Wright appeared in court where he was to stand trial for the murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall. While he had previously maintained his innocence, he surprisingly pleaded guilty to the kidnap and murder of the teenager on September 19, 1999 in Felixstowe, Suffolk. He also admitted to the attempted kidnapping of then 22-year-old Emily Doherty the day before.
Judge Joel Bennathan then adjourned the hearing and will sentence Wright on Friday. In this way he wants to give the relatives of Hall and Doherty the opportunity to attend the moment and possibly submit victim statements.
‘Suffolk Strangler’
This is the first murder that Wright, also known as the ‘Suffolk Strangler’, has ever admitted to. In 2008 he was jailed for life for the murders of five women aged between 19 and 29 in and around Ipswich. He never confessed to those murders, which happened over a period of six weeks in 2006.
In the run-up to the trial, the Public Prosecution Service had pointed out the similarities between the murders. All six women were asphyxiated, left in similar places and shared physical characteristics, it said.