then just when they were about
to call off the search,

divers found another body.

This time, it wasTania Nicol.

-Well, when I got
the actual news,

I can't remember my reaction
'cause it was something like,

"Well, that's..." you know...

I knew in me heart.
I knew already.

-Just like Gemma Adams,

there was no sign
of sexual assault,

and the rushing water
had stripped Tania's body

of any DNA evidence.

Suffolk Police called
on Commander David Johnston

from Scotland Yard,
a homicide expert.

-So I joined the investigation
around the time

the second victim's body
had been discovered,

and that initially meant
I went to Suffolk

to speak
to the Chief Officer team

to assess the situation.

I'm not sure I would say
they were overwhelmed,

and I think they recognized
the need

to bring additional resources
in to avoid that situation,

and that's what they did,
and Suffolk, I know,

had probably 100 to 200 people

initially engaged
in this inquiry,

but that number quickly grew,

and Suffolk suddenly
found themself, of course,

at the center of a huge incident

with significant media interest,
globally.

-So by the time they discovered
the body of Tania Nicol,

we had already begun
to spend a bit of time

in the red-light district
late in the evening

and early in the morning,

just to see how prevalent
prostitution was in Ipswich,

and it wasn't difficult
to find girls

on the streets
very late at night.

We spoke to a number of them.

They were aware that two girls
had gone missing.

We were almost delivering them
the news

that a second body
had been found.

We were almost telling many
of these girls,

for the very first time,

that the body of a second woman,
almost certainly a prostitute

and almost certainly
Tania Nicol,

had been discovered in Copdock.

Their reaction -- They weren't
fazed by it, it seemed.

-It's scary every night,
going out on the streets.

It's scary every night.

You could get attacked
every night, you know?

To be honest, it doesn't matter
how scary anything is, really.

You've still got to go out there
and do it.

That tears at your heart,
and you think,

"Oh, God," you know,
"what's happening?

Who's next?" You know?

But even though you're
discussing,

"What if it could be me,"

you're still out there
on the the streets,

and you're still
selling yourself

because you still have
a drug addiction to feed.

You've got to put all
them worries to the
back of your mind.

-Police were at a dead end.

They had no clues and nothing
to link the two murders.

They watched hours
of CCTV footage

from Ipswich's
red-light district

and finally found
something of significance.

Tania had been caught
getting into a dark car

on the night
of her disappearance.

Could the driver of the car
be the killer?

-Handford Road, Burlington Road,
that was her place.

She would stand there

when she went out at night,
on that corner,

and they found footage of her --
just a brief glimpse.

-The CCTV was captured outside
of a supermarket on London Road,

the same street
where Steve Wright was living.

Unfortunately, the footage
wasn't clear enough

to reveal the number plate
or identify the driver.

-From my point of view, it's
professionally very frustrating.

The whole emphasis of our role
is to protect the public,

and we take that very seriously.

And so, each day, when we're
carrying out the investigation

and trying to identify
this offender,

it's very concerning to us

when we still don't have
an identification made.

-It had been eight days

since Gemma Adams
had been found murdered.

As the police continued
with their investigation,

they receive
some more shocking news.

On December the 10th,

just two days after
the discovery of Tania Nicol,

the body of a third woman
was found

in a woodland in nearby Nacton.

-The 10th was a huge day,
really.

I had literally driven out
of Ipswich for about 10 miles

when I got a phone call
from the news desk,

and the blood really felt
like it drained from my face,

from my body because...

Shivers down the spine.

We were now into
serial-killer territory.

-I think it'd be fair to say
yes,

there was extreme concern
being expressed in Ipswich

and not just amongst sex workers

or the women involved
in that line of work

but across the whole
of the community.

This was a significant event,
completely unparalleled,

as far as I know,
in the history of Ipswich

and that area, which is normally
a very quiet, rural town.

-We were now dealing with
a serial killer almost certainly

and also
was the national media --

the U.K. media
were all over it by now.

This was when you began to see
the beginnings

of the international interest
in it, as well.

-Distinctive tattoos
on the third body

led the police to identify her
as Anneli Alderton,

who'd not been reported missing.

She'd also been working
as a prostitute in Ipswich.

She was a 24-year-old
mother of one.

-She was a mad,

kind of happy-go-lucky, crazy
chick, you know?

I lived in my first squat
with Anneli, really nice girl.

I would say she's like
a free spirit, you know?

She's like, mm, you know,
"Great," like,

"I'm Annie," you know?
"This is me," you know?

So, she's kind of cool and liked
to hang around with, you know?

-The media's focus on Ipswich
intensified even further.

-I'd raced back to the scene
in Nacton

where the body of
Anneli Alderton was discovered.

We knew very little
at that stage about

in what position it lay,

but what we did know
was that it was on dry land,

and this was a twist
in the story

because the two previous victims
had been deposited in water.

So the police, for them,
it was very exciting

that, in terms of DNA,

this could be something
that they could work with.

-The autopsy showed that Anneli
had been strangled

and tragically revealed
she'd been 3 months pregnant.

-So, the evidence that you'd see
in a strangulation,

you'd see bruising
on and in the neck,

you'd often see fine pinpoint
hemorrhages in the eyes.

These things really point you
very directly

towards that cause of death.

-She'd been left in
the crucifix position

with her arms outstretched.

-There is a tendency to want

to attach
a lot of meaning to that.

Many people were looking
at this, as it unfolded, saying,

"Well, there's some
religious motivation here,"

but I don't think
it was about that at all.

It was about, essentially,
getting attention.

Even serial killers get bored.

They want to mix
things up a bit.

They want to try something new.

-The police still have no DNA,
no clues, and no leads.

The pressure to catch
the killer was mounting.

-There's always pressure
because you have the media

who are consistency
requiring information

because it's 24-hour media,

and they want to know
what's happening.

There's anxiety being expressed
in the community,

and, of course, the police
themself want to catch this man

as quickly as possible.

-"I'm losing my friends.
Well, I don't want

to keep losing my
friends. I don't want
to lose my own life."

You do think about stuff
like that.

It's not something
that you don't think about.

-The world's media descended
on Ipswich,

and the cameras were
all pointed at the police.

-I think this case was one
that attracted so much attention

because it was unfolding
in front of our eyes.

This was the era
of reality television,

when that started
to become very popular.

We were seeing it as it unfolded
on 24-hour rolling news,

and you never knew
what was gonna happen

from one day to the next.

-Detectives told prostitutes
to stay off the streets,

but their warnings
were largely ignored.

A local news crew interviewed
one of the girls anonymously.

-Why -- Why have you decided
to come out tonight?

-Well, 'cause I need the money.

I need the money, you know?

-Despite the dangers?

-Well, that has made me

a bit wary about
getting into cars, you know?

It has.
-But you will do that tonight.

-Well, probably.

-The woman interviewed
was Paula Clennell.

-Paula Clennell,
she had children,

and she was always
trying quite hard

to change her life, you know?

-She was happy when you
saw her, you know, a nice girl,

but, yeah, she tried quite hard,
you know, to get out of it,

you know, 'cause it's a very
hard thing to get out of--

the addiction --
if you still live,

generally, in the same town.

But, yeah, she was trying,

you know, to get away from it
and change her life, bless her.

-Just six days after
that news report aired,

Paula Clennell was missing.

In December 2006,
the police in Ipswich

were under mounting pressure to
catch a prolific serial killer.

The bodies of three dead
prostitutes had been found

in just 10 days.

They had no clues
or potential suspects,

and the killing
wasn't about to stop.

Two more young women
had gone missing --

24-year-old Paula Clennell,

who'd been interviewed
on the news just days before.

And now, police receive reports
of a fifth missing woman --

29-year-old Annette Nicholls,

the best friend of fellow
prostitute Jade Reynolds.

-Annette was a girl, for me,

that I was so humbled
to know, you know?

She always took time for me.

She'd want to know
if I was all right,

if there was anything
she could do,

she'd do anything
for anybody else,

she was always well-kept,

she'd greet you with a smile
and a happiness, you know?

You felt all right
when you was with Annette.

I did. I could think,
"Aw, yeah, wicked.

There she is," you know?

It was a relief 'cause I know
that I could talk to her,

she'd understand my problems.

So when she went missing,

that's kind of like tearing out
a piece of my heart.

-As the police search
for Paula and Annette,

there was a macabre
inevitability in the air

amongst the massive
international journalists

who'd gathered in Ipswich.

-There was almost certainly
going to be another discovery.

Where was it gonna be?

Who was it going to be?

It was nail-biting,

and it can't be described
as fear.

It was really palpable.

You sensed that from
the people in the town.

You sensed it
from your colleagues

but also from other colleagues,
from other media organizations,

and the police, as well.

-On December the 12th,

another body was found
in Levington,

just a mile away from Nacton,
in the same woods

where Anneli Alderton
had been discovered days before.

-While somebody was out
walking their dog,

they stumbled upon the body
of a fourth victim

just a few meters away
from the main road in Levington,

in the undergrowth,
also, this time, not in water.

Again, the DNA was important
in this case.

But what seemed quite strange
about this one

is that it almost had an
appearance of a rushed approach,

that this body was deposited
by the ride of the road,

albeit, a few meters
off the main road.

It had the appearance,

or it seemed as it
had been done quickly.

-The police sent a helicopter

up to survey
the woodland for evidence.

As it circled the area,

they made a further
gruesome discovery.

Another body was lying in
the woods only 100 yards away.

The naked bodies were those
of the missing women --

24-year-old Paula Clennell and
29-year-old Annette Nicholls.

-I don't think I'll ever
get back

what I had with Annette
with another girl, you know?

This is the most beautiful woman
that I'd ever known

that had quite important to me
that I could trust, you know?

And now, it's not there?
I didn't go out after that.

I was quite sensible because,
like, I couldn't --

I emotionally couldn't go out
and work on the streets

after Annette was found.

-Five women had been murdered
in Ipswich in just 6 weeks.

The press had named the killer
the Suffolk Strangler.

-Alderton and Clennell,
they were both asphyxiated.

That was the cause
of their death.

In the other cases,
the changes after death

really prevented pathology
giving a definitive answer,

although I think it's reasonable
to assume

that someone who's killing five
people in a short space of time

probably used similar methods.

-Interestingly, none of the
five victims showed any sign

of sexual assault,
so it isn't a rape-murder.

It's not, "Oh,
I've satisfied myself.

Now I'm gonna kill you,"
murder.

It is a targeted murder
without a sexual element.

-He is very much feeding off
the media frenzy

that's being created
around his crimes,

and he's increasingly feeling
even more in control

of what's going on,

so he's changing the way
that he's doing things,

and he's looking at the reaction
from the media

when he does that,
and he's absolutely loving it.

-He believes he's fulfilling
something.

Maybe he's convinced himself

that he's clearing
the world of prostitutes.

They were all dumped very --

really,
quite close to each other.

It demonstrates that he thinks
he's doing something

in his own fantasy world

that is cleansing
the world of evil

or cleansing the world of dirt

or cleansing the world of
inappropriate sexual appetite.

We'll never know.

I don't think Wright
probably knows, now.

All I do know is that he had
to be caught

because he wouldn't stop
until he was.

-On December the 15th,
Tania Nicol's dad, Jim Duell,

made an emotional plea for
he killer to turn himself in.

-Tania has been taken by
someone who needs to be found.

We ask for anyone who knows
this person or persons

to come forward
and contact the police.

-With increasing pressure
to make an arrest,

police decided to question
a local 37-year-old man.

-Well, he was identified
because he had spent

considerable time on a radio car

talking to a radio journalist
and other TV journalists.

-I spent a bit of time with him

to try and get to know
his relationship with the girls.

There was kind of an
understanding between them that,

"You scratch my back,
and I'll scratch yours."

-So he was loosely associated
as a friend of one or more

of the girls who were murdered,
and at that stage,

he became of significant
interest to the inquiry.

There was a very strong feeling

from some of the media
people present

that this man was the right man

and should be looked
at more seriously.

-With a suspect in custody,

detectives received a lead
from the forensics lab.

The three bodies that were found
on dry land

did have DNA evidence on them.

In a one-in-a-billion chance,

the DNA found on all three women
was the same, but whose was it?

The DNA was run through
the National Database,

and police got a match,

but to their surprise, it wasn't
the man they had in custody.

-At that time,
and as it still stands today,

if a person is arrested

or convicted of an indictable
offense or a serious offense,

they can have their DNA taken
and held on the database.

-The DNA matched that of a
local man

who'd been convicted of stealing
80 pounds from a pub till

in 2002 --
48-year-old Steve Wright.

-And it was that match which led
to significant additional work,

including, then,
the CCTV evidence,

which showed a vehicle
being used by Wright moving

between some of the locations
around the relevant times,

so he became a major suspect
in the inquiry.

-Over just six weeks,

five prostitutes
had been murdered in Ipswich.

The police finally believe
they'd found the killer,

48-year-old Steve Wright,

whose DNA had been found
on three of the bodies.

Wright had not been a suspect
at any point

during the police investigation,
even though he had been stopped

during routine checks
of the red-light district.

Whilst the world's media
was focusing on a local man

who police currently
had in custody,

Wright was put
under surveillance.

-Once the police had discovered
the DNA,

it matched Steve Wright.

Immediately,
although from a distance,

making quite a brave move,
actually,

not by arresting him
straightaway

but watching him,
seeing his movements...

"What was he doing?
Where was he going?"

...just for a 24-hour period,
and ultimately,

as we were all elsewhere
looking at somebody else,

another suspect, bang,
they had made an arrest.

They'd arrested Steve Wright.

-It was a huge shock
to Wright's father, Conrad.

-Well, I didn't believe it,
as simple as that.

Two people come to my door
to say,

"Your son has been arrested,"
and I didn't believe it.

-I think the only emotion
that Steve Wright would've felt

upon getting arrested
was annoyance.

"This has stopped
the media circus

that I've been
at the center of,"

and I think also self-pity.

Yeah, "Oh, terrible.
I'm now gonna be in prison,"

or, "I'm gonna be
in a police station.

I'm gonna be able
to do the things I want."

He would never have had
any kind of expressed empathy

for his victims
or their families

'cause they just
didn't matter to him.

-At the time, I split up
with my partner,

moved into my mom's house,

and I woke up one morning with
the world media on my doorstep,

to put it bluntly,
and they said,

"Did you know Steve Wright was,
like, a client to your door?"

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
and I didn't even know.

My mom didn't even know,
you know?

But then it all came out,
you know,

that it turned out he's
actually my first partner,

which was shocking, you know?

And I thought, "Oh, my God.
I was right with him

right there, right then,"
you know?

And, yeah, I was kind of
shocked, really --

really shocked, to be honest,

thinking that I was
that close to him.

Made me feel sick.

-During eight hours
of interrogation,

Wright made no comment.

The no-comment police interviews
is indicative

of that power
and that control,

"So, I have
all of this knowledge

and all of this information.

I know everything
about these crimes,

and you want that knowledge,

so I'm gonna use this
to my advantage."

He knows everything that
the police want to know,

and is he gonna tell them?
Is he not gonna tell them?

That gives him a massive
sense of control.

-Although Wright didn't confess
to the killings,

on the 21st of December, 2006,

the police charged him
with all five murders

based on the forensic evidence
they'd so far found.

The other suspect was released
from custody without charge.

Prosecutors now began
the arduous task

of building a solid case
against Wright

for the upcoming trial.

Michael Crimp was
part of the legal team.

-Of the five bodies
that were recovered,

two of them had been immersed
for some time in water,

and if there had been any DNA
on their bodies,

it had long since gone,
and so in terms of DNA evidence,

there was nothing to link
Steve Wright with them.

-Detectives impounded
Wright's car.

In it, they found fibers
from a fake-fur jacket

owned by Annette Nicholls

and, more significantly, traces
of Paula Clennell's blood.

-Wright really didn't do very
much to conceal his movements.

He drove his own car.

He dumped the bodies
from his own car.

He wasn't very
forensically aware

as so many determined killers
are these days.

He didn't know about DNA
and fiber analysis, trace,

and all the other things we've
all become so familiar with

as the result of
television series and the rest.

Wright pretty much did
as he pleased

and thought
he could get away with it,

and he thought he could get away
with it because he thought

that no one
was gonna miss a prostitute.

-Forensic experts also examine
Wright's home.

They found the blood
of Paula Clennell

and Annette Nicholls
on a Hi Vis jacket,

more conclusive proof that
his encounter with the women

had taken a sinister turn,

but there was no link
between Wright

and the deaths of Tania Nicol
and Gemma Adams,

the two women whose bodies
had been found

immersed in running water.

Investigators rewatch the CCTV

from the night
Tania Nicol went missing,

and they were now certain the
car that she got into

was Wright's blue Ford Mondeo.

Forensic teams
painstakingly analyzed

microscopic debris found
in the women's hair.

Remarkably, they found fibers
from Wright's tracksuit bottoms,

sofa, and carpet fiber
from his Mondeo.

-Both fibers in their hair
and fibers on gloves

and other items that belonged
to Steve Wright

clearly linked him
to those two, as well.

-The game was up.

-This was a case that involved

a lot of experts
and a lot of expertise.

And what it came down to
was that they were able to place

fibers from the bodies
at Wright's property.

They were able to trace,
place blood

on the articles of clothing
and in his car.

We call it Locard's
exchange principle.

You go and interact
with somebody,

you leave of yourself there,

and you take
something away from it,

and as clever as you
may try and be,

you're always going to leave
evidence of that interaction.

-Steve Wright was now linked
to all five women.

His trial began
at Ipswich Grand Court

on the 16th of January, 2008.

Wright pleaded not guilty.

-To me, he looked pretty cool
about it all.

He didn't seem
particularly emotive

about the evidence
as it was being put to him.

Well, he had to explain

the scientific evidence
in this case,

which linked him very closely
with all five of the victims,

and so his explanation was that
he'd been in close association

with all five of them

and, obviously, not long before
they disappeared off the street.

-Wright argued he'd picked up
the women for sex,

and that was why there was
evidence of them in his car.

-The defense were arguing

that it might've been
a coincidence, but no more.

-But his case began to fall
apart under intense questioning.

-It was an odd picture
that he portrayed

because there was just too
much coincidence in this case

that the evidence provided
more than just coincidences,

that it provided
the evidence that damned him.

-We put to him various bits
of evidence and said,

"Well, was that just
a coincidence?"

And to each question like that,

all that Steve Wright said
was something like,

"Well, so it would seem,"
or, "It appears so,"

and he just couldn't deal
with the questions

that he was being asked about --

how all of these
apparent coincidences existed.

-On February the 21st, 2008,

after only six hours
of deliberation,

the jury found Wright guilty
of all five murders,

and he was sentenced
to a whole life term.

He was immediately sent
to Belmarsh Prison.

He will never be released.

-I think the thing that's
striking about this case

is the speed with which
Wright moved

from being a relatively
unknown and minor offender

involved in a minor theft

to killing five women
in a very short period of time.

And I am strongly of the belief
that had he not been arrested,

he would've continued to kill.

-This was a man
who was desperate to be known,

desperate to be someone,

and by killing those five women,

the notoriety that he achieved

effectively made him
into someone.

We talked about
the Suffolk Strangler,

this man who nobody really knew.

Suddenly, everyone knew him.

He was world-famous for being
the Suffolk Strangler.

-I found it very difficult to
call Wright a truly evil man --

deeply wicked, deeply,

with no sense of remorse.

-To this day, he has maintained
his innocence.

He says he did not kill
those five women.

He goes even further to write
to his father who,

in his father's eyes,
he did what he did,

and it hurts
Steve Wright, actually,

that his father
doesn't believe him

when Steve Wright says,
"I didn't do it."

His father looked in his eyes,

turned, and walked out of prison
when he said,

"Look into my eyes.
Do you think I did it?"

-And it wouldn't make me feel
any different

whether I forgive him or not.

I mean, the deed is done,
and I'm, in a way,

responsible for him
being out there, you know?

I brought him into the world.

-Life will never be the same
for the friends and families

of those who were killed.

-You know,
I got to her resting place

and stand and have
a little conversation,

like you would, you know,

and say, "I've come up
to see you, dear," you know,

and have a little bit of emotion
going there, you know?

But there you are.
It's love, isn't it?

'Cause she's always
in our memory.

Of course she is.

-Even now, 10 years later,
I can still...

I'm sitting here,
and I'm trying to be clean,

and I'm trying not to
let my emotions get
the better of me,

but there's so many things
that I've seen,

I think, "Oh, yeah.
Annette would love that."

I still --
I'll find it hard now,

and I'll find it hard,
like, 20 years' time, you know,

that she's not here anymore.

It tore a piece of me out
that I won't get back.

-Some positive has happened
in Ipswich

when we have such a tragic
turn of events,

and that is, for me,
is that there's no longer

any street prostitution
occurring in Ipswich.

If I wanted a legacy
for the five women,

that would be it --
that no other women

are putting themselves
in such perilous

and stark
and dangerous situations.

-I think Ipswich
will never forget

those terrible times,
those few weeks in December 2006

where the world's eyes were on
them for all the wrong reasons,

and they will take
the vital lessons learned

during that period forward.

They won't forget the woman,

they won't forget the girls
who were killed,

but they will move forward
and try to not allow that period

to effectively
dictate their future.

-We may never know why Wright
carried out

these frenzied attacks
or if there are other victims

that have perished
at this hands.

He remains one of the U.K.'s
most prolific serial killers.

For six weeks, the whole world
watched in shock

as the body count in Ipswich
continued to grow,

but eventually, the forensic
evidence brought justice

for the families
of all five victims

and put pay to the killing spree
of Steve Wright,

the Suffolk Strangler.