Fourth prostitute missing

Police this morning said that they were linking in a fourth woman to their murder inquiries of Ipswich prostitutes.

Paula Clennell was last seen at 10.40pm on Saturday in London Road in Ipswich. The 24-year-old is believed to work as a prostitute.

At a press conference this morning Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull confirmed that the body found yesterday was a prostitute and said she was also 24 but said she was not believed to be Miss Clennell.

The third body was found near Nacton yesterday afternoon. The bodies of two other prostitutes, Gemma Adams and Tania Nicol, were found last week in a brook near Ipswich.

Assistant Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer today issued a personal appeal to prostitutes working in Suffolk.

She said: “Your welfare is my priority at this time. My message to you is simple stay off the streets. If you are along at night you are putting yourself in danger.

“But we also need you to talk to us. We need your help to solve these enquires.”

Ms Cheer also read out a mobile phone number for prostitutes to contact her directly. That is 07764 210572.

Also at the conference attended by journalists from all over the UK, DCS Gull said that six detectives from Norfolk constabulary were helping their Suffolk counterparts with the murder inquiries. He said that police were not discounting possible links with the murders of Norwich-based prostitutes at the beginning of the millennium, but did not actively link the two inquiries.

The four cases are Michelle Bettles, 22, strangled in 2002, Kellie Pratt, 29, missing since 2000, Natalie Pearman, 16, strangled in 1992, and Hayley Curtis, 23, who was violently beaten and murdered in 2000. All were Norwich prostitutes. Philip Stanley, 56, was convicted of Ms Curtis' murder last year and is serving a life sentence, but the other three cases remain unsolved.

Police are also looking at the case of Mandy Duncan, a prostitute from Woodbridge, who disappeared in 1993.