Steve Wright given 40 years for Victoria Hall murder
Laura Devlin
Fri, February 6, 2026 at 4:19 PM UTC
4 min read
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Serial killer Steve Wright has been sentenced to 40 years for the kidnap and murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall, and the attempted kidnap of another woman, more than 25 years ago.
The 67-year-old, who is already serving a whole life term for the murder of five women in and around Ipswich in 2006, had been "on the prowl" in Felixstowe, Suffolk, in September 1999, the Old Bailey was told.
Wright attempted to kidnap 22-year-old Emily Doherty and, the night after, kidnapped and killed Victoria, whose naked body was found in a ditch five days later.
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Sentencing him, Mr Justice Bennathan said: "For reasons only you know, you snatched her away and you crushed that young life."
He said the term he imposed would "almost certainly make no difference", given Wright's whole life order, but he nonetheless felt it was his duty to decide on a proper sentence, knowing it "could never heal the bereaved family's loss and grief".
Wright had been expected to stand trial later this year but admitted all charges on Monday - the first time he had publicly admitted any murder.
On Saturday 19 September, Victoria had had a drink and a dance with her friend, Gemma Algar, at the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe, before they both walked home to Trimley St Mary at 01:00 BST.
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"They parted company quite close to their homes and that's the last time anyone - apart from you - saw Victoria Hall alive," the judge told Wright.
Gemma and various neighbours reported hearing two high-pitched screams, with others detecting a car driving off at speed.
Five days later, Victoria's body was found in Creeting St Peter, about 25 miles (40km) away.
Expert evidence showed she had been asphyxiated within an hour or two of being abducted.
The fact she was naked and DNA swabs taken from her body "showed you not only abducted and murdered that child, you also raped or sexually assaulted her", the judge told Wright.
On 18 September, the night before Victoria's abduction, Doherty had been at the same club when she became separated from her friends and husband and decided to set off to where she was staying.
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"You tried to kidnap her but she was too alert and too quick and escaped, managing to rouse a couple by banging on their front door, who then called police," the judge told Wright.
"I am sure that if you had managed to abduct her you would have killed her.
"That is a dreadful thing to conclude, but I do so based on what you did the next night, what you did in 2006, and on the simple fact Miss Doherty had seen your face and your car's numberplate.
"There is no way you would have set her free to have you arrested."
Wright, wearing a grey sweatshirt and trousers, showed no emotion, even as Victoria's brother, Steven - who also spoke on behalf of his father - and Gemma, cried while detailing what his actions have done to them.
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Doherty had been left with lifelong anxieties and by a sense of guilt, "blaming herself - absolutely wrongly - for not being more insistent that police at the time did not take her case more seriously," the judge said.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: "I have never been so scared in my life. I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest.
"I had never ran so fast or jumped over walls like that."
She said police made no notes of what she said, and did not believe her, questioned how much she had drunk.
"To this day I am furious," she added.
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"I wasn't taken serious. I was made to feel like a silly little girl.
"They told me to forget all about it."
The judge said Wright's delayed guilty plea meant that Victoria's mother, Lorinda, died in December "without knowing her daughter's killer had been finally brought to justice".
Imposing a 40-year sentence, he said: "Even if this were your only life sentence, given your obvious dangerousness and your age, it is extraordinarily unlikely you would ever be released.
"Given the sentence already imposed for your other dreadful crimes, it is well nigh certain you will die in prison."
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