Suffolk Strangler: police say new arrest is ’significant’
A second man is being questioned over the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich, in a move police sources described as “significant”.
The 48-year-old man - named locally as Steve Wright - was arrested at his home in the centre of Ipswich near the red light district early this morning.
Yesterday a 37-year-old man - named by sources as supermarket worker Tom Stephens - was arrested at his home in Trimley St Martin.
Detectives said both men were being questioned on suspicion of murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.
Detectives tonight said a magistrate had given them a further 36 hours to continue questioning the man arrested in Trimley St Martin yesterday.
Police have until around 5am tomorrow to question the man arrested today - then they must ask a senior officer for permission to hold him for a further 12 hours.
Forensic officers and search teams spent the day at both addresses. Police cordoned off part of a road in central Ipswich around where Wright lives.
Friends said Wright had moved to central Ipswich from another address in Ipswich a few months ago.
Police sources said they were coming to the view that the man arrested yesterday, Tom Stephens, is “something of a fantasist”.
A prostitute called Lou said the man held today would pick up women and take them back to his home for sex.
Neighbours said he was led away today in handcuffs and was still wearing his dressing gown. A dark blue Ford Mondeo was also taken away. Police were today searching the large Victorian house, at No 79 on London Road, where the suspect had his bedsit.
He is not believed to be known by Stephens, ruling out theories that the two men in custody could have worked together on the killings.
Police sources said: “The feeling is that Stephens may be something of a fantasist. The man arrested today is a much stronger and more significant suspect.”
The development came as detectives who arrested former special constable Stephens, 37, yesterday were given more time to question him. Earlier today officers admitted that they are only “50/50″ that divorced Stephens, who lives alone in a rented house in Trimley St Martin, is the man they are looking for.
A senior detective said: “Stephens is probably no than midway on a scale of 10 — about four or five.”
Police were today continuing to search Stephen’s house and car and examining his mobile phone records. The Tesco worker and part-time taxi driver has said he was friends with all the victims and had the opportunity to kill them but insists he is innocent.
Inquests into four of the five prostitutes found murdered near Ipswich are to open tomorrow, police said today.
The inquests into the deaths of Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell will be opened and adjourned by a coroner at Ipswich Crown Court, said a police spokeswoman.
The inquest into the death of Gemma Adams was opened last week.
The women’s bodies were found near Ipswich, not far from his home, between 2 and 12 December. Mobile phone traces revealed that since the murders he had visited the sites where the bodies were discovered.
Today it also emerged that Stephens held a party which was attended by all five victims weeks before the first woman went missing.
They were among eight prostitutes he invited to a house warming in October. Detectives are now trying to trace all the men who were there.
One is believed to have been an American known to the girls as “Uncle”. He has been described as a Christian who “gets his kicks” from preaching to the women.
Detectives have already questioned him and he is likely to be spoken to again.
Three weeks after the party, Tania Nicol, 19, the youngest of the victims, went missing on 30 October.
Stephens was questioned by police at the time. They have spoken to him three times since and his home and car were searched.
Stephens has an entry on a networking website in which he calls himself “The Bishop” — a character from the comic book strip The X-Men.
Stephens, a regular visitor to prostitutes in Ipswich, may be able to give police a clearer picture of when and where the women were last seen.
Trimley St Martin is next to Trimley St Mary where 17-year-old Vicky Hall lived. In 1999 the naked body of the sixth-former was found in a water-filled ditch at Creeting St Peter in Suffolk. She had been strangled and her murder remains unsolved.
The bodies of Ms Nicol, Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were all naked except for jewellery.
The huge hunt for a serial killer goes on and there could be up to five other key suspects.
More than 500 officers from 30 forces are involved and the murder hotline has so far received 10,000 calls offering information.
They are trying to fill gaps in the investigation. They know that Miss Alderton and Miss Clennell were asphyxiated or strangled but do not know how the other three died, when they were killed exactly or where.
Police were today reconstructing the last known movements of the victims.
Source: Daily Mail
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