Clerk held in deaths of British prostitutes

IPSWICH, England – Police on Monday arrested a 37-year-old grocery store 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 naked 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 as telling the Sunday Mirror.

Stephens, who also worked as a part-time taxi driver, was known to have visited an Internet blog site under 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 days after the first body was found dumped in a stream, caused a sensation in Britain. It prompted comparisons with Jack the Ripper, the notorious Victorian serial killer who murdered at least five East London prostitutes in 1888.

Suffolk police said they arrested the suspect at 7:20 a.m. but refused to identify him or say where he was being held.

Stephens said he was a friend of all five victims.

“I was closest to Tania (Nicol). And Gemma (Adams) as well. I was close to the others as well. But I should have been there to look over them,” the Sunday Mirror quoted him as saying.

He said he had visited around 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.