Suffolk strangler Steve Wright changed his plea to guilty and admitted to kidnapping and killing 17-year-old Victoria Hall as well as the attempted kidnap of then 22-year-old Emily Doherty
12:00, 02 Feb 2026Updated 12:05, 02 Feb 2026
Steve Wright admitted to killing Victoria Hall (Image: PA)
Suffolk strangler Steve Wright’s creepy smiley mugshot has been released with the killer being seen for the first time in about 18 years.
The mugshot was released after Wright, 67, pleaded guilty to killing 17-year-old Victoria Hall, who vanished more than 25 years ago. Wright, formerly of London Road, Ipswich, dramatically changed his plea on Monday and admitted to kidnapping Victoria “by force or fraud” as well as for her September 19, 1999, murder.
He also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of Emily Doherty, then 22, in Felixstowe the previous day. It is the first time Wright admitted to the killings, despite pleas from his family to come clean. Balding Wright’s mugshot was released following the guilty plea.
He had appeared at the Old Bailey in a navy and grey jumper, and spoke only to confirm his name and enter pleas.
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A new mugshot of Steve Wright showed the killer 20 years after his first police photo(Image: PA)
Mr Justice Bennathan said he would sentence the defendant on Friday to give Ms Hall’s family the chance to attend and submit victim impact statements. Prosecutor Jocelynn Ledward KC confirmed Ms Hall’s friend Gemma Algar and Ms Doherty would also submit statements.
Former merchant seaman Wright, who is being held at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, is already serving a whole life prison sentence for the murders of five women seven years after Victoria was killed.
Victoria was kidnapped by Steve Wright on September 19, 1999(Image: PA)
The guilty pleas come after Mr Justice Bennathan ruled that jurors in his trial could be told of the murder convictions, despite his defence complaining the prejudice would be too great.
In legal argument last month, the prosecution highlighted similarities between the murders, pointing out that all six women were asphyxiated and left in similar places and that they shared a physical type. The prosecution also argued for the trial to include evidence of a sex worker that Wright knew well who would say he was familiar with the area linked to Victoria’s murder.
Victoria vanished in September 1999(Image: PA)
Victoria, from Trimley St Mary in Suffolk, had left her home on the evening of September 18 1999 for a night-out with her friend Ms Algar at the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe. Five days later her body was found in a ditch in Creeting St Peter, around 25 miles from where she was last seen.
Sixth-former Victoria had been hoping to study sociology at university in Roehampton, Surrey, before she was killed.