Vice girls to get attack alarms

Police fear the bodies are those of Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls

Teesside prostitutes are to be issued with personal attack alarms following the apparent murders of five women in the Ipswich area of Suffolk.

The move will target women working in the vice industry in the Middlesbrough and Stockton areas.

A total of 100 alarms from the area's Domestic Violence Case Group will be distributed by police officers.

Suffolk Police are investigating the deaths of three known prostitutes and the discovery of two further bodies.

Supt Steve Swales of Cleveland Police, said: "We have been running Operation Streetwise since November, but the focus of our activities has changed significantly in the last week.

"The primary aim of the current operation was enforcement , however events in Ipswich caused us to rethink that over the last weekend and our priority at this time is to educate and engage the vice girls in staying safe and looking out for each other.

The bodies of three prostitutes were found earlier this month

"We have been seeking out the known street prostitutes and giving them basic personal safety advice and support, it is nothing new, but we felt it timely to remind them."

The current policing operation is scheduled to continue until the end of January, with extra patrols operating in the known vice hotspots around the force area.

Supt Swales added: "This does not mean we are not tackling the punters.

"In fact with our change of priority on the girls, it will mean we have more time and energy to focus on the kerb crawlers - they have been warned."

Officers in Suffolk said they had had a massive response from the public.

Two bodies were found on Tuesday. They have yet to be formally identified, but police were concerned about Paula Clennell, 24, originally from Berwick, and Annette Nicholls, 29, who had been missing for several days.

Police have already linked the murders of Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, and Anneli Alderton, 24, whose bodies were found in nearby villages within the past two weeks.

A reward of £250,000 has been offered by a national newspaper to help catch the killer of the Ipswich prostitutes.