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HE BEGGED ME FOR SEX JUST HOURS BEFORE COPS NICKED HIM
By Emily Miller
A VICE girl last night told police how Suffolk Strangler suspect Tom Stephens begged her for sex four hours before he was arrested yesterday.
The girl, who has not been named, says Stephens tapped on her window at about 3am but she turned him away.
At 7.20am, Stephens was arrested at his home. The girl was last night being quizzed by detectives.
She was not the first prostitute Stephens went to see in the hours before his arrest.
At about 1am, he visited a different girl named Katie - again knocking on a window to attract her attention. But she too refused to let him in.
Katie, 30, said she had sex with divorcee Stephens on previous occasions. She said: "I knew him pretty well, so this is all a real shock.
"He really fancied me. He used to drive me around places."
Brunette Katie added: "He was normally really quiet. I think he felt that we had quite a bond."
Another vice girl said Stephens was a loner who often made a beeline for the private rooms of a massage parlour.
The 25-year-old, who asked not to be named, said: "Tom came in quite regularly for sex but never made small talk first."
Last night, another prostitute, named only as Lou, said she also saw Stephens on Sunday night, just hours before his arrest.
She said she regarded him as a "close friend" and, after working the streets for a few hours, rang him and he picked her up.
Lou told ITV News: "I and my boyfriend were actually with him for just over an hour.
"He was a bit on edge, a bit worried. "He got pulled over on the day before with one of my friends in the car and got taken down the police station and stripsearched and everything, and they kept his car."
Asked how she felt when she heard he had been arrested, Lou added: "I was in disbelief. I was like, 'Are you sure?'
"My boyfriend told me and I said, 'Nah, I can't believe that sort of thing.' I could not believe it."
Neighbours of Stephens yesterday described him as a "weirdo" and a loner.
They said he was prone to strange behaviour but kept himself to himself since moving in three months ago.
Stephens lived in one of four flats in a brick house in a quiet residential area in Trimley St Martin, several miles from Ipswich.
Lesley-Anne Barber, 50, said she had seen him wearing tight Lycra shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt in his garden in November.
Her garden backs on to his and she told how she had seen him digging in his garden.
She said: "He was tall, thin and strange - and I believe he had a beard.
"He used to just wander around in the back garden.
"He didn't seem the sort of person that would want to have anything to do with anyone.
"If he went to the back to the dustbins, he would not acknowledge that we were there. He was a bit of a weirdo."
Mrs Barber said she always saw Stephens on his own - except once when he embraced another man with a hug and a kiss.
She added: "He was the sort of person who thought he was a cut above everybody else."
Mrs Barber had seen Stephens cleaning his car and noticed him doing what she thought was weeding in his back garden.
She said: "He had a little spade, like a trowel. He used to go along the grass, digging."
Another neighbour, Mrs Wynel, said: "We thought he was planting seeds.
"He was crouched down, digging little holes. He always seemed to be digging in the garden." Mrs Wynel said police had visited the property about a month ago and used metal detectors in the garden.
There were a number of forensics officers in white jump-suits.
She said Stephens had put up a shed in the back garden almost as soon as he had moved in.
"He was a loner, he used to go off on his bicycle," she added.
"He was a thin, slim man. He looked as if he wanted to keep himself to himself." Mrs Wynel said she left her house yesterday morning to help her husband scrape ice off his car but when she went back inside she spotted the police cordon. Her garden also backs on to the suspect's.
Mrs Wynel, who has a teenage daughter living at home, said: "I just feel sick to the stomach - this is just on our own doorstep.
"How would you feel living at the back of someone who has been arrested in connection with this when you have a teenage daughter living at home?" Tape was strung in front of Stephens's house yesterday.
Upstairs, curtains were closed while the shutters downstairs were half open. Stephens reportedly worked as a private-hire taxi driver. His car was taken away by police in a box lorry.
Care assistant Michelle Player, 25, who lives opposite Stephens's home in Jubilee Close, said: "I used to see him driving out of the close in his little purple Clio.
"I realised something was happening just before 8am when my mum saw the police as she came to drop off her dog for me to look after.
"There were a couple of police cars parked in the close. Then I saw them place security tape across the entrance of the close.
"Every few minutes, more and more police turned up.
"It was quite dramatic and very out of the ordinary for a quiet area like this.
"Then I saw his Renault Clio being pushed out a little distance from his driveway.
"One of the forensics guys was looking at it and appeared to be taking some pictures."
It's thought police took several items away in bags the first time they visited Stephens's home.
And dock worker Geoffey Bond, 53, who lives opposite, saw another search taking place between 10 days and two weeks ago.
He recalled: "A couple of small police vans turned up and parked in the close near his house.
The forensics guys spent four or five hours walking between his home and their vans.
"A police helicopter was hovering overhead. I had no idea what it was all about."
Last night, a former prostitute pal of Stephens said that she was convinced of his innocence.
Jacci Goldsmith, 34, said: "He was an all right guy - nice and sweet with no nasty bone in his body."
She insisted: "He hasn't got it in him to hurt anyone."
Jacci said Stephens would have sex with some of the girls in the red light area but often would just turn up for a chat or to run errands for them.
She explained: "He knew all the murdered girls, although possibly not Anneli.
"They all liked him because he was nice and kind to them and helped them out.
"His number was on all their mobile phones and they used to ring him if they needed help.
"He was quite well known. He would come out nearly every night.
"He would come out and take us to where we wanted to be. He would do that for many of the women."
She stressed: "He just looked after us."A bunch of flowers was left on a lamppost in the red light area of Ipswich earlier this week.
The message read: "Tania, Gemma, Netty, Paula, Annie, I knew some of you better than others but I miss you all."
The message was signed off with a kiss and the name "Tom".
It is unknown whether the flowers were left by Stephens.
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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin
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