Vicky 'murdered by newspaper owner'

Schoolgirl Vicky Hall was abducted and murdered as she walked home from a nightclub by the owner of a local newspaper, a court heard today.

Adrian Bradshaw, 27, who owns the Felixstowe Flyer and drives a string of second-hand Porsches, was arrested last December, more than 15 months after her death.

Bradshaw, who denies murder, had lived in the same Suffolk village as Vicky and had separated from his girlfriend three months before the murder, the court was told.

Vicky, 17, was studying for A-levels and is described as "a very lovely, energetic, bubbly, modern young lady". She had spent hours getting ready for a big night out with her best friend and was dressed in a "small black strappy dress," the jury was told.

But she never returned home and her naked body was discovered six days later in a ditch.

The schoolgirl was originally identified by the earrings she had been wearing, the court heard.

Michael Lawson, QC, prosecuting, told Norwich Crown Court that apart from her school studies, Vicky worked in a lingerie shop at weekends, went to ballet and jazz dance classes and had a regular baby-sitting job.

On the night she died she decided to go to the Bandbox Club in Felixstowe with her best friend Gemma Algar.

Mr Lawson said: "Vicky took an enormous amount of time to get ready and looked very pretty with a brown coat covering her small black strappy dress.

"She was wearing clumpy black shoes, had a small purse, a watch, three rings and earrings which were later to help identify her body."

She left the nightclub after midnight to walk home with Gemma and they parted in the village of Trimley St Mary when Vicky headed to her home through alleyways between houses on the estate. "Shortly afterwards Gemma heard a couple of high-pitched screams and, to start with, she thought they were from people larking about. Then it occurred to her it might be someone being attacked because it was how she thought she might react," said Mr Lawson.

"She didn't link it with her friend Vicky - but it must have been."

Vicky never returned home and after a major police search her naked body was found by a man walking his dog 20 miles away near the village of Creeting St Peter.

A pathologist found bruising to her muscles near her shoulder and signs that she had been suffocated.

Death would have been swift and timed less than two hours after she had left her friend Gemma, the court heard.

Bradshaw was unknown to Vicky's family but ran the local free newspaper, the court heard.

He had lived with his girlfriend on the same estate in Trimley St Mary as the Halls. Bradshaw had split-up with his girlfriend in June, 1999, but continued to live in the same house.

Bradshaw has pleaded not guilty to the murder in September, 1999.

The case continues.