British serial killer Steve Wright has received a 40-year minimum sentence for murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999, a crime he admitted for the first time this week.

Steve Wright, known as the Suffolk strangler, admitted at the Old Bailey that he kidnapped and murdered Victoria Hall in 1999 and attempted to abduct Emily Doherty the night before.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward said Wright had been “on the prowl” in Suffolk during the September weekend of the crimes and remained “undeterred” after Doherty managed to escape him.

Hall disappeared on her way home from a nightclub in Felixstowe, and her body was found five days later in a stream outside the town.

Judge Joel Bennathan told Wright: “For reasons only you know and most people will never start to comprehend, you snatched her away and you crushed that young life.”

He added that the 40-year term would make little difference because “it is well-nigh certain you will die in prison.”

The case closes one of Suffolk’s long unresolved crimes, uncovered decades after Wright was convicted in 2008 of killing five women in Ipswich.

Those victims were found across the town over a 10-day period, two arranged in crucifix positions, in what the court later called “a targeted campaign of murder”. Wright’s whole-life order ensures he will never be released.

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