Police probing the killings of five women have arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of their murder, the detective in charge of the investigation said Monday.
LONDON: In a dramatic early morning raid police have arrested a 37-year-old, white man on suspicion of murdering five women — all sex workers — whose bodies were found naked and dumped around Ipswich in Suffolk in the last three weeks.
Tom Stephens, who worked in a supermarket was picked up from his home in Trimley, a small town to the east of Ipswich, at 7:20 am on Monday morning. Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull who has been leading the investigation gave a brief statement saying that Stephens was suspected of killing all five women.
“We will not be naming the police station where the man is being held. As legal proceedings are now active, Suffolk police will not be issuing further comments at this state,” said Gull. Officers are expected to question him later on Monday.
Neighbours in the Jubilee Close cul-de-sac where Stephens lived in a three-bedroom semi-detached house were shocked this morning when they woke up to find the area cordoned off by the police and that the man-hunt which has dominated news in the last 10 days had finally ended up on their doorstep. The neighbours claimed that Stephens had not lived there for long and kept himself to himself.
Trimley is situated on the A14 road between Ipswich and Felixstowe, and it is along this road that the bodies of the five women were found after they had been killed and dumped.
The police had visited Stephens’ home earlier in the investigation and items had been taken away for examination. The police are tight-lipped about what links and evidence finally led them to arrest Stephens.
In a bizarre act Stephens had spoken to a British tabloid newspaper only on Sunday saying he had known all five girls and he expected that he would be a suspect, but that he was innocent. He had also rang up the BBC’s 24 hour news channel a number of times in the last few days talking to them as ‘background information’ about how he was friendly with all the murdered girls.
“I’m a friend of all the girls. I was closest to Tania. And Gemma as well. I was close to others as well. But I should have been there to watch over them,” he told the Sunday paper. “I don’t have alibis for some of the times — actually I’m not entirely sure I have tight alibis for any of the times. But I’m not worried about being charged — I’m innocent,” he added in between sobs.
Stephens turned to the sex workers of Ipswich 18 months ago after his eight-year marriage collapsed. In his own admission to the BBC the police had questioned him four times before finally arresting him.
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