A WOMAN from Huddersfield, allegedly murdered with four other women in a 10-day killing spree, was left in a “cruciform shape”.

A jury heard shocking details of how the body of 24-year-old Anneli Alderton – who spent years in Huddersfield – was found with her arms outstretched.

Grim details of her killing and that of the other four prostitutes were outlined to a murder trial yesterday.

Miss Alderton, the mother of a young son, had left Huddersfield to move to Essex to be nearer her mother Maire, who had sold her Almondbury home to move south.

But she allegedly fell victim to Steve Wright – the man charged with five shocking murders.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told Ipswich Crown Court that the bodies of Miss Alderton, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, had both been left with arms outstretched.

Former pub landlord Wright, 49, of Ipswich, Suffolk, denies murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Miss Alderton, Paula Clennell, 24, and Miss Nicholls, 29.

The women, who all worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, disappeared between late October and early December 2006.

Their bodies were found between December 2 and December 12, 2006 in isolated locations near Ipswich, jurors were told.

Mr Wright said Miss Alderton's naked body was found in woodland near Nacton, Suffolk, on December 10.

Miss Nicholls’ naked body was found near Nacton on December 12.

Mr Wright said: “The state of Miss Alderton’s body was consistent of having her lain at the scene for some time.

“In all likelihood she had been murdered elsewhere and her body abandoned and her body left posed in this isolated spot.”

He said evidence showed that Miss Nicholls had been murdered and her body abandoned shortly after she was last seen alive on December 8 in the centre of Ipswich.

“Her body was to a degree decomposed,” he added.

“As with Anneli, her body appeared deliberately to have been posed in a cruciform shape with her arms outstretched.”

Mr Wright outlined the details of the disappearance and discovery of Miss Nicol, Miss Adams, Miss Alderton and Miss Nicholls.

After outlining the evidence in relation to Miss Nicol and Miss Adams, he told jurors: “You may conclude that the deaths of these women were inextricably linked and that both of them had been asphyxiated and then abandoned.”

He added: “We say the circumstances of their disappearance, the location at which their bodies were found, the condition of the bodies and the manner of their deaths will lead you to the conclusion that their deaths were in fact no coincidence, but rather the work of the defendant, either alone or with the assistance of another.”

Prior to outlining prosecution evidence, Mr Wright told the jury that he intended to prove that Wright was responsible for the deaths of all five women.

He said there were similarities between the women and the nature of their disappearances and deaths.

“During a period of six-and-a-half weeks from late October to early December 2006, five women went missing in and around the town of Ipswich.

“It is the prosecution’s case that each of them was murdered by this man.”

Mr Wright added: “At the time of their deaths, each of these women had a drug problem.

“Each of them had resorted to prostitution in order to fund their addiction.

“In each of their cases this decision was ultimately to prove fatal.”

The five murders were the ‘‘handiwork” of Wright, acting either alone or with an accomplice, the prosecution alleged.

Mr Wright said: “For a period of some six-and-a-half weeks he had preyed upon women working as prostitutes in and around Ipswich, killing five before his campaign was brought to an end by his arrest.”

The trial continues.