The hunt for the Suffolk serial killer yesterday turned to a second suspect when police arrested a 48-year-old man who lived in the red light district where the five women worked.
Steve Wright, a forklift truck driver and former steward on the QE2, was being questioned after being taken from his home in London Road, Ipswich, at 5am yesterday.
Police said Mr Wright was being questioned on suspicion of all five murders, as was Tom Stephens, a supermarket worker arrested on Monday morning. He also remained in custody last night after detectives were granted a further 36 hours in which to question him.
Police sources indicated that the arrest of Mr Wright was significant, however they do not believe the two men are connected or knew each other. They insisted the inquiry was focused and making progress.
Shortly after Mr Wright was arrested, police erected a white tent on the front lawn outside his two-bedroom flat within an Edwardian conversion, which is on one of the main roads bordering the red light district.
Officers wearing white forensic suits were later seen removing articles from the building. Mr Wright's blue Ford Mondeo Zetec, was removed from the road outside on a flatbed lorry shortly after 9am.
His girlfriend of five years last night protested her partner's innocence. Pamela Wright, 48, told a friend she had spent the day with detectives and had insisted to them that her partner had nothing to do with the murders.
"Pam is distraught," said Sheila Davis, who has known the couple for several years. "She is shattered and she is tired; she is not allowed to go home and she is not allowed to speak to Steve."
The couple, who are not married but share the same surname, moved into the rented flat about three months ago. Previously, they were living in a privately rented one-bedroom flat in Bell Close, near the newly fashionable docklands area of the city.
Friends at Mr Wright's local pub, the Uncle Tom's Cabin, yesterday described him as a shy man, a golf fanatic, who sometimes played 36 holes a day, and was "entirely ordinary."
Eddie Roberts, the landlord, said: "He was a member of Hintlesham Hall golf club. He would come in here a couple of times a week and enjoy a few Carlsbergs."
Detectives refused to be drawn on the details of the arrest. At a press conference within hours of the arrest, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull said only that a 48-year-old man had been arrested at his home in Ipswich.
"He has been arrested on suspicion of murdering all five women," he said. "The man is currently in custody at a police station in Suffolk, where he will be questioned about the deaths later today. Police will not be naming the police station where the man is being held."
Forensic teams were also continuing their search at the home of Mr Stephens, a former special constable from Trimley St Martin, Felixstowe. Officers were seen in the garden on their hands and knees probing the grass with gloved fingers. Police applied to a magistrate last night and were given extra time to question Mr Stephens, who protested his innocence of any involvement in the murders in a newspaper interview published at the weekend.
The naked bodies of the five women were found near villages south of Ipswich during a 10-day period this month. More than 500 officers are working on the inquiry, including officers from neighbouring forces and detectives from Scotland Yard.
Gemma Adams, 25, was found in a stream at Hintlesham on December 2; Tania Nicol, 19, was discovered in the same stream at Copdock on December 8; Anneli Alderton, 24, was found in woods at Nacton on December 10; and Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were found in woods at Levington on December 12. Police said Ms Alderton had been strangled and Ms Clennell had died as a result of "compression" to the neck. but as yet there is no cause of death for the other three women.