On December 2nd, 2006, the naked body of a woman was discovered in woodland just south of the Suffolk satellite town of Ipswich. Over the next ten days, four further bodies were found. All were naked. All were prostitutes. All had worked in Ipswich's red light district. All five had been strangled.These tragic events caused a local, national and international media explosion. Police were drafted in from forces all over the country in a desperate effort to stop this terrifying serial murderer. The speed of developments stunned everybody, and then Tom Stephens, a 37 year-old supermarket worker from Ipswich who had known all five women and sold his story to a Sunday tabloid newspaper was arrested. Just days later, a 48 year-old forklift truck driver named Steven Wright was taken into custody, forensic teams swooping on his bed-sit in the middle of Ipswich's red light area, all in the full glare of the media spotlight. Wright was charged and remanded in custody to await trial whilst Stephens was bailed. The murders ceased, and the British public felt a collective surge of relief.
The media had named both men, and Wright especially underwent a 'trial by media' even before he was charged.This is the shocking story of the Ipswich Killer. From the discovery of the bodies, the impact on the families of the victims, the biggest police investigation ever mounted in Suffolk, the trial and the verdict, and whether the outcome could have been prejudiced by the naming of the arrested men so early on. This is the story of a series of murders, which produced more fear and terror than any in Britain since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper twenty-five years earlier.