Steve Wright trial listed for 2025 for Victoria Hall murder

Steve Wright is accused of murdering Victoria Hall, 17, who was last seen alive in the early hours of Sunday 19 September 1999, in High Road, Trimley St Mary.

Wright appeared by video link at Suffolk Magistrates Court on Monday morning and was then committed to Ipswich Crown Court where he appeared by video link before Judge Martyn Levett during the afternoon.

The defendant appeared wearing a grey T-shirt and gave his name as Steve Gerald James Wright at this morning's hearing.

He gave his date of birth as 24 April 1958 and confirmed he was not recording the proceedings from a room in HMP Long Lartin. 

The proceedings lasted only a few minutes.

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Steve Wright appearing at Ipswich Magistrates' Court, via video-link from custody, charged with the kidnap and murder of Victoria Hall, in 1999, and the attempted kidnapping of another woman in September 1999. Victoria went missing on her way home from a nightclub in Felixstowe in September 1999 and her body was found five days later. (Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Judge Levett adjourned the case for a further case management hearing on August 19 with a plea hearing on September 2.

A provisional trial date was set for January 13 next year.

Miss Hall left home in Trimley St Mary on the evening of Saturday, September 18, 1999, to go for a night out with a friend at the Bandbox nightclub in Bent Hill, Felixstowe, where they remained until around 1am on the morning of Sunday, September 19.

They then went to get some food at the Bodrum Grill in Undercliff Road West, before beginning the walk back to Trimley St Mary.

They parted at around 2.20am near to the junction of High Road and Faulkeners Way. Victoria was just yards away from her home.

Miss Hall's body was found five days after she went missing in 1999. (Image: Suffolk Police)

When Miss Hall’s parents woke up that morning and discovered that she had not returned home, the police were called and a missing person inquiry commenced.

Five days later, on Friday September 24, Miss Hall’s body was found in a ditch beside a field by a dog walker in Creeting Lane, Creeting St Peter, approximately 25 miles away from where she was last seen.

In September 2019, Suffolk Police revealed that the case – known as Operation Avon - was now a live inquiry again and being fully reinvestigated by a new team of detectives.

Steve Wright, formerly of London Road in Ipswich, was charged on May 22 this year with kidnap and murder, in connection with the abduction and death of Victoria Hall.

Graham and Lorinda Hall, Victoria's parents. (Image: Newsquest)

He was also charged with attempted kidnap in connection with a separate incident occurring the night before Victoria’s disappearance, whereby a 22-year-old woman reported that a man approached and followed her, between 3am and 4am on Saturday September 18, 1999, in High Road East, Felixstowe.