Steve Wright due in court charged with murder of Victoria Hall

Steve Wright is due to appear in court, charged with the murder and kidnap of a 17-year-old girl in 1999.

Victoria Hall’s body was found in a ditch about 25 miles (40km) from where she was last seen alive in High Road, Trimley St Mary, Suffolk, on 19 September that year.

Mr Wright, 66, previously of London Road, Ipswich, has also been charged with the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the previous night.

He will appear before Ipswich Magistrates’ Court via a video link later, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Suffolk Police said Victoria was just yards away from her home when she disappeared.

She had been at Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe with a friend, who she parted ways with at about 02:20 BST.

When Victoria’s parents woke up, they found she had not returned home and called the police.

Five days into searches for her, Victoria’s naked body was found by a dog walker in a ditch beside a field on Creeting Lane, Creeting St Peter.

Mr Wright, a former forklift truck driver, has also been charged with one count of attempted kidnap in connection with a separate incident the night before Victoria’s disappearance.

A 22-year-old woman reported that a man approached and followed her between 03:00 and 04:00 on 18 September 1999 in High Road East, Felixstowe.

The charges followed police announcing they would be fully reinvestigating the case with new detectives in September 2019.