'More likely than not' Wright killed others
Two questions remain about Steve Wright – why did he kill and has he killed before?
Relatives said Wright had a history of depression, had attempted suicide – and “girls upset him”.
Psychiatrist Keith Ashcroft said the spree murders could have been a symptom of manic depression – and added “it’s more likely than not likely” that he has killed in the past.
“He has a significant history of frequenting prostitutes and also a history of suicide attempts,” said Dr Ashcroft, of the Centre for Forensic Neuroscience in Manchester.
“You put that together and it looks like a manic depressive illness. In terms of his murder spree, perhaps it was because of a manic spate. Perhaps he wanted more than just sex.
“It could’ve been a sex game that went wrong for the first one and he decided to do it again and again.
“The fact is he got sloppy in the end. It may be his manic phase had ended and he couldn’t be bothered to prevent getting caught.”
Wright tried to kill himself 12 years ago and then again in 2000, according to his half-brother Keith Wright.
And Wright’s stepmother Valerie Wright said “girls really upset him”.
“He has tried to do himself in a couple of times,” said Mr Wright, a tug boat driver from near Felixstowe, Suffolk.
“In about 1995 or 1996 in Haverhill (Suffolk) they found him in a car down some alleyway. He’d attached a hose to his exhaust.
“In about 2000, after coming back from Thailand, he took an overdose of pills. We went to pick him up from a bedsit in Ipswich.
“I think everything got to him. He went to Thailand and got with some girl who ended up scamming him for everything he had. He got himself into a lot of debt, I suppose he couldn’t find a way out. Everything got to him.”
His stepmother, who also lives near Felixstowe, said: “He was just quiet. He wouldn’t say anything. He never had a temper.
“He was quiet. You could embarrass him and he would go red. Women seemed to upset him. He has been married twice. When he split up with girls he would take it really badly.”
She said he had also been declared bankrupt in recent years after running up debts totalling £30,000 (€39,900).
Five other women have been killed or vanished in East Anglia in the past 16 years.
Detectives have never publicly linked Wright to any of the killings. And relatives of the women said officers have not given them any reason to think that Wright is a suspect.
But police are likely to visit Wright in prison to ask if he has any other unsolved crimes on his conscience.
In 1992, Natalie Pearman, 16, was found strangled after disappearing from the red-light area of Norwich. A year later Mandy Duncan, 26, of Woodbridge, Suffolk, vanished while working as a prostitute in Ipswich. In 2000, Kellie Pratt, 29, disappeared from the red-light area of Norwich. And in 2002 Michelle Bettles, 22, was found strangled three days after disappearing from the red-light area of Norwich.
In 1999 sixth-former Vicky Hall, 17, was found murdered after vanishing near her home in Trimley St Mary, Suffolk. A 27-year-old Felixstowe businessman was accused of her murder but cleared following a trial.
Wright told the court that he had used prostitutes for more than 20 years.
He said he picked up women in the red-light district of Ipswich without his partner Pam Wright knowing.
Wright lived in Norwich in the late 1980s and lived in Felixstowe before moving to Ipswich.
And prostitutes said he regularly travelled from Ipswich to Norwich to pick up vice girls.
“He used to go to Norwich about once a month,” said an Ipswich prostitute called Kelly.
“I have a friend who’s a prostitute in Norwich who slept with him and told me about him.”
Asked whether Wright had killed before, Dr Ashcroft said: “It’s more likely than not likely. It’s very unusual for someone in their 40s to become a spree killer.”
He added: “These people are very careful and methodical. In that sense, they may be able to conceal what they’ve done.”
