CCTV captured the moment 17-year-old Victoria Hall left a nightclub – an hour before she was raped, murdered and dumped in a ditch by serial killer Steve Wright.
Wright was today jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years after he admitted to the brutal killing on September 19, 1999 in a village on the outskirts of Felixstowe.
The 67-year-old, dubbed the Suffolk Strangler, would go on to murder five sex workers in Ipswich’s red-light district seven years later – with their bodies found over a 10-day period in December, 2006.
Newly released footage has now traced Ms Hall’s last moments more than 25 years ago – as she walked out of the Bandbox nightclub in the early hours of the morning.
Ms Hall can be seen making her way down the steps of the nightclub, at around 1am, with her hair tied up in a bun. She glances behind before disappearing out of view – unaware of the danger that shortly awaits her.
The Old Bailey was told the teenager may have died within an hour of being abducted by Wright after she was last seen alive at 2.20am.
Her mother knew something was ‘badly wrong’ upon discovering her daughter was not at home at 8.20am that morning.
The prosecution said the family were caused ‘untold distress’, adding: ‘Mrs Hall knew that something had happened to her daughter. It took five agonising days for her worst fears to be confirmed.’
CCTV captured the moment 17-year-old Victoria Hall left the Bandbox nightclub – an hour before she was raped, murdered and dumped in a ditch by serial killer Steve Wright
Ms Hall can be seen making her way down the steps of the nightclub with her hair tied up in a bun
Miss Hall vanished on her way home from a nightclub in September 1999. Newly released footage has now traced her last moments more than 25 years ago
Serial killer Steve Wright pleaded guilty to murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999. Seven years later he would murder five other women
Ms Hall was snatched following a night out with her friend Gemma Algar.
The two girls had bought a bag of crisps and were singing as they walked two miles back to their homes.
At around 2.20am they parted ways with Victoria saying: ‘I’ll ring you when I get up tomorrow’. Ms Algar replied: ‘You’ll hear me saying “ouch” as I walk home.’
Ms Algar heard ‘two female high-pitched screams’ as Victoria was snatched by Wright and bundled into his burgundy Ford Granada Scorpio car.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC told the court that having adbucted Victoria, Wright murdered her and sexually violated her.
She said he then ‘callously discarded her body, stripped naked of everything except for her jewellery’, in a farm ditch some 25 miles away, ‘as if she were no more important than a disposable commodity’.
Wright then returned to his work at the Felixstowe docks ‘as if nothing had happened’, Ms Ledward said.
In the weeks after the murder, the sexual predator sold his car and went off sick from work.
Pictured: Ms Hall’s parents, Graham and Lorinda, after their daughter disappeared in 1999
Victoria’s parents Graham and Lorinda Hall, pictured, had to wait decades for justice. Tragically Lorinda died in December weeks before Wright’s trial was due to take place
Lorinda Hall passed away at the age of 70 just weeks before the trial of her daughter’s killer was due to begin
Graham Hall, the father Victoria Hall, is pictured speaking outside the Old Bailey today following the sentencing of Steve Wright
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He took out a £5,000 loan and made preparations to leave the country, getting vaccinations and a visa so he could travel to Thailand in November 1999.
But he returned to the UK in January 2000 when police started investigating a local businessman.
Adrian Bradshaw, who happened to be in the same nightclub as Ms Hall, was wrongly prosecuted for her murder, but was acquitted in 2001.
A day before the attack, Wright had followed newlywed Emily Doherty, 22, who he no doubt also intended to kill, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan said.
Earlier this week, as his trial for Ms Hall’s murder was due to begin, Wright dramatically confessed, also pleading guilty to the attempted kidnap of Ms Doherty.
The confession was the first time that Wright, who is one of Britain’s most notorious killers, had ever admitted responsibility for any of his crimes.
Mr Justice Bennathan sentenced Wright at the Old Bailey to life in prison with a minimum term of 40 years.
He told Wright: ‘Victoria Hall was a typical, bright, lively teenager.
Anneli Alderton, pictured left, and Tania Nicol, right, were sex workers also killed in the attacks
In a six-week frenzy in 2006, former QE2 steward Wright went on the rampage, also killing Annette Nicholls, pictured left, and Paula Clennell, right
Gemma Adams, then 25, pictured, was one of the victims of Wright’s murder spree in Ipswich’s red-light district in 2006
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‘For reasons only you know, and most people will never start to comprehend, you snatched Victoria away and you crushed her young life.’
No life sentence could ever make up for the ‘loss and grief’ suffered by Victoria’s family, the senior judge said.
However, the judge said it was ‘extraordinarily unlikely’ Wright would ever be released from prison.
He told Wright: ‘Given the sentence from your other dreadful crimes, it is almost certain you will die in prison.’
Wright appeared to give a slight shrug and smile as he was sent down from the dock.
In a victim impact statement read to court, Ms Doherty said she was ‘furious’ that police treated her like a ‘silly little girl’ and did not take her report of the attempted kidnap seriously at the time.
She said: ‘For 25 years, I have wondered what if. What if they had taken my statement, could Victoria still be alive right now?’
The court was told a decision would be made after the hearing on the ‘format and ambit’ of any inquiry into Suffolk Police alleged ‘missed opportunities’.
Wright was never arrested or interviewed following Ms Hall’s murder because bungling officers spent £2m prosecuting the wrong man (pictured: Ms Hall in a 1999 handout photo)
Ms Hall’s body was found five days after she disappeared, 25 miles away
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On September 24, Victoria was found by a dog walker near Creeting St Peter, some 25 miles away from her home.
The man’s dog drew his attention to what appeared to be a ‘life sized rubber doll’ in a ditch.
The way Victoria was left had caused ‘untold’ distress to her family, including for her mother Lorinda who died in December, before Wright was brought to justice, the court was told.
Ms Doherty’s later description of her attacker’s car later led police to identify 56 vehicles, with Wright’s among them.
After the discovery of her body, Wright reported an injury at work, sold his Ford Granada Scorpio, and lay low in Thailand.
The following year, a wholly innocent 25-year-old businessman was accused of Victoria’s murder and was acquitted by a jury.
In 2001, Wright was charged with a series of thefts, which he admitted, and his conviction led to his DNA being added to the national database, eventually leading to his identification as a suspect in the Ipswich murders.
The court was told Wright was given a caution in 1995 for allegedly damaging and stealing a former partner’s car but no DNA sample was taken.
In 2019 cold case officers took a fresh look at the investigation
Ms Hall’s parents had expected her to take a taxi home on the night but she ran out of money
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In 2006, Wright murdered five more women in Ipswich, where he was living at the time and disposed of their bodies in a way similar to Victoria’s.
He was arrested over her death in 2021, two years after Suffolk Police announced it was a live inquiry again.
More advanced DNA analysis of swabs taken from Victoria’s body linked Wright to her murder.
Days before his scheduled trial, Wright’s legal team failed in a bid to bar jurors from being told of his five murder convictions.
Victoria’s brother, Steven Hall, who was aged 15 when his sister was killed, told the court: ‘It has been 26 years but time doesn’t heal, you just have to learn to live with it.’
His father, Graham Hall, said in his statement: ‘In 1999 we were a normal family and then Steve Wright came along and took Victoria from us.
‘The pain of the week that followed will be with us forever.
‘Steve Wright robbed us of seeing Victoria grow into a woman, fulfil her dream of going to university, get married and have children, our grandchildren.
Wright pictured in a court drawing on Monday. It is the first time that one of Britain’s most notorious killers has admitted responsibility for any of his crimes
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‘I miss Victoria every day and will do for the rest of my life.’
Samantha Woolley, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Wright represented ‘the very worst of humanity’.
She said: ‘Justice has finally been achieved for Victoria Hall after 26 years.
‘Our case was bolstered by critical DNA evidence made possible because of pioneering new forensic techniques – along with a wealth of other evidence which gave him little choice but to plead guilty.
‘Much attention will be made of Steve Wright being convicted of another murder, attention he does not deserve. Quite simply, he represents the very worst of humanity and I hope he will now be forgotten.’
