Whatever the case, one man is charged with murder. His name is Stephen Wright.

Depending on who was speaking about him this week, 48-year-old Wright was portrayed as a shy, normal, golfenthusiast or as a crossdressing sex maniac. An Irish couple who have been friends with him for years liked him enough to take him on a trip to Ireland with them. Sheila Davis and Eddie Roberts own a pub in Ipswich and this weekend they were standing by their friend.

"He was always very smartly dressed and wore polo-neck tops, " said Davis, who introduced Wright to her mother during his Irish visit.

"He got on like a house on fire with Sheila's mother, " said Eddie Roberts. "If you knew the guy you'd know why.

Everyone liked him. He's a lovely guy."

However, former prostitutes from Norwich who claim Wright was a client of theirs painted a very different picture last week. One woman, named Tina, said she saw Wright once or twice a week between 1996 and 2002, and that he often dressed as a woman.

"He used to speed up and down the block here, " she said.

"He wore a wig. When he got out of the car he had a PVC skirt and high heels."

But cross-dressing is not what got Wright charged with five murders on Thursday night. It is unclear what evidence there actually is against him, although it is believed his arrest followed the examination of CCTV evidence and forensic examination of the bodies of the three prostitutes discovered in open country.

It's still very different to the flurry of information that emerged after the arrest of 37-year-old Tom Stephens on Monday. Stephens knew all five murdered prostitutes, admitted to paying them for sex, admitted to having been in their company close to the times they disappeared, admitted to being a prime suspect. With Wright, there are no such publicised links.

However, there are chilling and coincidental connections between Wright and some older, unsolved homicides - most notably, the case of Suzy Lamplugh, a young woman who has been missing for 20 years. It was revealed late last week that Wright worked as a steward on a cruise liner, the Queen Elizabeth II, with Lamplugh in the 1980s. Lamplugh was 22 at the time and working as a beautician, taking a break to see the world.

When she returned to shore, she started work as an estate agent in west London, until 28 July 1986 when, aged 25, she set off alone from her office in Fulham to show a 'Mr Kipper' around an empty house. She has not been seen since and was declared dead in 1994.

According to a former steward from the QE2, Wright was well-acquainted with Suzy during their time on the ship. "He wasn't really one of the lads, but he liked the girls, " said Steve Adler. "He would 'sniff ' around all the girls and particularly the beauticians like Suzy."

Hardly conclusive evidence.

Wright was never implicated in Lamplugh's disappearance, and indeed Scotland Yard has a different prime suspect for the crime. Yet it is coincidental.

Criminal profilers have said the rate at which the Ipswich murderer struck, particularly killing three women in a week, suggests that he was coming to the end of his killings, rather than the beginning.

The police are now looking for any connection between the Ipswich homicides and a rash of other murders in the area. In 1992, a 16-year-old prostitute, Natalie Pearman, was taken from Norwich's redlight district, strangled and left in the countryside on the outskirts of the city. In 2000, 29-year-old Kellie Pratt went missing from outside the Rose pub in Queens Road and her body has never been found.

And in 2002, a 22-year-old prostitute, Michelle Bettles, was strangled and her body discovered in dense woodland near Dereham. All of these murders took place in the Norfolk area. Steve Wright managed the Ferry Boat Inn in the heart of Norfolk's red-light district for five months in 1988.

Norfolk police is now sharing information from its database with the Suffolk force but has not yet established any clear links with the unsolved cases. "We have never formally linked these cases, " said a police spokesman, "but we cannot discount the possibility that they are linked."

Another case that will be re-examined for possible connections to the present inquiry is that of 26-year-old Mandy Duncan who disappeared from Ipswich's red-light district in July 1993 and has not been seen since.

Add these cases to the latest five murders and there are 10 dead women. And, as yet, no killer. With everyone eager to see a prosecution, the British media has finally been given an official warning by the attorney general, Lord Peter Goldsmith, on its reporting of the murder investigations.

In a note to editors on Thursday, Goldsmith said that while the wide media and public interest in the case was "wholly understandable", he warned the media to avoid coverage that might impede or prejudice the police investigation, or any potential prosecutions. Basically, the more that is written and broadcast about Wright, the stronger the possibility that his defence team will be able to argue that his right to a fair trial has been grossly prejudiced.

Taking this as a yardstick, there is already a serious possibility Goldsmith's warning comes too late. Already, pictures have been published in British papers of Wright with his hands around the neck of a female friend, in a mock-strangulation pose, under the heading "Is THIS the strangler?"

Wright's alleged penchant for cross-dressing and his frequenting of prostitutes has also been widely reported on and there has been in-depth speculation on his involvement in previous murders.

A few media outlets have made a point of not doing anything to endanger the investigation - notably the local Ipswich paper, the Evening Star, which has announced its intention not to identify anyone or carry any pictures of anyone that could hinder the legal proceedings. But that means little when the major media organisations, such as Sky News and the BBC, don't appear to have the same qualms. Last week, after Tom Stephens was arrested, and at a time when it appeared as though he might well have been the prime suspect in the case, the BBC made a decision to broadcast an interview it had conducted with him before his arrest. Fascinating listening, certainly.

But clearly prejudicial.

Trial by media is interesting for the public, excellent for the press and grossly unfair to the defendant. In the case of Wright, that trial has already begun. If the British media does not now heed Goldsmith's warnings and row back on its reporting, the real trial of one of the most unprecedented serial killers in the UK could be in serious danger.

MISSING AND MURDERED: THE WOMEN LINKED TO THE PRIME SUSPECT

1986: Suzy Lamplugh (25) goes missing in London, has not been seen since.
1992: Natalie Pearman (16) found strangled in the countryside in Norfolk
1993: Mandy Duncan (26) disappears from Ipswich and is never seen again
2000: Kellie Pratt (29), disappears from the Rose pub, has not been seen since
2002: Michelle Bettles (22) found strangled in the countryside in Norfolk
30 October: Tania Nicol (19) disappears, body discovered a week later 15 November: Gemma Adams (25) disappears, body found two weeks later
3 December: Anneli Alderton (24) disappears, body found one week later 5 December: Annette Nicholls (29) disappears, body found one week later 11 December: Paula Clennell (24) goes missing, body found the next day.