Ipswich, England – Police on Monday arrested a 37-year- old grocery clerk on suspicion of killing five prostitutes, slayings that struck terror in this quiet English community.
British media quoted the suspect as saying he knew all the victims and had been repeatedly interviewed by police about the killings.
But the man, identified as Tom Stephens, said he did not kill the women, whose nude bodies were dumped in rural areas around Ipswich, 70 miles northeast of London.
“I don’t have alibis for some of the times (of the killings). Actually, I’m not entirely sure I have tight alibis for any of the times. But I’m not worried about being charged. I’m innocent,” he was quoted in The Sunday Mirror.
Stephens, who also worked as a part-time taxi driver, was known to have visited a Web log using the pseudonym “The Bishop,” where he listed his interests as “keeping fit” and music from the ’80s. His hero, he said, is the cartoon character Hong Kong Phooey.
The arrest, which came 16 tense days after the first body was found dumped in a stream, caused a sensation in Britain.
Suffolk police said they arrested the suspect at 7:20 a.m. but refused to identify him or say where he was being held.
In the Mirror interview, Stephens was quoted as saying he had already been questioned by authorities “under caution” – meaning he was regarded as a suspect and had been warned of his legal rights.
Among the victims were Paula Clennell, 24, who died of compression to her neck, and Anneli Alderton, 24, who was strangled. Forensic examinations of the bodies of Tania Nicol, 19, Annette Nicholls, 29, and Gemma Adams, 25, have reached no conclusion on the cause of death.
Stephens said he was a friend of all five victims. He said he had visited about 50 prostitutes in the year after his eight-year marriage collapsed.
“Over time, I have been involved with most of the (dead) girls,” he was quoted as saying.
At one point, he described himself as a “protector” of the women, but he also said he was as “close as there was to a pimp.”
In excerpts from a British Broadcasting Corp. interview that aired Monday, Stephens said he sometimes drove the women to get drugs.
