Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright has been handed a further life sentence for the murder of Victoria Hall.
After 26 years of never knowing who was responsible for murdering their daughter, the family of Victoria Hall finally have answers.
On Friday afternoon, Mr Justice Bennathan set out that Wright would be given nine years for the attempted kidnap of Emily Doherty to serve concurrently with his sentence, a further 12 for the kidnap of Victoria Hall and imposed life imprisonment for killing the 17-year-old.
The judge said: "Victoria Hall died and Emily Doherty would have done had you been able to carry out your plan.
"Both were young women, alone late at night and therefore you were deliberately targeting a particularly vulnerable victim."
The court heard that part of the sentence was because Miss Hall was two weeks away from her 18th birthday, meaning that her death is considered as the murder of a child.
Judge Brennathan said: "Given your obvious dangerousness and your age, it is extraordinarily unlikely that you would ever be released. Given the sentence already imposed for your other dreadful crimes, it is well-nigh certain you will die in prison."
Mr Justice Bennathan has said that he will not sentence Wright as a serial killer, as "in 1999, you were not yet that" but that his sentence would be more serious due to his convictions for the murder of five women in Ipswich.
A statement from Victoria’s younger brother Steven Hall said: “Time doesn't heal. You just learn to live with it. No matter the sentence, nothing will change the pain we have to live with on a daily basis, the pain he has caused.”
Victoria was 17 years old when she and a friend, Gemma Algar, began their walk from Felixstowe to Trimley in the early hours of September 19, 1999.
It was a path she would have taken countless times before, being the main route taken by Trimley teenagers walking home from the train station or from Orwell High School, where Victoria was studying for her A-Levels.
However, Victoria never made it home. Her family called the police the following morning when they awoke and discovered their daughter was missing.
What followed was a five-day desperate search which caught the attention of both the national and the local press. ‘Find Vicky’ pages from the Evening Star could be seen in many windows, as locals, friends and family of Victoria clung to the desperate hope that she would be found alive.
Five days after Victoria’s disappearance, her naked body was found in a ditch in Creeting St Peter, around 25 miles away from where she was last seen.
An investigation from Suffolk Constabulary did not yield results. Two years later, on November 20, 2001, businessman Adrian Bradshaw was cleared of her murder.
But for five years, all was quiet. It seemed that nobody knew what had happened to Victoria – except for one man.
It was in 2006 that Steve Wright’s murderous nature would resurface and he began his frenzied five-week killing spree which shocked the world.
Steve Wright murdered Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell between October 30 and December 12, 2006.
On Monday, he shocked the world by admitting that he had murdered Victoria Hall, too.
The admission was acknowledged by the judge, who said: "Perhaps the only thing that can be said in your favour is you pleaded guilty.
"Your delaying until almost the day of trial, however, meant that Ms Hall’s mother Lorinda died in December last year, without knowing that her daughter’s killer had finally been brought to justice."
Evidence which would have come out during the trial was read by prosecutor Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC on Friday.
Ms Ledward explained how the account of Emily Doherty had given the police a description of Wright’s vehicle, and a hair taken from Victoria’s body allowed the police to build up a DNA profile, linking Wright to the scene.
However, the actions of Suffolk Constabulary were questioned.
An account from Emily Doherty was read out, describing how Wright attempted to kidnap her the night before Victoria was murdered.
Ms Doherty had been making her way home from a night at the Bandbox when she found herself alone in the Trimley high road. She then saw a dark-coloured car with the driver’s door open but the engine still running.
A man we now know to be Wright approached Ms Doherty and said, “Alright” in “a very menacing way”.
“I knew I was in trouble. I had never been so scared in my life,” said Ms Doherty.
"I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest. I had never run so fast or jumped over walls.”
Wright only drove away after Ms Doherty pounded on the several doors and a couple let her in.
The police were called – but they told the homeowners “rather dismissively” that Ms Doherty was probably just “looking for a lift home” and told Ms Doherty just to “forget about it”, the court heard.
Ms Doherty went on her honeymoon to India the following day, but was asked to provide some further information after Victoria’s disappearance.
She did not give a formal statement until 2021.
“To this day I am furious,” Ms Doherty said. “I wasn't taken seriously. I was made to feel like a silly little girl."
Statements were also read by Victoria’s family, with Steven Hall speaking on behalf of his father, Graham.
“I miss Victoria every day and will do for the rest of my life,” Graham Hall said.
“In 1999, we were a normal family - and then Steve Wright came along. The pain of that week will be with us forever.
“Steve Wright robbed us of seeing Victoria turn into a woman.
“Our son, Steven, has been a rock over the last 27 years. This is the end of the police involvement. But it will never be over for us.”
Steven Hall told the court his family “was forced into an exclusive club that nobody wants to be a part of.
"Myself, my mum and our dad had our whole world turned upside down.”
He said Victoria should have been allowed to experience university, marriage and children, chances she was robbed of by Wright.
“It’s an unbearable pain to know that my mum and dad never got to see her do any of these things,” he said.
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