Точка Синхронізації

Convicted serial killer Steve Wright was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years at the Old Bailey in London on Monday, after pleading guilty to the 1999 kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall. The sentencing concludes a decades-long cold case involving the teenager, who vanished while walking home from a nightclub in Felixstowe, Suffolk, nearly 25 years ago. Wright, who is already serving a whole-life tariff for the horrific 2006 Ipswich murders, appeared via video link to face justice for the crime he committed years before his previously known killing spree. Victoria Hall was last seen alive in the early hours of September 19, 1999, after parting ways with a friend just yards from her home. Her body was discovered five days later in a water-filled ditch approximately 25 miles away in Creeting St Peter. The case remained unsolved for over twenty years until a cold case review by Suffolk Police led to a breakthrough in forensic evidence and witness testimony, eventually linking Wright to the disappearance. This new sentence will run alongside his existing life term, ensuring he remains behind his bars for the remainder of his life. During the proceedings, the court heard harrowing victim impact statements from Victoria's family, who described the unbearable agony of two decades without answers. Prosecutors highlighted the predatory nature of the attack, noting that Wright had targeted a vulnerable young woman in the dark. The presiding judge emphasized that while Wright was already serving a life sentence, this specific conviction was necessary to provide official recognition of the gravity of Victoria's murder and to provide her family with a sense of closure that had been denied to them since 1999. Wright's criminal history gained international notoriety in 2006 when he murdered five sex workers—Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, and Annette Nicholls—in Ipswich over a six-week period. The revelation that he was active years prior to those events has prompted investigators to continue reviewing other unsolved cases from the regions where Wright lived and worked. For now, the 40-year minimum term serves as a formal legal denunciation of his earliest known lethal act.