When police finally reached HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire to arrest Steve Wright, the man known as the Suffolk Strangler greeted them not with fear, but with a smirk.
It was a small, knowing smile that seemed to say he had been a step ahead for decades.
At 67, wearing a worn blue prison vest, Wright had no shock on his face.
Instead, he calmly posed for a mugshot, unconcerned about the crime that had haunted Suffolk for over 20 years.
For years, authorities had been chasing the wrong man for the murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999, wasting millions on a case that should have never been.
Meanwhile, Wright lived just half a mile away, silently preparing for the spree that would make him one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers.
The Suffolk Strangler’s Reign of Terror
Wright’s killing spree in 2006 shocked the nation.
Over just six weeks, he murdered five women—Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, and Annette Nicholls—stalking Ipswich’s red-light district.
Despite overwhelming forensic evidence linking him to the victims, Wright maintained his innocence for years, even appealing to the Court of Appeal in 2009.
It wasn’t until yesterday, 22 years after Victoria’s death, that Wright admitted his first murder.
The confession raises grim questions: how many other crimes has he kept hidden?
His decades-long deceit highlights not only the cunning of a serial killer but also the failures of law enforcement that allowed him to strike again and again.
Victoria Hall’s Tragic Night
Victoria Hall was an intelligent, disciplined 17-year-old, preparing for A-levels in English, sociology, and business studies.
On the night of September 19, 1999, she and her friend Gemma Algar stopped for chips before walking home from Bandbox nightclub. Victoria never made it back.
Residents reported hearing terrifying screams, a throaty exhaust, and a car speeding away.
Her body was found five days later, naked and asphyxiated, in a ditch 25 miles away in Creeting St Peter—the same type of scene Wright would later replicate with other victims.
At the time, Wright lived just a short distance from Victoria’s home, yet police focused on the wrong suspect.
Chasing the Wrong Man
The investigation fixated on Adrian Bradshaw, a local businessman whose Porsche had a noisy exhaust.
Eyewitness accounts and circumstantial soil evidence appeared to link him to the crime.
Bradshaw, however, had nothing to do with Victoria’s murder, spending almost a year in jail awaiting trial.
A jury acquitted him in just 90 minutes, leaving him to reflect on what he called the “most difficult moment of my life.”
Critics now describe the police investigation as a “crime in itself,” pointing out that vital leads were ignored.
Just a day before Victoria’s murder, Emily Doherty had narrowly escaped Wright’s attempted abduction and gave police a detailed description of him, his car, and part of the license plate.
Yet these critical clues were overlooked.
A Pattern of Violence and Deception
Beneath his ordinary exterior, Wright’s life was a web of secret depravity.
Married and living with a girlfriend, he had been paying for sex for years, and violence marked his relationships.
Former partner Diane Cole recalled brutal assaults during their time together, including being repeatedly hit, threatened with knives, and locked away while Wright pursued mistresses.
Even after the 2006 killings, the connection to Victoria remained hidden because she was not a sex worker.
For decades, Wright had slipped through the cracks, manipulating and mocking law enforcement while carrying the weight of multiple lives on his conscience.
Cold-Case Breakthrough
It wasn’t until the 20th anniversary of Victoria’s death in 2019 that detectives revisited the case.
A detailed re-examination of Ms. Doherty’s account, combined with new forensic DNA techniques, finally linked Wright to the murder.
Arrested in prison in July 2021, he initially denied involvement, attempting to redirect blame toward Bradshaw and others.
But the evidence left him no choice.
Tragically, Victoria’s mother, Lorinda Hall, passed away weeks before Wright’s trial, never learning the truth.
She had lived with decades of unanswered questions and pain, describing the anguish caused by Wright as life-shattering.
The Long Shadow of Justice
Wright’s confession brings closure for Victoria’s surviving family but leaves haunting questions about the full extent of his crimes.
Authorities now face the daunting task of uncovering any other victims who may have been lost to his decades of calculated evil.
For the Hall family and communities across Suffolk, the shadow of the Suffolk Strangler remains long, but at least some of the truth has finally emerged after more than 20 years of fear, missteps, and unanswered questions.
