Steve Wright

Steven Gerald James Wright (born 24 April 1958) is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler.

He is serving a whole-life term in prison for the murder of five women who worked in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Steve Wright was born in the Norfolk village of Erpingham, the second of four children of military policeman Conrad and veterinary nurse Patricia, on 24 April 1958.

He has an older brother and two younger sisters.

While Wright's father was on military service, the family had lived in both Malta and Singapore.

Wright's mother left the family in 1964 when he was aged 6; his father divorced his mother in 1978; both remarried.

Wright and his siblings lived with their father, who fathered a son and a daughter with his second wife, Valerie.

Wright left school at the age of 16 in 1974, and soon afterwards joined the Merchant Navy, becoming a chef on ferries sailing from Felixstowe, Suffolk.

In 1978, at age 20, he married Angela O'Donovan in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

They had a son, Michael.

Former prostitute Lindi St Clair said that Wright attacked her in the 1980s.

Wright is one of a number of high-profile murderers or sex offenders to have been identified as possible suspects in the Suzy Lamplugh murder case; he had worked with Lamplugh on Queen Elizabeth 2 during the early 1980s.

Lamplugh went missing in London in July 1986, and was legally declared dead in 1994, but her body has never been found.

However, the Metropolitan Police have stated that this is not a strong line of enquiry.

The couple separated in 1987, and later divorced.

Wright became a steward on the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2, a lorry driver, a barman and, just prior to his arrest, a forklift truck driver.

His second marriage was to 32 year old Diane Cassell at Braintree, Essex, register office in August 1987.

They divorced in July 1988 while he was a pub landlord in Norwich.

It was during this time that Wright also managed a pub in South London.

He lost this post due to his gambling and heavy drinking.

Wright accrued large gambling debts, and was declared bankrupt in the late 1990s.

He had twice tried to commit suicide, first by carbon monoxide poisoning in his car in 1994; secondly in 2000, by an overdose of pills.

Cleveland Police have not ruled out a link between Wright and the murder of Vicky Glass, a factory worker in Teesside, who vanished from Middlesbrough in September 2000, and whose naked body was later found in a brook on the North York Moors.

Wright was convicted in 2001 of theft, having stolen £80 to pay off his debts.

This was his only criminal conviction prior to the murders.

Wright met Pamela Wright (no relation) in 2001 in Felixstowe, and they moved to a house in Ipswich together in 2004.

Wright had always admitted that he used prostitutes and had done so since he was in the Merchant Navy and continually throughout his life.

In Ipswich, he conceded that he went to certain massage and sauna establishments that were actually brothels.

During his trial, Wright stated he had gone to professional prostitutes on many occasions, including three of the murder victims.

In 2002, the police named John Cannan as the man they believed killed Lamplugh.

The killings took place during the final months of 2006 and Wright was found guilty in February 2008.

Wright began having sex with prostitutes again when his partner began working night shifts and their sex life became almost non-existent; he paid at least a dozen women for sex in the final three months of 2006.

Between 30 October and 10 December 2006, Wright murdered five prostitutes in Ipswich.

Forensic evidence led to his arrest on 19 December: tiny flecks of blood were found on the back seats of Wright's Ford Mondeo and partially matched the DNA profile of murder victim Paula Clennell.

Experts have highlighted how it is unlikely for any serial killer to start killing at such a late stage (Wright was 48 years old when the 2006 murders were committed), and that serial killers almost always start killing before their mid 30s.

This indicates that Wright likely killed before in his life, and psychologists told police after the murders that it was 'highly likely' that he had done so.

Wright was found guilty of all five murders on 21 February 2008.

At Ipswich Crown Court the following day, Mr Justice Gross sentenced Wright to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released.

On 19 March 2008, Wright appealed his convictions, but on 2 February 2009, it was announced that Wright had decided to drop the appeal.

Wright is still being investigated in connection with other unsolved murders and disappearances.