Prostitute murders: 'Significant' arrest

Story Highlights

• NEW: Police granted extra 36 hours to question first suspect
• Police say arrest of second man in prostitutes murder hunt "significant"
• Man arrested Monday continues to be questioned
• Detective leading hunt says first man is suspect in all 5 killings

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IPSWICH, England (CNN) -- Police investigating the killings of five prostitutes in eastern England say they have arrested a second suspect, in a move described as "significant."

The 48-year-old man was arrested at 5:00 a.m. Tuesday at his home near Ipswich, said Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, who is leading the investigation into the murders that have gripped Britain and left the normally quiet town on edge in the run-up to Christmas.

The arrest came a day after police arrested a 37-year-old man, also on suspicion of murdering Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, Gemma Adams and Annette Nicholls, whose bodies were found dumped near Ipswich, 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of London, earlier this month.

Police have not made any connection between the two men.

While police have not officially identified either suspect, British media are identifying the first suspect arrested as Tom Stephens, a local supermarket worker who granted interviews to several journalists in recent days.

Police were late Tuesday given an extra 36 hours to question Stephens, the UK Press Association said.

Earlier, detectives impounded a blue Ford Mondeo car for forensic tests. The vehicle was removed from outside a house in Ipswich where the second suspect was arrested, according to media reports.

David Welton, 43, who lives next door to the suspect arrested on Tuesday, told PA: "He was always cleaning that Mondeo both inside and out."

Members of the public reported police activity early in the morning in the red light area of Ipswich. But police would not confirm whether any arrests had been made there. They also declined to name the second man taken into custody.

A police source described the latest arrest as "significant," the Press Association reported.

Stephens told the Sunday Mirror over the weekend he was a "sad and lonely" person who had befriended all five victims. He said he believed he was a suspect, but strenuously denied the killings.

The man was arrested in connection with the murder of the women whose naked bodies were found over a period of 11 days. (Watch police chief announce arrest )

Stephens was also apparently a regular user of an Internet blog site, on which he is photographed in bizarre poses.

The pictures appeared on Stephens' MySpace page and featured him posing with a can of custard powder, in front of a wall of stars and wearing a yellow shirt and Union Jack tie. His page has since been taken down.

In the Sunday Mirror interview, Stephens claimed: "On paper I should be attractive, but there is something about me women do not like."

Asked if there was anything he could do to help police, he said: "I've got to. It's not possible for me to do enough.

"If I got out of this car now and through my own initiative caught the man now, that wouldn't be enough. It wouldn't bring them back." (Watch suspect Stephens talking about the murdered women)

'Suffolk Strangler'

The case evokes that of the 19th-century prostitute killer Jack the Ripper, who was never found, and Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, who killed 13 women, mainly prostitutes, in northern England between 1975 and 1980.

The investigation began on December 2 when 25-year-old Adams' body was found in a stream. Police discovered 19-year-old Nicol's body in the same stream on December 8.

Alderton, 24, who was three months pregnant, was strangled and Clennell, 24, was killed by "compression to the neck," police said. Nicholls, 29, was the fifth victim.

The killer has been dubbed the Suffolk Strangler, although the precise way all the women died has yet to be established.

Inquests into the deaths of Nicol, Alderton, Nicholls and Clennell will be opened on Wednesday, police said. The inquest into the death of Adams was opened last week.

Sex workers were urged to stay off the streets but some ignored warnings and still working, many to feed drug addictions. The five dead women were all drug users, media said.

Prostitution is legal in Britain but advertising sexual services, streetwalking, brothels and curb crawling -- driving slowly through a neighborhood to ask women for sex -- are all against the law.

The case has sparked calls for better protection for prostitutes, or the legalization of brothels so women do not have to solicit for sex on the street.

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