British prostitutes get help as police hunt killer

IPSWICH (Reuters) - Prostitutes in eastern England are being offered financial help to stay off the streets as police step up their hunt for a serial killer feared to have murdered five women, officials said on Friday.

Some prostitutes have ignored police warnings and carried on working, many to feed drug habits, despite the discovery of five bodies in less than two weeks near the eastern port of Ipswich.

Police, local government and the health service are handing out food vouchers, mobile phone credit and the heroin replacement drug methadone to encourage them to stay at home. They will also be given advice on claiming state benefits and housing allowances.

"It's not physical cash," said a spokeswoman for Suffolk County Council, the local authority. "It's about making sure that we're doing everything we can so they don't have to go on the streets."

As police drafted in hundreds of extra officers in a huge manhunt for the killer, prostitutes in the eastern town of Ipswich told how their drug addiction drove them to take risks.

"I'll be dead in 10 years' time anyway," a 25-year-old prostitute called Suzanne told the Daily Mail. "Whether it is through drugs, or at the hands of some sicko, well, it doesn't make much difference. If it happens, it happens."

SUFFOLK STRANGLER

Experts were carrying out toxicology tests on the bodies of two of the victims, Gemma Adams, 25, and Tania Nicol, 19, to see if they were drugged before they were killed, police said, but the test results will not be known for weeks.

The women may have been drugged, media said, because their bodies showed no obvious signs of injury or struggle.

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

Anneli Alderton, 24, was strangled and Paula Clennell, also 24, was killed by "compression to the neck," detectives said.

Police are expected to identify the fifth body as that of Annette Nicholls, 29, who was reported missing on December 4.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken of his "horror of the situation" and pledged his full support for the investigation.

One newspaper has offered a 250,000 pound ($491,400) reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer.