A Father’s Torment
HAUNTED by his daughter’s murder, Brian Clennell last night told how he is being tormented by sick conspiracy theorists.
Brian’s daughter Paula was one of five women murdered by evil Steve Wright – dubbed the Suffolk Strangler – almost five years ago.
The death of Paula, who was born and raised in Berwick, Northumberland, and four other prostitutes in Ipswich left women afraid to leave their homes and led to one of the country’s biggest ever manhunts before Wright was finally caught.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Sun, former engineer Brian has told how his agony is compounded by reminders like being sent letters and a DVD which claims Wright is innocent, and a musical being made portraying his daughter’s death.
The 62-year-old said: “It is terrible, I feel for all the families that have gone through it.
“You never think it will happen to you. What a waste of life.
“Getting sent rubbish from nutters doesn’t make things any easier.”
Brian has received a DVD, which he has never watched, claiming Wright is ‘the fall guy’ and that the real killer is still at large.
Another letter, from an individual in Ireland, says: “I am sure you would be appalled to learn that the killer of your daughter is still a free man and that the police are not interested in that because they have a conviction in court and that satisfies them as they fall back on that as proof of their correctness.”
Brian, who lives in Spittal, near Berwick, said: “It is like everything in life, it made me wonder, they must have a sad old life when a murderer is guilty as hell, they seem to attract people.
“It is like those people that marry people on Death Row.”
I have only found 2 online stories that speak of Wright being innocent and one of those is an interview he gave.
If the dad was going online and posting on forums or making speeches in public I could see people bantering with him but to just contact him, just to say your peace that should be a form of assault. The person bothering him should get a fine, community service and or jail time if they continue to bother this dad.
Meanwhile, a musical about the killings shown in London also infuriated the grieving dad.
The stage musical London Road was performed by the National Theatre earlier this year, amid stinging criticism.
Brian, who has written to the show’s producer, said only “insane people” would have gone to see it.
“He was just a chancer trying to make some money out of it.
“He wants to get himself straight into the mental house and get himself assessed.
“If they are making musicals about death and murderers, why do they not make a musical about the London bombings?
“It sickens me.”
A number of TV shows have been made about the killings, some of which Brian says “just opens up all the wounds for everybody.”
But he says: “There is no law that says nobody can make a programme about them.
“It will never go away because other people want to make money out of it.
“People should be left in peace.”
See the end for a little more info on the play.
I understand Mr. Clennell’s feelings but I also think that the public needs to know and remember killings. We need to keep people aware that the monster might be living next door. We also have to keep society remembering what happened so that these killers do not ever get released.
Paula, 24, was born and raised in the border town by Brian and his ex-wife Isabella, along with Brian’s daughter and her sister Alice, and went to Berwick Middle School and Berwick High School.
The couple divorced in 1996, and Paula moved to Norwich then on to Ipswich with her mother in 1999, aged around 17.
Paula had made the city her home but became hooked on heroin and turned to prostitution to pay for drugs.
Brian said: “She was not a bad person. I believe she was coming off the drugs, she was trying to get help to bring her children back.”
I find it sad that this father feels some need to defend his daughter. Who cares what her ‘job’ was, she did not deserve to be killed.
Paula’s funeral took place in Berwick in February 2007, and she was buried at Tweedmouth cemetery.
He pays regular visits to her grave, a mile from his house, as do other family members and friends from Ipswich.
“There is always somebody visiting her grave, I feel she is gone but she is not forgotten.There are always flowers there. People will never stop grieving, there is no way they can.
“Life goes on, there is nothing you can do about it, nothing you can do to bring her back. You just think back on the good times.”
It is good to hear that she is not forgotten and that the dad gets a feeling of support from the community.
It was announced in 2009 that Wright would be appealing against his convictions.
But the following year it emerged he decided to drop his appeal case.
Write needs to stay locked up.
I feel for this father but the play is not about the actual killings but rather the effect the killing had on the
The musical is set in and around London Road in Ipswich, Suffolk, during the Ipswich serial murders and subsequent trial of killer Steve Wright in 2006–2008. The piece is written in verbatim style, meaning the spoken text is reproduced by the performers exactly as recorded in interviews, in this case conducted by Blythe with the residents of London Road and some of the women who worked as prostitutes there, as well as members of the media who gathered in the area to report the news. The lyrics in the musical segments are similarly derived from the interviews as recorded, with the meter, pitch and rhythm of the music following the patterns of the original recorded speech as closely as possible.[1]
Neither the murdered women or their killer are depicted, nor are the murders themselves; rather, the piece is concerned with the residents as they cope with the events unfolding around them, the media attention drawn to their neighbourhood, and their attempts to rebuild and regenerate their community afterwards. The piece does not feature principal characters in the conventional sense, instead, an ensemble cast assume the roles of various locals, sex workers and reporters, and most characters are not referred to by name.
Real Life Monsters 