Читать книгу Cold Blooded Evil - Neil Root - Страница 10

The village of Copdock Mill is just south of Hintlesham, where Gemma Adams was found. The two villages are connected by Belstead Brook, and this waterway runs all the way east to the River Orwell, around 7 (11.3km) away to the south of Ipswich itself. The police were using divers to search Belstead Brook in the hope of finding some of Gemma’s clothing. They were also still looking for Tania Nicol at this time, but did not expect to find her there.

Yet at 11.30am on 8 December they did just that. Close to the business premises of HG Gladwell & Sons, about 1.5 miles (2.4km) downstream from where Gemma had been discovered six days earlier, they found the naked body of Tania Nicol. She was lying in what amounted to little more than a pond. She was formally identified the following day.

The way in which both Gemma and Tania had been left, both naked, and in such close proximity to each other, pointed to the possibility of a serial offender or offenders at work and though the police kept this to themselves, immediate appeals were made for information. Detective Chief Inspector John Quinton said that the two bodies may have been dumped together, but then added: ‘The brook is fast flowing and the most recent body could have been carried from elsewhere.’

Detective Superintendent Andy Henwood said: ‘Enquiries are continuing to try to ascertain where and when Tania’s and Gemma’s bodies were placed in the water and the circumstances of their deaths.’

Again the area was thoroughly searched and the forensic team went to work. The scenes-of-crime officers looked for any microscopic samples of blood, semen, hair and fibres left by the killer. Any such evidence could help to build a DNA profile. In addition, any shoe or tyre prints as well as fingerprints could have been crucial evidence.

The post-mortem on Tania again failed to pinpoint a definite cause of death, and there were no obvious injuries to her body. Nevertheless the forensic team hoped that the toxicology reports would provide some answers.

One factor that the police were very aware of was that the bodies being found in water would affect their chances of getting a solid DNA profile. The water could have destroyed any crucial evidence. The killer might have chosen Belstead Brook as a dumping ground for this very reason. Or perhaps it was just luck. Also, the length of time between the disappearances of the girls and the discovery of their bodies (six weeks in Tania’s case) meant that essential evidence could have been lost or contaminated.

With another stretch of earthy Suffolk countryside sealed off, the local and national reaction began to build. As Sarah Barber, a Copdock sub-postmistress, said: ‘It’s shocking. A lot of children play in the area.’

Though not as shocking as it was for those who knew and loved Tania Nicol.

Tania Nicol came from a far less financially privileged background than Gemma Adams. She grew up on a housing estate on the outskirts of Ipswich, and despite her parents splitting up, she was well loved and had a stable home life. On the night that she disappeared, Monday 30 October, she had left the home on the housing estate she shared with her mother Kerry and fifteen-year-old brother Aaron. Friends were to describe the family as inseparable.

At the age of nineteen, Tania was still little more than a girl when she died. Memories of her held by the people who knew and loved her are touching and reveal a young woman who was excited by music, fashion and hairdressing, a girl with normal interests whose young energy and sense of fun made an impression on all those around her.

Her mother Kerry told the Sun newspaper: ‘We were always together when Tania was growing up. She was a real “girlie” girl, not a tomboy at all. She loved playing in the sand, and we’d take trips to the beach at Felixstowe.’

Almost ten years of age when the all-female pop group the Spice Girls were launched on to the cultural scene in 1996, the young Tania idolised the five singers and dancers who represented ‘girl power’. Like millions of other little girls, Tania was inspired and electrified by their potent energy. One can imagine her singing into her hairbrush in front of the mirror, impersonating her role models, giving her the confidence to express her own identity, which of course was still forming.

While attending Chantry High School in Ipswich, Tania had heartfelt dreams of becoming a pop star like her idols. Her friend since childhood, Susie Coburn, remembered her: ‘A bunch of us used to hang out together, going to each other’s houses and staying over. Tania loved music and when the Spice Girls came out she just loved everything they did. She was obsessed by them and wore Spice Girls earrings. She was always very funny.’

Like many girls, Tania loved to dress up, have her face painted and try out new hairstyles. She began to show a real interest in becoming a hairdresser, a job that needs impeccable social skills as well as technical ability, and Tania definitely possessed the former. She was constantly trying out new hairstyles on her friends. She was a popular student at school, with a very caring personality evidenced by her love of cats.

Tania’s bright and sunny personality seemed set to serve her well in facing life’s ups and downs and her economically tough start had made her a resilient yet sensitive young woman. However, teenage years are times of great change for any child as the adult personality begins to emerge, and in her late teens Tania began to be rebellious.

It started by Tania’s staying out late and sometimes lying to her mother about where she was going and where she had been. After school, a series of poorly paid jobs followed, including one at an Ipswich hotel. The dreams of pop stardom were giving way to the realities of life.

It cannot be said for certain at what age Tania drifted into drug use and prostitution, but it was certainly around this time. It is known that she worked at several massage parlours in Ipswich. The owner of one of the parlours, a woman called Sandra, told the Ipswich Evening Star that Tania had worked for her. Sandra said that Tania’s mother Kerry had previously worked there as a cleaner, but not at the same time that her daughter was offering other services there. Sandra said that in the end she had to ask Tania to leave as she suspected that she was using drugs: ‘She was a placid and quiet girl and took the news that she had to leave very well.’

Holly, a former schoolfriend of Tania, who was working at another massage parlour when she spoke to the same newspaper, was very surprised to find out in April 2006 that Tania was working on the streets. This is of course far more dangerous and less hygienic than working in a parlour. But then perhaps Tania had had little choice because of her drug use. Holly said: ‘It seemed totally out of character for her, she was a truly wonderful girl, so quiet and nice to everyone. She was so pretty and always wore nice clothes.’

It is true that Tania had an almost classical beauty; the long, angular face and dark features with dark eyes and striking black hair are very distinctive in her photographs. The writer Libby Purves has described Tania as looking like a ‘Renaissance angel’. This seems a fitting description.

Although the link between hard drug use and prostitution can be made here, at the time of her disappearance, unlike Gemma Adams, Tania was still living at home. However, her mother and brother had no idea about her activities as a prostitute, and it seems that Tania kept the two parts of her life very separate. Her mother Kerry told the Sun: ‘She got in with the wrong crowd and that should be a warning to anyone. I knew nothing of her secret life until the police told me. I’m finding it hard to come to terms with her getting into cars with strangers. To me and Aaron she was a caring member of our family. Seeing her being labelled a prostitute is horrible and makes her seem like she’s not a person.’

The media loves labels, and most coverage would emphasise the prostitution angle. But to get a true sense of Tania, the online condolence book set up on the website of the Ipswich Evening Star is helpful. Family, friends and acquaintances left messages of affection and loss:

‘I am Tania’s grandmother. Me and my other children are very upset by the news of her death. She was a very beautiful woman and had everything to live for.’

‘Tania was my beautiful niece. She was loved by all our family. I just can’t understand why some evil person would want to hurt her and her friend. I hope the police catch whoever did this soon.’

‘I knew Tania when we were younger, and we had some good times. I remember making up dances with her… She was a beautiful young girl, very smiley, and wouldn’t hurt anyone.’

‘Tania used to braid my hair when I was pregnant. She was so talented. A group of us went on holiday to the New Forest and had such a laugh. She was such an outgoing, loving girl.’

‘I would just like to say how sad it is to hear about Tania. She often walked past my house and she went through school with my daughter of the same age. I did not know her personally but she will be missed. My thoughts are with her family.’

For Tania’s father, Jim Duell, comfort could only come from a higher source. The pure evil that had befallen his daughter could only be rationalised by his Christian beliefs. The religious vision he had had made him sure that God had been with Tania at the end. Mr Duell told BBC Suffolk: ‘In that moment of fear and terror that Tania must have been going through, He intervened.’

Mr Duell turned to the Bible to help console himself and Tania’s friends in church as they prayed for Tania after her body was discovered. He said: ‘I read in John 14 that when Jesus was explaining to his disciples that something was going to happen to Jesus, that he was about to leave them, they couldn’t comprehend that. What he said was, “When I go you will have a helper, the counsellor will come to you. I have to do this in order for you to have this helper – which is the Holy Spirit”.’

Jim Duell related this to Tania’s friends to offer them comfort in their grief and shock. He explained: ‘I wanted to get the message across to all her friends at church that the holy spirit does all the workings on this earth and that Tania was rescued from her own self, and that she’s safe and well.’

In the weeks and months after his daughter’s murder, Mr Duell was able to find solace and emotional support in his faith. He continued: ‘When I became a born-again Christian I was given a peace. I experienced a peace that you can’t get at Tesco, you can’t get it at the Post Office, you can’t get it at the bank. You can’t fill in an application form for it. It’s a peace given by God – as Jesus says “I give to you a peace that the world cannot give”.’

Murder is one of the hardest events that loved ones and friends could ever have to deal with. Whether interpreted as an act of compassionate rescue by God or an act of cold-blooded evil by a killer perhaps does not really matter. The fact is that the murder occurred and the powerful emotions of loss, anger and bitterness have to be dealt with. Getting through it is surely all that is important in the end.

It was becoming clear by this stage that there was a serial element to the murders. Both Gemma Adams and Tania Nicol had been found naked, in the same waterway and geographically close together and neither had any visible external injuries. This is one of the stranger aspects of the killings – they were not bloody or gruesome, but clinical and callous. There was a dark psychopathic edge to them: a total lack of conventional conscience or empathy for other human beings; a cold-blooded detachment. The way in which the victims were dumped, naked to the elements, but lying apparently peacefully, almost as if sleeping, is perhaps just as unsettling as an emotional, frenzied attack.

The fact that Gemma and Tania worked as street prostitutes in the same red light area of Ipswich, knew each other, and perhaps sometimes had the same clients is also revealing. For a murderer with a sexual motive, prostitutes are naturally easy targets. With their professional activities technically illegal in Britain, it is often necessary for street prostitutes to carry out their transactions in secluded, lonely places. Inevitably this compromises them and if a client’s motives are violent or murderous there is little chance of escape or rescue.

Every serial killer has a modus operandi, a way of working, and this particular killer’s method appeared to be highly efficient. When profiling, some experts divide killers into two broad groups based on the killer’s methods and the meticulous analysis of any unusual quirks they may display. Through the way they operate, a killer can reveal a great deal about their personality, needs and motives.

The two general groups into which a killer can be placed first are ‘organised’ or ‘disorganised’. The organised killer will probably have reasonably logical thought processes and show a degree of planning, premeditation or forethought. The disorganised killer is more irregular in his thought processes, is more impulsive and may display more obvious signs of mental illness. He is usually more random in his targets, or perhaps kills in a frenzy, with emotion much more evident in his profile. Sometimes, a killer can fit both of these profiles. The Whitechapel murderer of 1888, ‘Jack the Ripper’, is one such example. Although his murders (of at least five London prostitutes) were carried out in a frenzied way, with much mutilation, there was a method to his particular madness. He removed internal organs from several victims, and did it so expertly that he was thought to have medical knowledge.

The way in which Jack the Ripper chose his targets and knew his murderous patch was also highly organised. He managed to evade capture every time, despite there being a huge police presence on the streets as the terror grew. A disorganised killer would probably have been caught. But the last murder committed by Jack the Ripper, that of Mary Kelly in Miller’s Court, appeared to be very disorganised. The level of frenzy was almost unbelievable and contemporary police photographs of the crime scene reveal a scene of unimaginable horror. This was the only murder he committed indoors, so he had more time to carry out his terrible mutilations, but the escalation of violence suggests that his mind may have given way. This could explain why this was the last murder, if afterwards the killer had either been committed to a mental asylum or had committed suicide.

The modus operandi of the Ipswich killer was of course very different. All of the traits and methods this killer displayed pointed to an organised offender, especially in the disposal of the bodies. Whether he knew the women as a client or stalked and selected them over a period of time was not known. However, a key issue was the long length of time that elapsed between the disappearances of Gemma and Tania and the discovery of their bodies, just over two weeks and five weeks respectively, and this had to be explained. Where had they been in the interim?

It was not known exactly how long the bodies had been in Belstead Brook, but neither of the bodies showed an advanced state of decomposition. Had they been kept alive in captivity before being killed, or murdered immediately and then stored (perhaps in a freezer to preserve the bodies) and dumped later? This could not be ascertained at this stage, but another serial murder case from the past can perhaps offer some insight and throw up some parallels.

The series of murders in question are known as the ‘Jack the Stripper’ murders or the ‘Thames Nude’ murders. They took place between 1959 and 1964, a five-year period. Although this is a far longer time span than that of the Ipswich murders, there are some similarities.

There were eight murders committed by Jack the Stripper in West London and some victims were found in the River Thames. All of the women had been prostitutes and all were found completely naked or almost naked, just as in Ipswich. The key features of the case were that many victims had had some teeth removed by the killer and specks of spray paint were found on some bodies.

It was obvious to the police at the time that the women had not been killed where they were found, but had died somewhere else and then been dumped. But there had to have been a storage place. The spots of paint on some bodies pointed to a paint spray workshop.

Although forensic science was far less advanced at that time than in 2006, it was soon worked out how they had died. The women had died from asphyxiation and this helped to explain the killer’s modus operandi. The prostitutes were almost all picked up in the area of West London between Notting Hill and Hammersmith, and then taken somewhere in a vehicle, probably a van (a white van had been spotted several times by witnesses). The women were probably then asked to perform oral sex on their client. While she was in the necessary crouching position, the killer forced the woman’s head down on to his penis, and she choked, leading to asphyxiation. After that, the victim would then have been taken to a hiding place, probably in or close to a paint spray workshop. There he would force out some of the victim’s teeth and carry out acts of oral rape post-mortem. After his depraved fantasies were satisfied, the body was driven away and dumped.

This is a scenario that could possibly be similar to that of the Ipswich murders. The lack of injuries on both Gemma and Tania pointed to an organised killer who must have had somewhere to take the victims. There are many differences between the two cases – not least the length of time over which the murders were carried out. Those committed by Jack the Stripper spanned years, whereas the Ipswich killings merely weeks. But the parallels are there. In both cases, the victims were prostitutes working the streets. The victims were found naked and with no visible wounds (apart from the teeth extraction in the earlier case). There was undoubtedly a storage place for the bodies before being dumped (and perhaps where other fantasies were carried out) and both cases showed a killer who liked to leave the bodies of his victims in or close to water.

But above all, the earlier case is useful in showing us the temperament of such a killer. Highly organised and efficient, even the teeth extraction carried out by Jack the Stripper can be seen as practical for his terrible purposes. Likewise the Ipswich offender or offenders showed a remarkable coolness and confidence in his modus operandi. It was almost as if the killer was showing how clever he was.

Nobody was ever convicted for the Jack the Stripper murders but the police were sure they knew who the killer was. Their investigation had managed to focus on three main suspects. Then one of the three committed suicide. He was an unmarried security guard who worked at night and whose patrol included a paint spray workshop. The suicide note that he left said that he could not take the strain any more. There were no more murders after that.

But the police investigating the Ipswich murders had none of the benefits of hindsight. They were now almost certain that they were tracking a serial killer or killers who could strike again at any time. This put the inquiry under tremendous time pressure.

The nature of a serial killer inquiry before the offender is caught is a fraught business. The police are thrown into unknown territory, as although much has been learnt from other investigations in Britain and at the FBI base at Quantico, with effective procedures adopted as a result, there is nonetheless no one blueprint for such a killer or killers. Each serial inquiry must be approached on an individual basis. Although the acts committed by the perpetrator may seem inhuman, they were carried out by a human being and people come in all shapes and sizes, just as human nature works in numerous shades of grey.

The logistics of such an investigation are enormously complex in terms of manpower, resources and approach. It is crucial to have a firm hand and a well-defined investigative direction, yet with a degree of flexibility and pragmatism, backed up by the effective use of limited manpower and delegation. Working against a racing clock and with no knowledge of whether tomorrow will unearth another victim, the pressure is unrelenting – and amplified in the 24/7 media age of the twenty-first century.

The Suffolk Constabulary is one of the smallest police forces in Britain, and with the discovery of two victims in six days, the scale of what it would take to apprehend the killer or killers was just dawning. With a working police force of just 1,300 officers, the resources of the Suffolk Police would be greatly stretched. Fortunately help would be forthcoming from other constabularies and Scotland Yard itself.

But it is the unknown that is the most difficult factor for any police force to deal with. In an interview with the author, a local man who has lived in Ipswich all of his life said: ‘It’s off everybody’s radar – you can’t forecast an event like this. You can only prepare for what you know is a day-to-day happening, like, you know, when the football happens, and have extra guys on hand. You can’t legislate for an unknown maniac on the loose. He could strike in any town, or any county.’

Recent serial investigations gave the police skills and pointers in how to approach such an inquiry. The Soham murders of 2002, which took place just over the border in Cambridgeshire, are just such an example. The tragic murders of the little girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman prompted a similarly intensive manhunt before the school caretaker Ian Huntley was arrested, charged and convicted. Likewise, the investigations of the serial murders of Fred and Rosemary West, arrested in the 1990s, provided some procedural approaches.

Technology has advanced such large-scale inquiries a great deal. It has managed to help the police avoid the logistical and administrative errors which, among other factors, allowed the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe to slip through detection nets and continue killing, before he was finally caught in a fateful moment of luck for the police. The use of computers instead of thousands of paper filing cards has solved many such cross-referencing problems. Sutcliffe had been interviewed at least twice during the inquiry, and a computerised system would most probably have exposed the links he had with the inquiry and led to his arrest much more quickly.

Learning from mistakes on previous inquiries and adapting available technology to the needs of the cases were crucial now for the Suffolk Police. All police forces in Britain now use the Murder Investigation Manual, and the first step this illustrates is how to assemble an expert team of analysts. The prioritisation and clarification of information are their task. This information is then entered into a unique and independent database, the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System (HOLMES). This system is a masterpiece of criminal cross-referencing and will expose any relevant links. The use of a computer timeline by the inquiry team allows it to see all the most important pieces of gathered information, and when used with i2 software, trends and themes can be spotted.

In any modern investigation, the work of forensic teams is of course vital. The use of DNA profiles and any other evidence left by the killer is of paramount importance. However, the long delay in the discovery of the bodies of Gemma Adams and Tania Nicol, added to the fact that their bodies were left in water, meant that there was little forensic evidence. Water destroys some forensic traces, and the killer may or may not have known this.

Much is said about the negative implications of our ‘surveillance society’, with its echoes of Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’. Yet it is a fact that CCTV footage and the ability to attain zoomed frames to capture detail are very helpful to any police investigation. Officers were already poring over hours and hours of footage taken in the Ipswich red light district and the surrounding area, and also that from cameras placed on the A14 and A12 roads, the main roads leading to the sites where the women were found.

The use of national databases also enabled the police to locate almost 400 registered sex offenders living in Suffolk. The Soham murders had led to a much more formal way of registering such offenders and this was an obvious starting point for the Suffolk Police. Neither Gemma nor Tania was sexually assaulted and this did confuse the inquiry a little. Nevertheless the fact that they were found naked did point to a sexual motive of some sort. Any other linked attacks documented by other police forces also had to be looked into, in case of any connections with the current cases.

The fact that the murders of Tania and Gemma had occurred so quickly in succession (it appeared that Tania was probably killed first, but found second) was also unusual. Most serial killers leave a long space of time between their first and second murders. This is often largely due to them coming to terms with what they have done and trying to control themselves to stop it happening again. The ones who cannot suppress the murderous urge become serial offenders. But the gap between the virgin kill and the second murder is often many months or years. With the Ipswich murders, it was weeks, with a definite ‘spree’ element, which only heightened police concerns.

This consequently led to informed speculation that these were not the first and second murders committed by the killer. Therefore, earlier unsolved cases were looked into, especially those within a geographical radius or catchment area of Ipswich. Several such unsolved cases were reinvestigated, stretching back as far as 1992.

In 2002, the body of twenty-two-year-old Michelle Bettles was found in Dereham after she vanished from Norwich’s red light district. She had been strangled. In 2000, Kellie Pratt, twenty-nine, disappeared from the same area. She was never found. A year earlier in 1999, seventeen-year-old Vicky Hall, a student, vanished on her way home in Trimley St Mary near Ipswich. Her body was discovered in Stowmarket in Suffolk. A man accused of her murder was acquitted in 2001. In 1993, the body of Mandy Duncan, twenty-six, from Woodbridge, Suffolk, was never found. She had disappeared from the Ipswich red light district. Finally, there was sixteen-year-old Natalie Pearman, whose body was found at a beauty spot outside Norwich in 1992. She had been strangled and had last been seen in the Norwich red light area.

The police stated that they had not managed to find any conclusive evidence to link these earlier crimes with the Ipswich murders yet. However, there are some obvious similarities. The city of Norwich is 43 miles (69km) north of Ipswich and the connection between the two places would later have some significance as the Ipswich nightmare progressed. Had the Ipswich killer struck before? If so, how many times, when and where?

Geographical clues can also provide many leads in profiling such a killer or killers. The world renowned criminal psychologist and profiler Professor David Canter says in his book Mapping Murder: ‘Criminals reveal who they are and where they live not just from how they commit their crimes but also from the locations they choose.’

As both Gemma and Tania were left close to the A14 and A12 roads, this probably had some significance. For this reason, the police were also looking at possible suspects in the towns of Colchester and Felixstowe, which lie at opposite ends of the A14. On the other hand, it could just as well have been a person or persons local to Ipswich who knew the area very well. The bodies were only dumped in Belstead Brook: the actual murders and possibly storage took place somewhere else.

It has to be remembered that much of the police work in such a large investigation is still old-fashioned detective work, and often a sheer grind. In any murder inquiry, the police will primarily look at the victims and the people who surrounded them in life, from family and friends to slight acquaintances. It is a sad fact that the majority of murder victims are killed by people they know. In a serial case, the police have to establish any ‘commonalities’ between the victims also; in other words, all of the links between them. Any common ties between Gemma and Tania, whether it be friends, clients or a drug dealer, were an essential starting point.

The same amount of thorough detective work, appeals and interviews had to be carried out with regard to witnesses. As shown, door-to-door interviews and requests for information, as well as television and other media appeals, are important in such a case. Fellow prostitutes and clients who came forward or were traced were all interviewed. The police needed as coherent and detailed a picture as possible of the two women: their lives, contacts and last movements. This was painstaking work but absolutely crucial, as a tiny fact can lead to an arrest.

In overall command of the Ipswich murders inquiry was the Chief Constable of Suffolk, Alistair McWhirter, now retired from the force. Deputy Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer dealt with operational aspects. But the officer in charge of the inquiry on the ground was Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, a very experienced police officer. He can have had little doubt about the nature of the daunting task he faced, especially as local fears and media interest increased. The spotlight was focusing on Ipswich.

The fact that Tania Nicol had been missing for five weeks had made little impact on the local community despite police appeals throughout November. But the discovery of the body of Gemma Adams on 2 December had increased local concerns about Tania, and the subsequent finding of her body on 8 December changed local perceptions a great deal. In the space of six days, two local women had been found dead, in similar circumstances and in close proximity to each other.

As the Christmas advent calendar windows began to be opened daily and the festive holiday dominated minds, this sudden and unusual darkness began to descend on Ipswich, and a town that was usually only mentioned on a national level in relation to the football scores was thrust into the limelight. No place wants to be famous for the murders that occur there. Infamy of that kind is never welcomed. In a large city, such a case would have made an impact, but perhaps the size of the place and the impersonal hustle and bustle of city life could have absorbed the shock better. There was to be no escape for the people of Ipswich – this fear would seep into the skin of every local person over the next two weeks.

The local media, both television and newspaper, had been following developments since Gemma was discovered on 2 December. But the national media had shown only passing interest until Tania was found on 8 December. Any scent of a serial killer on the loose had woken up the national press and television news networks. Since the highly publicised hunt for the Yorkshire ripper in the late 1970s and early 1980s, serial murder cases have been avidly followed by the British media. The element of suspense and the looming of a dark shadow over ordinary society obviously appeal to both viewers and readers.

The Hollywood film of the early 1990s, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, about a fictional serial killer, helped to cement the concept of the serial murderer in the public consciousness, and since then many other films about real and imaginary serial killers have appeared. In terms of the British media, cases such as the Soham murders, the Fred and Rosemary West murders and the frighteningly prolific killing spree of ‘Dr Death’, Harold Shipman, all attracted huge media interest. And it was now becoming clear that the Ipswich murders would be no different.

The first sign came on the day after Tania’s body was found, when the Sun, Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, put the story on the front page. The headline was ‘New Vice Girl Victim of Ripper’. Continuing inside the paper the story was headed with ‘Prostitutes in Ipswich Fear a Ripper-Style Killer is on the Prowl’. Included in this report on 9 December was an interview with an Ipswich prostitute who did not want to be named. She was quoted as saying: ‘We’re all afraid there’s a maniac on the loose. People feared the worst when Gemma and Tania went missing. Now another body’s been found, that fear has turned to panic.’

At this stage there were still prostitutes working on the streets of the Ipswich red light district, but the tension and fear were obviously growing amongst them. Two of their number going missing was one thing – and frightening enough. But the discovery of the bodies of the two women was something else and it confirmed that the killer was targeting prostitutes.

It could be said that the high profile beginning to be given to the murders by the media was feeding this fear, but on the other hand the public have a right to be kept informed if there is a dangerous killer or killers at large. The target group of prostitutes was of course under the biggest threat, but there was no reason to think that the killer would not choose a non-prostitute victim at some point, just as the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe had done. As a local resident told this author: ‘The worry was that the guy doing this was going to move sideways, from prostitutes – not, I hasten to add that that makes any difference. But if he’s moved away from that focused target to women in general, that was the worry.’

An interesting point is that the national tabloid media liked to call the Ipswich killer the ‘Ripper’ in their reports. In the case of the Sun it was usually the ‘Suffolk Ripper’, whereas the Mirror went with the ‘Ipswich Ripper’. There is obviously a connection with two notorious serial killers from the past, Jack the Ripper and the Yorkshire Ripper, but it must be remembered why these killers got their monikers. Both of them had carried out terrible mutilations on their victims (although both had primarily attacked prostitutes, as in Ipswich) while the Ipswich killer inflicted no visible wounds at all, and certainly did not draw blood. In fact, the Ipswich killer could be noted for the sterility of his murders.

The Ipswich Evening Star used the headline ‘Red Light Murders’ in a clear reference to the town’s red light district, but the fact was that the fear had spread much further than this tiny area. In a report in The Times on 13 December, a lecturer from Suffolk College in Ipswich, which coincidentally Gemma Adams had attended, explained the widespread feeling: ‘Normally it’s hard to keep the girls calm at this time of year. Usually they’d be all excitable about Christmas, partying, wanting to get away and out on the town. We were going to let the girls home early, before dark, but we’ve been told not to. A lot are only sixteen, and parents need to know where they are. A lot are picking them up from the bus stops.’

But the fear and media attention were only just beginning to mount. And just two days after Tania Nicol was found there was yet another tragic discovery, the third in just over a week.