Anneli’s fatal final journey

Jan 29 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MURDER victim Anneli Alderton was captured on CCTV, heading for a fateful date with a killer.

Footage of the former Huddersfield prostitute’s final hours was shown to a murder trial yesterday.

And the jury was told how it showed Miss Alderton on her final train journey before she was murdered.

The evidence came at the start of the second week of the trial of Steve Wright, accused of murdering Miss Alderton – who used to live at Primrose Hill – and four other prostitutes in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Police also suspect that one of five murdered prostitutes got into a car with a forklift truck driver on the night she vanished, the jury was told.

Jurors at Ipswich Crown Court saw footage of a woman believed to be Tania Nicol being picked up in the town’s red light district by a vehicle thought to belong to murder suspect Steve Wright.

Wright, 49, of Ipswich, denies murdering Miss Nicol, 19, Gemma Adams, 25, Miss Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24 and Annette Nicholls, 29. The trial is expected to last at least another month.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC has told the court that the naked bodies of the five women, who all worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, were found at remote locations at the town during a 10 day period in December 2006.

Jurors saw footage of a woman climbing into a dark-coloured Ford Mondeo late on October 30 2006 - the night Ms Nicol vanished.

Pc Craig Adamberry, who was part of a police team set up to examine closed circuit television footage, said he believed the woman was Ms Nicol.

He added that the car matched Wright’s.

In the footage the car is seen to drive along, stop, then reverse to allow the woman to walk around and climb in.

The footage does not show what happens next as the camera pans away.

Jurors also saw CCTV footage of Miss Alderton apparently fixing her hair in the reflection of a train window on the night she is thought to have vanished.

They were shown film of a woman matching Miss Alderton’s description travelling on the 5.33pm train from Harwich, Essex, to Manningtree, Essex, on December 3.

Police said they were sure the woman was Miss Alderton. She is seen looking at the window and touching her dyed blonde hair with her hands.

Separate footage showed her entering an underpass at Manningtree station. Police believe she was on her way to catch a connecting train to Ipswich.

The case continues.