Who is serial killer Steve Wright?

Steve Wright killed Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, before dumping their bodies around Ipswich in the winter of 2006

Seventeen years ago, a killer terrorised Ipswich, murdering five women within six weeks. Steve Wright, serving a whole life sentence for these killings, has now been arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenager in 1999. Who is Wright and what happens next?

The convicted murderer

Steve Wright, 65, is a convicted killer, serving a whole-life term for murdering five women.

The naked bodies of Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls were found around Ipswich over a 10-day period in December 2006.

Former forklift driver Wright, 48, at the time, admitted having sex with four of the five women, who were sex workers, but denied murdering them.

He was caught when his DNA, on file from a previous theft conviction, was matched to samples taken from the victims.

He was convicted after a trial in 2008 but has always protested his innocence.

His late father previously told the BBC he felt his son was "left damaged" by his mother leaving when he was young.

However, Anglia Ruskin University criminologist Colleen Moore described Wright as "a cruel man who hated women".

Steve Wright's five victims

Gemma Adams (top left) was murdered along with (left to right, top to bottom) Anneli Alderton, Tania Nicol, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell

Tania Nicol, 19, was the first and youngest of Wright's victims. The former Chantry High School pupil went missing from the red-light area near Ipswich Town FC's Portman Road on 30 October. Police divers found her body on 8 December at Belstead Brook, Copdock.

Gemma Adams, 25, who grew up in Kesgrave, was the second woman to vanish, early on 15 November. Her boyfriend of 10 years reported her missing after she failed to respond to his text messages. Her naked body was found on 2 December.

Anneli Alderton, 24, went missing on 3 December. Her body was found in woodland at Nacton seven days later, deliberately "posed" in a "cruciform" shape with arms outstretched. The former Copleston High School pupil was three months pregnant at the time of her death.

Annette Nicholls, 29, was last seen alive on 8 December. Her naked body was also found in a "cruciform" pose, four days later, along the Old Felixstowe Road, close to that of Paula Clennell.

Ms Clennell, 24, had last been seen alive on 10 December. Just days before, she had given a TV interview in which she admitted she was "wary" about getting into clients' cars but had to fund her £500-a-day drug habit. She was found dead on 12 December.

Who was Victoria Hall?

Victoria Hall disappeared after a night out in Felixstowe

Victoria Hall, 17, was last seen in the early hours of Sunday, 19 September 1999 in High Road, Trimley St Mary.

She had been for a night out with a friend at the Bandbox nightclub in Bent Hill, Felixstowe.

The pair stayed there until about 01:00 BST before leaving to get food at the Bodrum Grill in Undercliff Road West.

They then started to walk back to Trimley St Mary.

Victoria was just a short distance from her home when she and her friend parted company at about 02:20 near the junction of High Road and Faulkeners Way.

When Victoria's parents woke up, they found she had not returned home and called police.

A missing persons inquiry was opened but five days later Victoria's naked body was found about 20 miles (32km) away in a ditch beside a field by a dog walker in Creeting Lane, Creeting St Peter.

After 24 years her murder remains unsolved.

What happens next?

Wright was first arrested on suspicion of murdering Victoria in 2021 but no charges were ever brought.

On 7 December he was rearrested on suspicion of murder and released under investigation.

To charge him, Suffolk Police would need to submit evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

If it feels there is sufficient evidence, Wright would be charged with murder and could face trial.