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Man held over U.K. serial killings

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: A supermarket worker, who sought out media attention, has been arrested in connection with the sensational murders of five young women, whose bodies were found between December 2 and 13 in different rural locations around Ipswich, a small town in East England. The murders sparked a nationwide hunt for the killer.

Tom Stephens (37), was arrested at his home in the village of Trimley St Martin — not far from Ipswich — on Monday morning, a day after he gave an interview to a newspaper saying that he knew all the girls well though he denied that he had anything to do with their murders.

Police declined to give further details, saying that a man had been arrested on the "suspicion of murdering all five women'' — Gemma Adams (25); Tania Nicol (19); Anneli Alderton (24); a single mother; Annette Nicholls (29); and Paula Clennell (24).

Shocked nation

All five earned their living walking the streets of Ipswich and their naked bodies were found days after they went missing one after another.

The case has shocked the nation and led to calls for legalising prostitution so that sex-workers are not forced to walk the streets, putting their lives at risk.

Barely 24 hours before his arrest, Mr Stephens told The Sunday Mirror:

"I'm a friend of all the girls. I was closest to Tania. And Gemma as well. I was close to others as well.''

He admitted that he fitted the profile of the suspected killer and that he did not have alibis for "some of the times''.

He said: "From the police profiling it does look like me — white male between 25 and 40, knows the area, works strange hours. The bodies have got close to my house. If new information, coincidental information, crops up, I could get arrested," he said. While protesting his innocence, he added: "I don't have alibis for some of the times — actually I'm not entirely sure I have tight alibis for any of the times. But I'm not worried about being charged — I'm innocent."

The killings have revived memories of Jack the Ripper who struck in the red light area of East London in the summer of 1888, and the Yorkshire Ripper who murdered a number of sex workers in Yorkshire in the 1970s and early 1980s.

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