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Murdered prostitutes mourned
16/12/2006 22:41 - (SA)
Ipswich - A crowd of 25 000 spectators at an English football match here on Saturday observed a minute's silence and said prayers for five prostitutes murdered in the area by a serial killer.
Leading prayers for the women before Ipswich Town's Championship game with Leeds United, Richard Lewis, a Church of England bishop, said the murders brought back memories of the Yorkshire Ripper in the late 1970s.
"In silence we pray for the five women who died," Lewis said at the stadium, which is near the red-light district where the women worked. "These events bring to mind the events in Yorkshire some 25-years ago."
He named the dead women and prayed for their families.
The victims have been identified as Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, also 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.
Cause of death has only been established in two of the cases - Clennell died of "compression to the neck", while Alderton died from asphyxiation.
Police said Saturday they had begun to piece together the puzzle of the killings of the women in Ipswich, a port town in eastern England, after the discovery of the five bodies in 10 days.
Leaflets about personal safety
Amid a string of appeals for help which has deluged the police with 9 000 calls, announcements were made over the public address system for anyone with information about the murders to come forward.
Spectators were also given leaflets about personal safety as they entered the ground.
Ipswich manager Jim Magilton said football "paled into insignificance".
"Like everyone else in the community the players and staff have been drawn to the news reports of the distressing story unfolding in front of our eyes," he said in a column in the match program.
"Football pales into insignificance when you see the pictures of this terrible story."
The Ipswich killings have evoked one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, east London's Jack the Ripper, who murdered five prostitutes in 1888, as well as the Yorkshire Ripper, who murdered 13 women between 1975 and 1980.
- SAPA
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