'I always felt Steve Wright was my daughter's killer'

Victoria Hall's father has revealed he always "had a feeling" his daughter's killer was convicted murderer Steve Wright.

In 1999, 17-year-old Victoria from Trimley St Mary, Suffolk, had been in the final year of her A-levels with the hope to go to university.

But on a night out with her best friend in Felixstowe, she was kidnapped and murdered by dock worker Wright.

The 67-year-old, already jailed for life in 2008 for killing five women in the Ipswich area, was sentenced to life again at the Old Bailey in London on Friday.

Graham Hall told the BBC how he had suspicions about Wright who was arrested in July 2021 on suspicion of murdering Victoria.

"I wasn't totally shocked", he says of being told by detectives that Wright was a suspect after the case was reopened in 2019.

"I'd always had this feeling that it was Steve Wright, I don't know why, but perhaps it's similarities to the other [murdered Ipswich] girls.

"But I always had this feeling that it would come back to Steve Wright in the end."

He added: "It seemed the inevitable conclusion."

On 19 September 1999, Victoria disappeared after a night out in Felixstowe with her best friend.

Her naked body was found five days later in a water-filled ditch near Creeting St Peter, about 25 miles (40km) away.

While a man was initially tried for her murder in 2001, he was found not guilty by a jury, and Victoria's family would endure years of no answers.

In 2019, Suffolk Police reopened the investigation before Wright was charged with her murder and kidnap in 2024.

He was also charged with the attempted kidnap of 22-year-old Emily Doherty the night before Victoria in 1999.

Initially he pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea on the day his trial was due to start on 2 February.

During his sentencing, the court was told new DNA testing helped link Wright to Victoria's murder and new CCTV was revealed that showed him in a petrol station near to where he dumped her body.

In December 2006, Wright also murdered Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls, Paula Clennell and Gemma Adams. All five were sex workers in Ipswich.

Graham, as well as his son and Victoria's brother, Steven Hall, say Victoria was a typical teenager.

"She was looking forward to going to university, she liked to do dance and sing, she did shows," Graham says.

"She was just a happy-go-lucky girl, looking forward to life."

Steven jokes his sister did "annoy me".

"She was just a typical older sister to me. She just put her everything into everything."

The family do believe Wright could feel their pain in court during his sentencing.

"I looked at him; I honestly do think he felt it," Graham, who still lives in the Trimley area, continues.

"When he first went in, he looked straight ahead, but a lot of the time his head was down.

"I think he did feel the pain.

"I don't think for one minute that it wasn't self-motivated why he wanted to plead guilty."

The father and son say what happened to Victoria also changed them in various ways.

"It changes everything... it changes the way you talk to people and the way people talk to you," Steven explains.

"My little girl's nine and I know I'm going to be a nightmare dad when she's a teenager.

"They've asked about Victoria so many times, because obviously we talk about it, we don't not talk about it, we don't like to ignore the fact that Victoria's not here anymore, so we do talk about it, and my kids know everything.

"They ask about Victoria quite regularly, especially my little girl, she does ask quite a lot, and she's gutted, she's never got to meet her.

"They were robbed of an auntie, as simple as that really," he says.

Graham adds that he and Victoria's mother Lorinda, who passed away in December, "were robbed of a potential grandchildren".

Lorinda died before Wright changed his plea, but the family say she also believed he was behind her daughter's killing.

The family are happy justice has been served and Graham says he is happy with the judge's remarks on Friday where Wright was told "it is well nigh certain you will die in prison".

The father and son say they are now focusing on the future and do not wish to give any more thought toward Wright.

"It's been 26 years," Steven says. "The anger, it's not gone, it's not closure for us.

"It's just one part done, so the anger is different.

"We've learned to live with the anger. You learn to live, because if you don't, you stop.

"We have to carry on, we've still got family.

"Me and dad are there for each other. We've got lots of family around us, so we have to carry on.

"It's not about [Wright]; he's done what he's done," he says.

Graham adds: "I don't think about Steve Wright anymore, it's done.

"He can sit in prison and rot really. I hope he's not too comfortable in there, but there we go."

Additional reporting by Jo Black.

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