Timeline of Steve Wright's Suffolk murders including Victoria Hall

The trial of Steve Wright was due to get underway at The Old Bailey today into the murder and kidnapping of Victoria Hall in Trimley in 1999.

Within 15 minutes of the start of the hearing, the defendant changed his plea to guilty.

Miss Hall, who was 17 at the time of her disappearance, is the sixth confirmed victim of the 67-year-old.

Here is how events unfolded:

• September 18 1999 (early morning): Wright attempts to abduct 22-year-old Emily Doherty in High Road East, Felixstowe.
• September 18 1999 (night): Victoria, from Trimley St Mary, Suffolk, goes to the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe with her friend Gemma Algar.
• September 19 1999 (around 1am): The friends leave the nightclub.
• September 19 1999 Victoria’s parents wake and discover she has not returned home.
• September 24 1999 Victoria’s body is found in a ditch in Creeting St Peter, around 25 miles from where she was last seen.

Victoria Hall (Image: Newsquest)

• November 13 1999: More than 300 people gather for a memorial service at St Martin’s Church, Trimley.
• September 15 2000: Victoria's parents make a renewed public appeal for help to find 'her killer'.
• November 20 2001: Businessman Adrian Bradshaw, then aged 27, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, is cleared of Victoria's murder at Norwich Crown Court.

The junction in Trimley St Mary, Suffolk, where missing Victoria Hall, 17, was last seen before she vanished on her way home while walking from a nightclub in Felixstowe (Image: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire)

• Autumn 2006: Tania Nicol, 19, vanished from Ipswich's red light area, followed by Gemma Adams, 25, about two weeks later, triggering a major inquiry.
• December 2006: Miss Adams’ body is found in a stream at Hintlesham, followed by the discovery of Miss Nicol’s remains in a pond at Copdock.
• Two days later: The body of Anneli Alderton, 24, is found in woods at Nacton.
• December 12, 2006: The bodies of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, are found near woods at Levington.

• December 19 2006: Steve Wright, then aged 48, is arrested at his home in Ipswich town centre near the red light district.
• February 22 2008: Wright is handed a whole-life order after being found guilty of five Ipswich murders.

Steve Wright was found guilty of murdering five Ipswich sex workers during a killing spree in the town in December 2006 (Image: free)

• February 24 2009: The serial killer loses a Court of Appeal bid to challenge his conviction for the Ipswich murders.
• October 2016: Ten years on from the disappearance of his first Ipswich victim, Wright’s elderly father Conrad Wright calls on his son to confess.

An investigation tent was put in place where the body, believed to be that of the missing teenager, was found (Image: Fiona Hanson/PA Wire)

• September 2019: Suffolk Police say that the Victoria Hall case, known as Operation Avon, is now a live inquiry again, being reinvestigated by a new team of detectives.
• July 2021: Wright is first arrested as part of the inquiry into the teenager's death.
• December 2023: Wright is rearrested.

Steve Wright (Image: Suffolk police)

• May 2024: He is charged with Victoria's kidnap, murder, and the attempted abduction of Emily Doherty. He later pleads not guilty, and the case is transferred to the Old Bailey for trial.
• December 2025: Victoria's mother, Lorinda Hall, dies before ever seeing justice done for her daughter.

The dark vehicle contained a body, believed to be that of missing teenager Victoria Hall, in Creeting St Peter, near Stowmarket (Image: Fiona Hanson/PA Wire)

• January 2026: In legal argument, Wright fails in a bid to prevent jurors in his forthcoming trial from being told about his five murder convictions.
• February 2 2026: On what would have been the first day of the trial, Wright dramatically changes his plea, admitting murder for the first time. He will be sentenced on February 6.