Retired police officer Chris Clark is convinced the Suffolk Strangler murdered women when travelling the world as a steward on the QE2 cruise liner between 1982 and 1986
Serial killer Steve Wright likely has more victims abroad, a former police intelligence officer fears.
Retired PC Chris Clark is convinced the Suffolk Strangler murdered women when travelling the world as a steward on the QE2 cruise liner. Clark, 80, is penning a book on the monster and has written to forces across the globe urging them to identify cold cases with possible links to Wright.
He told us: “Serial killers normally start offending in their late teens. Wright was 34 when his first known offence took place in 1992 – so there has got to be other victims prior to that date. Wright joined the QE2 in 1982 aged just 24, so he would have been at the peak of his desire.
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“We know that when he was on shore leave he was seeking out young women. Some of his former colleagues have said he always wanted to go to the areas with brothels and wasn’t interested in visiting tourist attractions. They would dock for one to two days at a time so if there was a victim, they wouldn’t be found until the ship had sailed and no one would make the connection to Wright – he had the perfect get out.”
Clark spoke days after Wright was handed another life sentence for the abduction and murder of Suffolk schoolgirl Victoria Hall in 1999. Convinced this was not Wright’s first murder, Clark, with the help of co-author Tim Hicks, got hold of the QE2’s itinerary for the dates he was on board and emailed the law enforcement agencies in each location they docked.
“Tim has emailed agencies in over 100 different destinations because Wright visited virtually the whole world – from North and South America, New Zealand and Australia to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and beyond,” he said. “And prior to this, after leaving school, he got a job with North Sea ferries going to Zeebrugge, Rotterdam and the other low country ports, so we feel there may be undiscovered victims there too.”
During his 2006 trial for murdering five women in Ipswich, a clip emerged on popular TV show Whicker’s World appearing to show Wright with his arms draped around a woman in the red light area of Pattaya, Thailand. Clark believes more victims would have been found had the police taken the clip and other evidence more seriously.
He added: “Suffolk police should have realised there were victims precluding the five women found in Ipswich and should have put more energy into looking into places they knew Wright had visited. [Instead] they rested on their laurels and there was a lot of self congratulation. They didn’t do the groundwork and didn’t actually delve deep enough backwards.”
Wright, 67, terrorised Suffolk in 2006 when he abducted and murdered Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls in Ipswich. He was handed a full life jail term in 2008.
A fortnight ago, the monster confessed to the murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall near Felixstowe, Suffolk, in 1999. He was sentenced to an additional 40 years for the murder along with concurrent terms of 12 years for her kidnap and nine years for the attempted kidnapping of Emily Doherty.
This week the Mirror told how Wright’s ex-wife urged him to ‘tell the truth’ over his link to missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh. Diane Cole, 71, said she was “haunted” by fears the ‘Suffolk Strangler’ may have killed the missing estate agent 40 years ago.
The Mirror revealed how detectives from the cold case homicide unit are carrying out a review of ‘Operation Phoebus,’ the original investigation into Suzy’s disappearance and are probing links with Wright. Di says she has always been convinced he is behind even more murders than the six women he is behind bars for killing.
The Met Police are now looking at Wright’s encounters with Suzy when they were working on the QE2 together. Di, who met Wright on the luxury liner, said Suzy was a “real beauty” who the men “flocked round”. Reacting to news the police will look at Wright’s bizarre connection with Suzy, she said: “I’m so pleased. Her disappearance has always haunted me. We need answers.”
Clark’s book, Serial Killer: Inside the mind of Steve Wright the Suffolk Strangler , is set to be published this summer.
