Long road to justice for family of Victoria Hall

The murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall went unsolved for more than 25 years before Suffolk strangler Steve Wright finally admitted his guilt.

This is how events unfolded.

– September 18 1999

Steve Wright attempts to abduct 22-year-old Emily Doherty in the early hours of the morning along High Road East, Felixstowe.

Victoria, from Trimley St Mary in Suffolk, leaves her home for a night out with her friend Gemma Algar at the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe.

– September 19 1999

The friends leave the nightclub at about 1am, walked back to Trimley St Mary and parted at about 2.20am near to the junction of High Road and Faulkeners Way, where Victoria was just yards away from her home.

When Victoria’s parents woke up that morning and discovered she had not returned home, the police were called and a missing person inquiry began.

– September 24 1999

Victoria’s body is found in a ditch in Creeting St Peter, about 25 miles from where she was last seen.

– November 13 1999

More than 300 people gather for a memorial service at St Martin’s Church, Trimley.

– September 15 2000

Victoria’s parents, Graham and Lorinda Hall, make a renewed public appeal for help to find her killer.

– November 20 2001

Businessman Adrian Bradshaw, then aged 27, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, was cleared of Victoria’s murder at Norwich Crown Court.

– Autumn 2006

Tania Nicol, 19, vanished from Ipswich’s red light area, followed by Gemma Adams, 25, about two weeks later, triggering a major inquiry.

– December 2006

Miss Adams’s body was found in a stream at Hintlesham, followed by the discovery of Miss Nicol’s remains in a pond at Copdock.

Two days later, the body of Anneli Alderton, 24, was found in woods at Nacton, and sex workers in the town were urged to stay off the streets.

On December 12, the bodies of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were found near woods at Levington.

– December 19 2006

Steve Wright, then aged 48, is arrested at his home in the centre of Ipswich near the red light district.

– February 22 2008

Wright is handed a whole-life order after being found guilty of five Ipswich murders.

– February 24 2009

The serial killer loses a Court of Appeal bid to challenge his conviction for the Ipswich murders.

– October 2016

Ten years on from the disappearance of his first Ipswich victim, Wright’s elderly father Conrad Wright calls on his son to confess.

– September 2019

Suffolk Police say that the Victoria Hall case, known as Operation Avon, is now a live inquiry again and being reinvestigated by a new team of detectives.

– July 2021

Wright is first arrested as part of the inquiry into the teenager’s death.

– December 2023

Wright is rearrested.

– May 2024

He is charged with Victoria’s kidnap and murder and the attempted abduction of Ms Doherty. He later pleads not guilty and the case is transferred to the Old Bailey for trial.

– December 2025

Victoria’s mother Lorinda Hall dies before seeing justice done for her daughter.

– January 2026

In legal argument, Wright fails in a bid to prevent jurors in his forthcoming trial being told about his five murder convictions.

– February 2 2026

On what would have been the first day of his trial, Wright dramatically changes his plea and admits murder for the first time. He will be sentenced on February 6.