GEMMA ADAMS
Aged 25, 5ft 2in, petite with long blonde hair
Last seen: Ipswich, November 15th
Naked body found at Hintlesham on December 2nd.
GEMMA Adams’ childhood was a world away from the seedy red-light district of Ipswich.
She grew up in a middle-class family in the well-heeled village of Kesgrave, just outside the town.
Her parents Brian and Gail remember their daughter as an animal lover, devoted to her pet dog Holly.
Gemma, 25, learned how to ride, went to Brownies and took piano lessons.
She left school at 16 and took a GNVQ in health and social care at Suffolk College before landing a job at a local insurance firm.
But after experimenting with cannabis, she moved on to heroin — and soon became hooked on the deadly drug. Her addiction forced her into prostitution as she became obsessed with getting her next hit.
Gemma lost contact with her family as her habit took hold, leaving them heartbroken.
Dad Brian, 53, said: “Gemma was working as a prostitute because she was desperate for her next fix.
“If she hadn’t become addicted to heroin, she wouldn’t have had to resort to this. Drugs are at the heart of this tragedy.
“The reports are all about Gemma the prostitute, but to us she was a loved daughter.
“She had everything going for her yet at some point in her life she was offered drugs, and it went from there.”
As her habit grew the comfortable life Gemma knew began to crumble.
She lost her job after failing to turn up too many times. She was often in no fit state through her addiction.
Gemma was last seen in Ipswich’s red-light area at 1.15am on November 15. Her boyfriend, who Mr Adams believes led his daughter into drugs, reported her missing after she failed to reply to two texts.
Mr Adams added: “We are going through hell. We are just praying that the madman who did this is caught soon.”
Gemma’s 16-year-old brother Jack left a touching tribute on a local newspaper’s website.
He said: “Gem, you will never be forgotten. I know you’re in a better place now and I will always love you.
“There is now a massive hole in our family which will never be filled.”
TANIA NICOL
Aged 19, 5ft 2in, slim with brown hair
Last seen: Ipswich, October 30th
Naked body found at Copdock on December 8th.
MURDERED Tania Nicol dreamed of being a Spice Girl as a child growing up in a home that was under-privileged — but filled with love.
Tania, her little brother Aaron and mum Kerry were inseparable in their house on a council estate on the outskirts of Ipswich.
Tania loved dressing up, having her face painted and dancing to her favourite girl band.
Pal Susie Coburn recalled: “A bunch of us used to hang out together, going to each others’ houses and staying over.
“Tania loved music and when the Spice Girls came out she just loved everything they did. She was obsessed by them and wore Spice Girl earrings. She was always very funny.”
Mum Kerry said: “We were always together when Tania was growing up. She was a real ‘girlie’ girl, not a tomboy at all.
“She loved playing in the sand so we would take trips to the beach at Felixstowe.”
As she grew older Tania hoped to become a hairdresser, spending hours practising elaborate styles on her pals.
She was a kind, cat-loving youngster and a popular pupil at Chantry High School.
But her personality changed in her late teens, causing rows with her mum.
She started staying out late and lying about where she was going. She began leading a secret life as a hooker and had been working the streets of Ipswich for only a few months when she went missing on October 30, aged just 19.
A fellow vice girl said she had worked briefly in a massage parlour but was kicked out for suspected drug-taking.
Appealing to people to remember her daughter as a bright young woman for whom life just went badly wrong, Kerry added: “She got in with the wrong crowd. That should be a warning to anyone.
“I knew nothing of her secret life until the police told me. I am finding it hard to come to terms with the idea of her getting into cars with strangers.
“To me and Aaron she was a caring member of our family. Seeing her being labelled a prostitute is horrible and makes her seem like she is not a person.”
ANNELI ALDERTON
Aged 24, blonde hair
Last seen: Harwich, December 3rd
Naked body found at Nacton on December 10.
Crackhead AnnieANNELI Alderton met her violent death after being sucked into a web of drugs and prostitution.
The Ipswich-born 24-year-old’s cravings were so bad that other hookers called her “crackhead Annie”.
But last night her devastated mother Maire said: “She was a lovely, bright girl. She knew Greek. I loved her so much.
“I’ve had to identify her body today. I’m holding things together and trying to grieve for her as well as looking after her little boy.”
Anneli began walking the streets of Ipswich only in recent weeks. She moved there from Huddersfield, where she and her five-year-old son Freddy had been living with a relative.
Her parents split before she reached her teens and by 14 Anneli was hooked on drugs. The constant drug abuse gave her a fiery temper.
The young mum lived with her mother in Harwich, Essex, where she often rowed with neighbours. And she turned to crime to fund her daily fix, serving time in jail for street robbery.
After her release she tried to go straight. But she could not beat her drug habit and was soon in trouble.
In August Anneli was arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Colchester, Essex, after attacking a cop. Her gran Joan Molloy, 81, said: “The Anni I knew as a little girl had died years before. I remember her as a normal artistic bright little girl — happy and alive.”
As a teenager Anneli, and older brother Tom were brought up in Cyprus where her grandparents also lived. Mrs Molloy told how she did well at school during her time abroad. “She was a perfectly nice little girl and had a happy upbringing. Anni got good grades in English and art.
“Anni has been a girl more sinned against than sinning but she became addicted to heroin.”
Other street girls said Anneli never disguised her addiction from them.
One 26-year-old hooker said: “Anneli got into crack when she was about 14 or 15. She stayed that age and never really matured. She was a vulnerable girl. Anneli knew the other girls. They worked the same streets and shared clients — but I doubt they’d share regular clients.
“She hadn’t long been out of prison. Anneli was in prison in about 2002 to 2003.
“She’d been done for street robbery and got 3½ years.
“When she first got out she was doing well. I had heard that she’d recently been seen down the local YMCA gym. I think she’d only have moved back to Ipswich from up North a few weeks before she was murdered.”
Anneli’s step-sister Jane Lowe described her as “a lovely person, but a bit of wild child”.
Anneli’s computer programmer dad Roy married Jane’s mum Christine in 1997. Jane, 25, said: “Anneli was a very intelligent and clever girl.
“She was close to her dad and when he died of cancer in 1998 her world fell apart. She began mixing with the wrong crowd.
“She was vulnerable and eventually became a prostitute, though not through choice. One of her friends used to make lots of money at it.
“But Anneli was tough and strong, even though she was slim, and didn’t worry about the dangers of prostitution. She’d have put up a hell of a fight if anyone attacked her.”
ANNETTE NICHOLLS
Aged 29, 5ft 3in, slim with long brown hair.
Last seen: Ipswich, December 7th.
Body thought to be hers found yesterday near Levington.
FRIENDS and family of Annette Nicholls — feared to be one of the victims found yesterday — told how the loving mum plunged into a life of vice after getting hooked on heroin.
Annette, 29 — nicknamed Netty — trained as a beauty therapist. But after completing her college course four years ago her life suddenly spiralled out of control.
Cousin Tanya Nicholls, 37, said: “Almost overnight she got into heroin and it changed her — like flicking a light switch.
“She used to be such a together person. She was a brilliant mother. Her house was immaculate. We basically just lost her.” Her eight-year-old son ended up being looked after by gran Rosemary — Annette’s mum.
She was in tears as she was comforted at her Ipswich home by detectives last night.
Annette was last seen alive a week ago but was only reported missing by her family on Monday. Tanya, who last saw her touting for business three weeks ago, said: “I just wish I had picked her up and dragged her home. It is awful to think what has happened to her.”
Annette is believed to have quit her council semi to move in with a man on Ipswich’s smart new Ravenwood estate.
An ex-neighbour said: “She was just really lovely and wasn’t working as a prostitute when she was living here.”
Annette’s uncle Peter, 58, spent yesterday helping search woodland — but stopped short of scouring the area where the new bodies lay. He said: “I’m so glad I did not go there . . . I would have found them.”
Peter, who is battling prostate cancer, said of his niece: “I thought the world of her. I was devastated when I heard what she was doing. The last time I saw her she promised me she was off drugs.”
Aged: 24, 5ft 7in, red hair.
Last seen: Ipswich, Sunday.
Body thought to be hers found yesterday near Levington.
THE distraught father of one of the latest prostitutes believed to have been slain by the serial killer raged last night: “This bastard has to be caught.”
Brian Clennell, whose daughter Paula is thought to have been found dead near Ipswich, went on: “What sort of person does this? This person must be walking around the streets like one of us but he is not — he isn’t human.
“He may see them as evil because of what they do but he is the evil one. This animal will strike again.”
Just last week Paula, 24, was interviewed for ITV news and said that, despite being fearful, she could not afford to stop walking the streets.
Police have yet to formally identify the body and desperate Mr Clennell, 57, said: “I have never been one for God but I will be down on my knees tonight praying that my daughter is still alive.
“Don’t ever tell me there’s no hope. There’s always hope until the police tell me otherwise.”
Mr Clennell, who did not know Paula was a hooker, divorced from her mum Isabella, 47, ten years ago. They left him in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, when they moved to Norwich with Paula’s elder sister Alice.
Paula’s three children were taken into care when she became hooked on crack and heroin and turned to prostitution.
Speaking before the latest bodies were found, Mr Clennell said in an emotion-packed plea to Paula:
We all love you, there’s nothing to hide, everyone loves you. Please make a call to me, or your niece and your nephews and just say that you’re alive.
I must send my heart out to the families of those that’s been identified in this horrific, perverted, psycho, sicko campaign.
This man needs to be caught and I think the truth lies with the punters. The fat, smelly perverts. They should come forward and stop this murder that’s going on.
I didn’t know that Paula was on drugs as heavy as she was. I’m shocked and saddened and numb that she actually had sex for sale.
Paula was lovely. She was mischievous, but she was a wonderful person. She loved children, she loved pets. She was a loving, kind daughter. I think that once she got to Ipswich she fell in with the wrong crowd — that must be it.
The first I heard about Paula being missing was through the news. It has only been in the last two days that I have discovered about the life Paula was living.
I can only assume that she was driven to it out of pure desperation. I hate to hear mention of the words prostitute and Paula Clennell on the news.
He said he last heard from Paula by letter. He went on: “She asked me for £15 and I sent it to her in Ipswich. Since then I haven’t heard from her.”
Paula, not seen since Saturday, was interviewed on Ipswich’s streets last Tuesday by Anglia TV.
She said there were fewer girls and punters on the fear-struck streets, and admitted she had “a couple of nasty experiences” with clients herself.
She added: “The murders have made me a bit wary about getting into cars but I would probably do it anyway. I need the money.”
Yesterday, as she waited anxiously for news, mum Isabella clutched the last letter sent by Paula — on November 24. Paula spoke of doing the Christmas shopping and said: “I want to meet up in town before Christmas.”
Isabella said: “She’s such a kind, loving lassie. I just want her safe.”
Paula’s ex-boyfriend Elton Norris — dad of two of her children — said he had become a heroin addict the same time she did, but he had cleaned himself up.
He said Paula earned up to £300 a day and blew it on heroin. Elton, 31, ended the relationship, but said: “I’ll always love her. I don’t know how our kids will cope.”
His dad John, 52, said: “Paula was a bright and beautiful girl, but drugs destroyed her.”
CAMPAIGNERS The English Collective of Prostitutes has been flooded with donations from clients and well-wishers hoping to keep hookers off the streets of Ipswich until the killer is found.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,2,00.html
