'Serial killer Steve Wright followed me before he murdered'

A woman who was followed by serial killer Steve Wright days before he went on to murder 17-year-old Victoria Hall believes he was also attempting to kidnap her.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she had been on a night out with friends in Felixstowe, Suffolk, on 16 September 1999, when they were followed by a man.

They were able to get a good look at the man before fleeing and when Wright was later convicted for five murders in Ipswich in 2008, they were sure he was their stalker.

The 67-year-old attempted to kidnap 22-year-old Emily Doherty the day after they believe he had stalked them. And the day after that, he kidnapped and murdered Victoria.

The woman, who was 18 at the time, had tried to visit the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe with friends.

It was closed for a private event and the group decided to make their way home at about midnight.

But it was at this point, she says, they saw a man sitting on a bench opposite watching them.

"He had a hood covering him, it was a bit strange and it looked a bit unusual," she explains.

"We started walking up into town and he started following up on the other side of the road."

As the group continued to walk, so did the man, stopping when they did at various points and making it "obvious" he was following them.

He did eventually disappear, so when they approached the spot where they would usually separate near the Orwell Hotel on High Road East, they checked the area to ensure he had definitely gone.

"I sort of creeped around the corner, subtly, quietly creeping and then he jumped out from behind somewhere and he was right there," the woman continues.

"I screamed and ran back."

The group fled and found a taxi to take them to one of their homes together.

Despite the encounter, at the time the woman said they were not particularly scared and it was a route she often walked on her own.

Just two days later when Victoria then went missing after also being on a night out in Felixstowe, the woman says her and her friends reported what happened to the police, believing they could be linked.

The woman says officers followed up with her friends, but she never spoke with police as she had moved away for university by then.

Victoria's body was found five days after she disappeared in a water-filled ditch in Creeting St Peter, about 25 miles (40km) away from where she was last seen.

Years went by before Wright was then charged with murdering five women in and around Ipswich in 2006.

The woman says it was at this moment that her and her friends realised it was the same man who had followed them, which she says felt "weird" to know.

Wright was later found guilty of the murders and given a whole-life prison sentence in 2008.

Eleven years later, Suffolk Police reopened its investigation into Victoria's murder on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance.

The woman says she contacted police thinking she could potentially help, but says it was not followed up.

Wright was charged with Victoria's murder and kidnap in 2024 and at the same time charged with attempting to kidnap Emily.

Emily had similarly been walking home from a Felixstowe nightclub in the early hours of 18 September 1999 when a man attempted to snatch her.

The police have yet to say when this was first reported and if they acted on the information.

It is not clear when Emily's attempted kidnap was first linked to Victoria's case.

Wright admitted the charges at a hearing at the Old Bailey in London on Monday.

The woman says it has left her reflecting on what happened to her and Wright's actions that night.

"I think he was just looking at which way did people go home? Did they separate? He was getting a picture of people's behaviour."

She adds: "In the grand scheme of things, it was such a minor half an hour of my life that any other time you wouldn't think anything of.

"We always thought it was him and it was the same person who took Vicky.

"Then to hear that he was actually up High Road East when he tried to abduct the girl on the Friday, that was the way I walked.

"Over all those years, I'd never thought it might have been me until that point because it was all out Trimley way."

She believes Wright is behind other crimes, but police are yet to say if they are considering him as a suspect in other cases.

Wright will be sentenced at the Old Bailey later. Suffolk Police was approached, but said it would not comment until after Wright's sentencing.

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