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Steve Wright, the Suffolk serial killer, will spend the rest of his life in jail.
After “the Ipswich murderer” - as some labeled him- was found guilty of killing five prostitutes on the outskirts of the English town. Judge Mr. Justice Gross ruled that the 49-year-old forklift truck driver deserves to serve a whole life term and never be released.
The murders Wright committed terrified the Suffolk town and led to one of the biggest police investigations in the United Kingdom.
Gross said: "It is right you should spend your whole life in prison. This was a targeted campaign of murder", The Guardian reported on its website. The judge added that a life sentence was mandatory but he had to decide only whether he should be eligible for parole or not.
"I must pass a sentence which meets the justice of the case," he said. "In my judgment upon reflection it must be a whole life term."
Gross said the case met all the legal requirements for a whole life sentence to be given due to the fact that the murders involved a "substantial degree of pre-meditation and planning".
The main elements which led to Wright’s verdict were the discovery of the trucker’s DNA on three of the bodies and fibers on all five.
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.
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.
"Drugs and prostitution meant they were at risk. But neither drugs nor prostitution killed them. You did,” said Gross. "You killed them, stripped them and left them... why you did it may never be known."
Wright's brother David and his sister Jeanette were present and wept throughout the trial. Although the Ipswich crown court was packed with relatives of the victims, there was no reaction from their part.
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