Suffolk Strangler victim's dad pleas to give murdered teen's family 'peace'
The dad of the Suffolk Strangler’s youngest victim has urged people to come forward with information that could give a murdered teen’s family some answers.
Jim Duell said he shared the pain of Victoria Hall’s loved ones as police probed killer Steve Wright over the 17-year-old’s 1999 murder.
This week, it emerged cold case officers had arrested Wright in prison.
Jim’s daughter Tania Nicol – a 19-year-old sex worker hooked on drugs – was among Wright’s victims. Both Tania and student Victoria were strangled and had their bodies dumped in ditches.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, Jim, 75, said: “I want people to come forward so Victoria’s family can get the peace they deserve. I know the heartache they must be feeling.”
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Wright, 65, who is serving a whole life sentence for the murder of five prostitutes, was originally arrested on suspicion of killing Victoria in July 2021.
But on Thursday, the former forklift truck driver was rearrested and taken to a police station for questioning.
Steve Wright was given a ''whole life'' sentence for the 2006 murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich (PA)
Victoria Hall, aged 17, was last seen alive in the early hours of Sunday 19 September 1999 (Suffolk Police / SWNS)He was released under investigation and returned to Category A HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire.
Victoria, from Trimley St Mary in Suffolk, went missing after a night out with friends in Felixstowe in September 1999. Her body was found in Creeting St Peter, 25 miles away from where she was last seen, five days later.
Wright, who had been living in Trimley St Mary at the time of Victoria’s murder, was jailed in 2008 for the murders of Tania, Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.
The naked bodies of the women, who all worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, were found in isolated locations near the town in December 2006.
Evidence showed they had all been choked or strangled.
Father and mother of murdered prostitute Tania Nicol, Jim Duell and Kerry Nicol, speak to the media in Suffolk's Police headquarters on December 15, 2006 (Getty Images)Former taxi driver Jim said of his daughter: “I knew she was taking drugs, but I didn’t know that she was going on the streets to pay for them.
“I said to her once, ‘The way you’re carrying on, you will end up in an institution, or in jail or you’re going to die’.
“But I didn’t think she’d be killed the way she was. It’s heartbreaking. One day, she just never came back.”
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Jim, who is a practising Christian, has even found the strength to forgive Wright. He said: “We live in a world that has got evil in it… I know that. But I’m not bitter because if I was, then evil would be winning.
“I’ve forgiven Wright. I had to. I knew I had to forgive him because if I didn’t, I would carry that burden.
“It doesn’t put him in the clear because he’s got to face the consequences of what he’s done.
“He’s carried out evil and now he’s in jail. He’s in prison and he’s not coming out.”
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