Features

The Suffolk murders trial at Ipswich Crown Court was the biggest criminal hearing in the region for five years and to reflect that, Look East was extended to an hour-long programme on the day Steve Wright was convicted.

Four hours after the jury's unanimous guilty verdicts, Look East examined the life of East Anglia's most notorious serial killer.

After hearing almost six weeks of evidence, it took the jury just a few hours to make up their minds about  the 49-year-old forklift truck driver who had a lifelong fascination with prostitutes.

One street worker from Ipswich, who was friendly with his five victims, believes she is lucky to be alive. She was doing business with Wright in the weeks when he picked up and killed 19-year-old Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, 25; Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, both 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

The five women murdered by Wright

The programme also looked at the lives of Wright's victims and the heartbreak of the  families those young women left behind. Some of them have called for the death penalty for Wright.

Forensic evidence was crucial in bringing the killer to justice. It was the painstaking work of dozens of experts at a forensic laboratory in Huntingdon which unearthed the fibres and DNA which tied Wright to the murders.

Many people have been moved by the plight of women who work in the sex trade in in our extended programme we asked the experts "What now for the sex industry?" Should the laws on prostitution be changed?

We asked viewers to tell us what they thought was the best way forward and had a big response. Most felt that prostitution should be legalised and regulated to help protect the workers.

We reflected viewers' responses in our programme the day after the verdicts - the day Wright was told be would die in prison.

The horror of the deaths prompted one woman to devote five months and spend thousands of pounds trying to help 28-year-Lou, the prostitute who knew Wright and believes she is lucky not to have been among his victims.

Our documentary, Where Angels Fears to Tread, followed their story.