DAY 1: Court hears of campaign to kill prostitutes

By Michael Holden

IPSWICH (Reuters) - A man accused of killing five women during a spree at a rate unprecedented in Britain, carried out a deliberate campaign to murder prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Steve Wright, 49, denies killing Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, whose naked bodies were found dumped at rural locations around the town within the space of just 10 days.

Two of the victims were found with their bodies deliberately posed in a cruciform shape with their arms outstretched, the court heard.

He struck after cruising the red light district near his home for suitable victims while his partner was working night shifts and might have had an accomplice, the prosecution said.

The victims, selected systematically, died while fighting for breath, asphyxiated while under the influence of hard drugs, the court heard.

DNA found on three of the victims matched with that of Wright. The court was told the probability of this coming from someone other than, or related to him was one in one billion.

"It is the prosecution case that either alone or in conjunction with another or others these deaths were the handiwork of the defendant," prosecutor Peter Wright said.

"And for a period of six and a half weeks he had preyed upon the women working as prostitutes in and around Ipswich, killing five before his campaign was brought to an end by his arrest."