U.K. Serial Killer Gets Life, No Parole

Former Pub Owner Killed 5 Women Working As Prostitutes In Southeast England

(CBS/AP)  A man convicted of murdering five British prostitutes has been sentenced to the maximum of life in prison, with no chance of release, ever.

Forty-nine-year-old Steve Wright showed no emotion as a judge pronounced sentence Friday in the eastern English city of Ipswich.

He had acknowledged using prostitutes and admitted he knew the women who were killed, but denied he killed them.

Based on blood, fibers and other forensic evidence, prosecutors said he did and a jury agreed.

The judge said it was a "targeted campaign of murder" and told Wright, quote, "It is right you should spend your whole life in prison.

"This was a targeted campaign of murder … You killed them, stripped them and left them," said the judge, "why you did it may never be known."

Jurors took less than eight hours on Thursday to convict him of murdering the five women. Tania Nicol,19, Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell,24, and Annette Nicholls, 29 were all found dead in the county of Suffolk.

Some of his victim's family members said the sentence was too light, and called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in England.

In a statement after the verdict was announced, Miss Nicol's family said that while justice had been done, "we are afraid that while five young lives have been cruelly ended, the person responsible will be kept warm, nourished and protected... These crimes deserve the ultimate punishment and that can only mean one thing."

The naked bodies of the five young women were found in streams and woods around Ipswich over a ten-day period in 2006. All had been choked or strangled.

Wright had admitted visiting prostitutes and knowing the dead women but denied killing them. But prosecutors said blood, fibers and other forensic evidence linked him to the crimes.

The prosecution said Wright "systematically selected and murdered" all five women over a six-and-a-half-week period, reports the BBC.

Suffolk police began an inquiry after Nicol, 19, vanished in late October 2006.

The killings terrified the town, and stories about the deaths were splashed across British newspapers and television screens for weeks. They also prompted a manhunt involving more than 500 police officers from more than 30 forces.

He left two of the bodies in a cruciform position with arms outstretched, reports the London Globe and Mail.

Prosecution spokesman Robert Sadd said "we will probably never know why" Wright killed the women.

Wright, labeled the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media, had undertaken his campaign of violence while his partner Pamela - who was unaware of his trysts with prostitutes - was working night shifts, reports the Globe and Mail.

Five other women have been killed or vanished in East Anglia in the past 16 years, although detectives have never publicly linked Wright to any of the killings, reports the U.K. Times.

[keithle1]

They''re an easy target. Going into cars of strangers in the middle of the night. Popular victims for serial killers both here in USA & UK. Dangerous lifestyle. What makes them do it is addiction to drugs or a pimp who will beat the living you-know-what out of them if they don''t.

All of us were loved by someone at some point in our lives. We all have mothers. So?

[torch1000us1]

What does it matter if the girls were drug addicts or not? That POS killed them because he wanted to. He picked these girls because he thought no one would notice. These girls were someones daughter or sister. they were loved by someone.

[keithle1]

If more women would give IT up freely & cheerfully then maybe men wouldn''t need to pay for it. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[keithle1]

You mean he didn''t tell his "partner" that he was picking up h o o k e r s? WOW.

How many of the dead girls were drug addicts? Tough way to make a living. I''m surprised it doesn''t happen more often.

[winnerindia]

Top right corner and bottom left corner were *** girls.

[gunnerv1]

USBrit I know that, I can also read. This is just for School(crazy)lord, because he lies.

[usbrit-2009]

School(Crazy)lord NO GUNS USED HERE!

Posted by gunnerv1 at 12:50 PM : Feb 22, 2008

Since my good buddy Schoolord is not here to defend him(her)self yet, let me point out a couple of things.
If you read up about serial killers you''ll find that they very rarely use guns. They much to work one on one using hands on methods - strangulation, knives etc. as they like to watch their victime die. Spree killers, on the other hand, almost always use guns as their only motivation is to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. Their have only been two known spree killers in the UK in the past 30 years though we have had our fair share of serial killers. Can''t say that about the US.

[gunnerv1]

School(Crazy)lord NO GUNS USED HERE!

[usbrit-2009]

Don''t feel too sorry for the British taxpayers, conditions are so bad in British jails he''ll be trying to figure out how to hang himself with a towel after a couple of months.

[extremophil]

That''ll teach him. Make him spend the rest of his life in protective custody at the taxpayers expense.