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IPSWICH, England - British police tonight arrested a second man suspected of murdering all five prostitutes whose naked corpses were dumped in the countryside around Ipswich, eastern England.
Detectives were quizzing the pair in the high-profile investigation into a spate of murders that has gripped Britain and left the normally quiet town of Ipswich on edge in the run-up to Christmas.
The 48-year-old man nabbed today was arrested in the town centre before dawn, a day after a 37-year-old man was detained in a village outside Ipswich, said Suffolk Police Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, who is leading the manhunt.
"A 48-year-old man was arrested at his home address in Ipswich at approximately 5am (6.00pm NZT) this morning," Gull announced.
"He has been arrested on suspicion of murdering all five women," he added, referring to the five prostitutes whose bodies were found within 10 days earlier this month.
The murder victims were Ipswich prostitutes Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, 24-year-olds Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, and 29-year-old Annette Nicholls.
"The man is currently in custody at a police station in Suffolk where he will be questioned about the deaths later today," Gull said, adding that police would not say where exactly he was being held.
The second suspect was arrested near the red light district near Ipwsich Town Football Club's Portman Road ground in the centre of Ipswich.
The nearby residential London Road was cordoned off by police officers in high-visibility jackets, while forensics experts in full-length white body suits could be seen coming and going.
Police at the address in Ipswich later loaded a dark blue Ford Mondeo onto a transporter.
Citing sources, Sky News television said the second suspect lives on his own in a bedsit and was a client of some of the women.
Gull confirmed that the 37-year-old man, who was arrested at his home in the nearby village of Trimley yesterday, remains in custody.
Detectives have already been granted an extra 12 hours to grill him, and so have until Friday morning before they must either charge him or release him.
He has been identified in national media reports as local supermarket worker Tom Stephens.
At the weekend, Stephens gave a newspaper interview in which he insisted he was innocent but said he knew all five of the women and was unable to explain where he was at the times of the killings.
"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," he told the Sunday Mirror. He maintained his innocence, however.
According to The Guardian newspaper, Stephens was interviewed by police four days after the first of the five women disappeared in October, and his home was searched late last month.
Stephens also invited all five victims to his home for a party weeks before the first of them went missing, the Daily Mirror tabloid said yesterday. Citing unidentified sources close to the investigation, the newspaper said that police were trying to trace all the men who attended the party.
Sky News reported that Stephens had previously been a special constable, a voluntary part-time community police officer. An unnamed police source also told the Sunday Mirror detectives believed he worked as a part-time cab driver.
Neighbours of the suspect described him as "tall, thin and strange".
"He was a bit of a weirdo," said Lesley-Anne Barber, 50, whose garden backs onto his in the quiet village of Trimley.
The murders sparked fears of a serial killer on the loose. None of the corpses showed signs of having been subjected to significant trauma or serious sexual assault before dying.
The case has triggered comparisons with the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, convicted of the murders of 13 women between 1975 and 1980, and Jack the Ripper, who killed five east London prostitutes in 1888.
Almost 500 officers are working on what has become one of Britain's biggest-ever manhunts, with 350 drafted in from 31 police forces around the country, including Northern Ireland, to help Suffolk Police.
- AFP
