A fork lift truck driver accused of murdering Colchester vice girl Anneli Alderton and four other street girls had been sleeping with prostitutes for 25 years.

Steve Wright, 49, first used prostitutes in his 20s when he was a steward on the QE2.

He said it was "quite normal" when crewmen went ashore in foreign countries.

He started using vice girls again when he was in the pub trade and visited the Oasis and Cleopatra's massage parlours in Ipswich after moving to Felixstowe.

Wright stopped going to prostitutes when he met partner Pamela Wright while working in a bingo hall in 2000.

The couple had a pretty good' sex life, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

But after they moved to Ipswich she started working nights and it petered out'.

Wright said they were like ships passing in the night' and he started visiting massage parlours again.

He would go every six months or so when I got the urge' after playing golf, paying £65 to £80 for straight sex.

Wright said he never met any of the dead prostitutes in the massage parlours.

The couple moved to London Road in Ipswich in October 2006.

Wright said Pamela chose the house and he did not realise it was in the town's red light zone.

He began using street girls in Portman Road - paying £20 to £40 for sex - because they were cheaper.

Wright said he would pick up girls on the way back from taking Pamela to work.

"You pull alongside one, they put their head in the window and say do you want business, and I'd say yes," he told the jury.

The prostitute would then suggest a secluded place to go such as an industrial estate.

Wright would normally wear tracksuit bottoms, a t-shirt, fleece and trainers, the court heard on the opening day of the defence's case.

Steve Wright, 49, has denied murdering Essex vice-girl Anneli Alderton and four other prostitutes who worked in Ipswich's red light area.

The bodies of Miss Alderton, 24, Tania Nicol, 19, Gemma Adams, 25, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were all found dumped in countryside near Ipswich in December 2006.

Wright, of London Road, Ipswich, is on trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

  • The trial continues.
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