Serial killer changes plea after shocking new evidence is used 26 years later

Shocking new evidence has seen a serial killer change his plea decades after the horrific crime.

Steve Wright, 67, was already serving a prison sentence for the murders of five women in and around Ipswich in the UK, which he carried out in 2006.

Wright would receive a whole-life order for the horrifying killings in 2008, a relatively rare sentence in British justice which is reserved only for the most serious crimes.

Years later, police investigations would lead to Wright being connected to another killing - the 1999 murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall.

Victoria disappeared on September 19, 1999, and was last seen by her friend Gemma Algar as she walked home alone in Trimley St Mary after they went for a night out at the Bandbox nightclub, located in Felixstowe.

Victoria Hall went missing in September 1999 (Suffolk Police)

But Victoria would never make it home, and her body was found days later.

In 2019, the case was reopened following a cold case review the previous year, and a DNA fragment connected with Victoria's death matched the database records for Wright.

Investigators then worked to make sure that the DNA was not a match for any of Wright's male relatives, and were able to establish that it was a match for him.

The day before he killed Victoria, Wright had also targeted Emily Doherty, who provided a chilling account of the attempted kidnapping, saying that her assailant 'lay ahead in wait' ahead of her.

Luckily, she was able to escape and seek refuge by banging on the door of a nearby house, which called the police.

A victim impact statement for Emily was read out in court, which described how she felt as she escaped Wright.

She said: "I have never been so scared in my life. I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest.

"I had never ran so fast or jumped over walls like that."

Steve Wright was known as the 'Suffolk Strangler' (Suffolk Police)

Wright initially pleaded not guilty to the fresh charges, but on February 2, he changed his plea to guilty.

Following this, the serial killer was given an additional life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years in custody, on top of the sentence he is already serving.

He was also sentenced to 12 years for the kidnapping of Victoria and nine years for the attempted kidnapping of Emily Doherty. All of the sentences will run concurrently.

In a hearing at the Old Bailey in London on February 6, Mr Justice Bennathan told Wright: "Given your obvious dangerousness and your age, it is extraordinarily unlikely you would ever be released. Given the sentence imposed for your other dreadful crimes, it is well nigh certain you will die in prison."

In a statement outside court read by his son Steven Hall, Victoria's father Graham said: "Steve Wright robbed us of seeing Victoria turn into a woman. I miss Victoria every day and will do for the rest of my life."