BRITAIN:The forklift truck driver accused of the serial killing of five young women who worked as prostitutes will not dispute that his DNA was found on their bodies, a court heard yesterday. Neither will Steve Wright (49) call into question fibre evidence linking him to the murders.
Timothy Langdale QC, defending, told the jury that such scientific evidence proved nothing more than that Mr Wright had visited prostitutes. "His case was, he had full sexual intercourse with four of them, either in his car or at home," said Mr Langdale.
The defence case, outlined yesterday, is that Mr Wright "availed himself of the services of prostitutes in the red-light area of Ipswich" in October, November and December 2006. Among them were the women later found murdered - Tania Nicol (19), Gemma Adams (25), Anneli Alderton (24), Annette Nicholls (29), and Paula Clennell (24), whose bodies were found dumped in isolated spots over 10 days in December 2006.
Although Mr Wright picked Ms Nicol up in his car intending to have sex with her he changed his mind and dropped her off, Mr Langdale said.
He told the jury: "The defence challenges the assertion made that these findings suggest he was responsible for their deaths, as opposed to someone who would have had contact with them as prostitutes."
He said: "It is the defence case that the defendant was neither acting alone nor with any other person or persons in connection with the deaths of the victims."
The women had all worked in the red-light district of Ipswich.
Earlier, Ipswich crown court had heard from the prosecution that what drove Mr Wright to his serial murders could remain a mystery. In his second day of opening the case, Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told the jury that blood from Ms Clennell and Ms Nicholls had been found on a reflective jacket owned by the defendant. The jury has heard evidence that Mr Wright's DNA was found on three of the women's bodies. Fibres from his clothes, home and car were found on all five women.
The prosecution described the DNA evidence as painting a "compelling picture of his guilt". The "significant aspect" of the scientific evidence was that Mr Wright's DNA was the "common denominator", found on three of the victims.
While there was DNA from other potential sources, no other person's DNA was found on more than one of the victims. Mr Wright's DNA was found on the bodies of Ms Alderton, Ms Nicholls and Ms Clennell, all of whom were discovered in woodland, the court heard.
The QC said: "It is the prosecution's case that this contact cannot have occurred through the entirely random, coincidental and casual use of prostitutes, each of whom met their death shortly thereafter."
The court heard that the defendant had tried to be "fastidious" about erasing all trace of his connection to the murders. He regularly cleaned his car, sometimes at odd hours and sometimes in the dark, paying particular attention to the wheel arches, it was alleged.
"It is the prosecution case that he may have been careful but he was not careful enough and the fibres linking the defendant with the bodies of each of these five women speaks volumes as to his involvement in their disappearance, their murders and disposal of their bodies," said the prosecutor.
He added that the jury would be driven to conclude that "the common denominator in each of their deaths and the disposal of their bodies was the defendant".
Despite the bodies of Ms Adams and Ms Nicol being decomposed from immersion in water they also bore fibres linked to Mr Wright, the court heard. It was "beyond coincidence" that distinctive fibres found in the hair of Ms Nicol and Ms Adams were also on Mr Wright's clothes and in his home and car.
In particular, a black nylon fibre in Ms Nicol's hair matched the carpet in the passenger side of Mr Wright's Ford Mondeo car.