Steve Wright, the truck driver accused of killing five prostitutes in 2006 around Ipswich, was found guilty. He will be sentenced Friday and is expected to be given a life term of at least 30 years.

The main elements leading to this verdict were the discovery of the trucker’s DNA on three of the bodies and fibers on all five.

“The scientific evidence proved he was responsible for their deaths,'' said Michael Crimp, senior prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Suffolk.

“One particularly telling piece of evidence was a carpet fiber from the foot well of Steven Wright's car that was found in the hair of Tania Nicol,'' he added.

Wright tried to explain why the blood of two of the victims was on his jacket, but he did not do very well, the prosecutor said.

The corpses of Nicol, 19, Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli Alderton, 24, Annette Nicholls, 29, and Paula Clennell, 24, were discovered in 2006. All of them were left naked. Wright murdered the five prostitutes in a 10-day period shortly before Christmas 2006.
 
“We hope the families can take some comfort from these verdicts,'' Crimp said.

The English city of Ipswich, a town of 140,000 people, is well known for the high number of prostitutes it attracts. Most of them come here because the drugs are cheaper than in most parts of the country according to London-based DrugScope, an organization that researches drug-abuse issues.

The five women went missing between late October and early December 2006. Their cadavers were found one by one between December 2 and December 12, 2006 in isolated locations near Ipswich.

According to Mr. Wright’s account, Miss Alderton's naked body was found in forest near Nacton, Suffolk, on December 10, and Miss Nicholls' corpse was found near Nacton two days later. Both cadavers were purposely left with their arms outstretched in a crucifix pose.