Police arrest suspect in murders of five prostitutes

Police arrested a 37-year-old man Monday morning on suspicion of murdering five prostitutes in eastern England, a senior officer said.

Photo: Police arrest suspect in murders of five prostitutes

The man was arrested at about 7:20 a.m. at his home in Trimley, near the port of Felixstowe, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull said in a brief statement to reporters. He declined to say where the suspect was being held.

"He has been arrested on the suspicion of murdering all five women," Gull said.

"The man is currently in custody at a police station in Suffolk where he will be questioned about the deaths later today," he said.

Trimley is 8 miles (13 kilometers) southeast of Ipswich, where all five victims were known to work as prostitutes.

Their naked bodies were found dumped in rural areas near Ipswich beginning Dec. 2.

Earlier in the morning, police announced that coroner's inquests into the deaths of Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls had been postponed, reports AP.

Clennell, 24, died of compression to her neck, and Alderton, 24, was strangled, a senior pathologist determined. Post-mortem examinations of the bodies of Nicol, 19, and Nicholls, reached no conclusion on the cause of death.

An inquest into the death of Gemma Adams, 25, was opened and adjourned last week. The pathologist reached no conclusion about the cause of her death.