The 67-year-old, formerly of London Road, in Ipswich, had been due to go on trial at the Old Bailey, in London, but changed his plea on Monday.

It is the first time Wright, known as the "Suffolk Strangler", has admitted any killings.

Victoria Hall was on her way home to Trimley St Mary from a nightclub in Felixstowe when she vanished in 1999. Her body was found in a ditch five days later near the village of Creeting St Peter, around 25 miles from where she was last seen.

Miss Hall had left her home on the evening of 18 September to go with a friend to the Bandbox nightclub.

The girls left the club at around 1am and parted ways at around 2.20am, yards from Miss Hall's home. That was the last time Miss Hall was seen alive.

Wright admitted to the the kidnap "by force or fraud" and murder of Miss Hall on 19 September 1999. He also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of Emily Doherty, then aged 22, in Felixstowe the day before.

Wright, who is being held at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, is serving a whole life sentence for the murders of five other women.

They were killed over a 10-day period in December 2006 and their bodies dumped at locations in Ipswich.

Balding and bespectacled Wright appeared in the dock of the Old Bailey on Monday in a navy and grey jumper, and spoke only to confirm his name and enter pleas.

Mr Justice Bennathan said he would sentence the defendant on Friday to give Miss Hall's family the chance to attend and submit victim impact statements.

Prosecutor Jocelynn Ledward KC confirmed Ms Hall's friend Gemma Algar and Ms Doherty would also submit statements.

Wright's guilty pleas come after Mr Justice Bennathan ruled that jurors in his trial could be told of the murder convictions, despite his defence complaining the prejudice would be too great.

In legal argument last month, the prosecution highlighted similarities between the murders, pointing out that all six women were asphyxiated and left in similar places and that they shared a physical type.

The prosecution also argued for the trial to include evidence of a sex worker that Wright knew well who would say he was familiar with the area linked to Miss Hall's murder.

A year after her murder, her parents Graham and Lorinda Hall had appealed for help to bring her murderer to justice.

Mr Hall said at the time he remained optimistic, saying: "Whoever did this must be under as much pressure as we are. They have got it on their conscience all of the time."

Mrs Hall died in December, before her daughter's killer could be brought to justice.

Ms Algar had been due to give evidence in Wright's trial, having said goodnight to her friend shortly before she vanished.

Miss Hall, who was at sixth form at the time of her disappearance, had been hoping to study sociology at university in Roehampton, Surrey.

'Victoria's family have waited over 26 years'

In a statement, Suffolk Police Assistant Chief Constable Alice Scott paid tribute to Miss Hall's family for their "patience and dignity" over such a "long period of time", adding: "Our immediate thoughts and focus today - as they have been throughout the entire investigation - are about Victoria Hall, her family and a significant number of others affected by the actions of Wright.

"Victoria's family have waited over 26 years for this day and I am so very pleased that we have been able to deliver justice for Victoria and they now know who is responsible for Victoria's murder.

"I am relieved that the family have been spared the ordeal of a trial. However, I am acutely aware that despite today's conviction, they will continue to live with the trauma of having Victoria ripped away from them at such a young age and in such horrific circumstances."

Gianni Infantino suffered a backlash last month after joking that: "For the first time in history... no Brit was arrested during a World Cup. Imagine! This is something really really special".

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Infantino told The World with Yalda Hakim that the comments were "meant to be more of a light-hearted remark" aimed at highlighting that the 2022 Qatar World Cup "was a celebration" and "a peaceful event".

The FIFA boss firstly apologised to fans from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, saying that offending them was "not my intention".

He went on to say that: "I'm a huge fan of English football", adding that he had been wrong to refer to English people who "just go and riot around the world" at football matches as fans, instead referring to them as "criminals".

Mr Infantino then highlighted and praised efforts made by England to tackle football violence.

FIFA "goes hand in hand with peace"

Tackling violence and peace was a recurring theme for Mr Infantino.

The FIFA boss recognised the "strong reaction" to the organisation's new peace prize but doubled down on the decision and the awarding of it to President Donald Trump.

The football president stated that FIFA's slogan - football unites the world - "goes hand in hand with peace".

"So, whatever we can do to help peace in the world, we should be doing it, and for this reason, for some time we were thinking about [whether] we should do something to reward people who do something."

Mr Infantino insists that person is Mr Trump, saying that "objectively, he deserves it".

He then highlights Venezuelan opposition leader Ms Machado's praise of Mr Trump. "It's not just Gianni Infantino who said it... [there's] a Nobel Peace Prize winner who said this."

"He was instrumental in resolving conflicts and saving lives and saving thousands of lives."

Mr Infantino praises Mr Trump for getting people on opposite sides of conflict into the same room.

He feels the same thing should happen in international football.

"Never ban any country from playing football"

The FIFA president is unequivocal when asked if he would look at lifting the ban on Russia - put in place by FIFA and UEFA in 2022 following the country's invasion of Ukraine.

"We have to," he says.

"Definitely."

"Because this ban has not achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred."

He goes on to say that he believes "having girls and boys from Russia being able to play football games in other parts of Europe would help."

He is also against a ban on Israel, saying such a ban "is a defeat".

The FIFA boss then goes further, saying he believes the organisation should look into changing its rules and "enshrine in our statutes that we should actually never ban any country from playing football because of the acts of their political leaders".

"Somebody needs to keep the ties open."

For this reason, he's also not in favour of boycotts.

When asked about those who are calling for a boycott of the 2026 US World Cup due to concerns over President Trump's immigration policies and safety issues, he disagrees.

He says there is never any call for boycotts by businesses or on diplomatic levels, and asks multiple times, "So why football?".

"I think, in our divided world, in our aggressive world, we need occasions where people can come, can meet around the passion [for football]."

Women's football is progressed through "engaging"

Mr Infantino speaks about how he navigates working with female players and progressing women's football in some of the world's most repressive regimes, like Iran and North Korea.

"These are things that take years," and "you don't achieve this with threats or sanctions," he says.

"You achieve this by engaging."

The FIFA boss explains how in Iran, he went several times to meet the president and officials, arguing in a "respectful way, without shouting and screaming" for women's football.

He argues that "ultimately, we managed to succeed".

Iranian women who were banned from entering stadiums since the revolution in 1979, are now allowed into stadiums, he says.

"And similarly, in North Korea, if you listen again to all our experts here, you shouldn't have any relations with North Korea.

"I went to Pyongyang. I spoke to the regime. We spoke to them. And now we have these North Korean girls who are world champions in our youth categories."

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"You integrate them and you make them feel part of the world, and I think this is very important."

He says these maybe "some of the great achievements that we [FIFA] made".

Mr Infantino also told Yalda Hakim about how he and FIFA helped to get women players out of Afghanistan after the Taliban regained power - some of those women ended up training in the UK.

"It was and it is the right thing to do."

He explains how FIFA "developed women's football in Afghanistan for some years".

He says these women were "left to themselves" after the regime change and "we felt, that it was important to give a signal to help, to assist, all these Afghan girls and women who love the game".

"Ultimately, we managed to, not just to help get these girls and women out and help them to have a new life, but also to give them a real, purpose in football.

"To have them coming together, train and play and represent somehow, their country with a team that is called Afghan Women United."

Mr Infantino says FIFA must "just engage. But engage for everyone. Without taking sides".

Russian national Vladimir Motin, 59, has been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter after his container vessel, the Solong, collided with the anchored US oil tanker the Stena Immaculate near the Humber Estuary last March.

Both vessels were laden with flammable goods.

Crew member Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, who was on the bow of the Portuguese-flagged Solong, was killed in the collision.

His body has never been found.

Motin, from St Petersburg, had been on sole watch duty.

During his trial at the Old Bailey, he told jurors he made a "mistake" and pressed the wrong button when he tried to take the Solong out of autopilot, and efforts to restart the steering gear had no effect.

But the prosecution contended that all navigational systems were operational, and the captain's claims of rudder failure were baseless.

Prosecutor Tom Little told jurors at ‍the start of the trial last month that Motin did "absolutely nothing" to prevent the collision.

The captain had disabled the Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System, the prosecution showed, leaving him alone as the eyes and ears of the ship, contrary to normal safety protocols.

They also demonstrated, using data from the Solong's black box, that there were no adjustments to the vessel's course or speed as disaster neared.

Mr Little said the Solong had been on a collision course with the Stena Immaculate for ‌more than 30 minutes before ⁠the deadly impact.

Michael Gregory of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a tragic, and entirely avoidable death of a member of crew caused by truly, exceptionally bad negligence.

"Vladimir Motin was an experienced vessel master who had captained the Solong for 15 years - but this time his actions fell gravely below the standards expected.

"His failure to act, despite clear and sustained warnings, amounted to a gross breach of duty and led to fatal consequences. It is extremely fortunate that no one else was killed."

The Solong, with a 14-strong crew, was carrying mainly alcoholic spirits and some hazardous substances.

The Stena Immaculate, with a crew of 23, was transporting more than 220,000 barrels of JetA1 high-grade aviation fuel from Greece to the UK.

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For the first time, former TikTok worker Lynda Ouazar is speaking out to expose what she says was an environment of bullying, harassment and union busting at one of the world's biggest social media companies.

"I was finding it really hard to sleep at night, having flashbacks, feeling tired, losing my motivation," she tells Sky News.

Along with three of her former colleagues, she is now launching legal action against TikTok. This is the second court case the video app is facing from former UK employees in recent months.

Lynda started at the company as a moderator and then as a quality control worker, checking the work of external agency moderators.

At first, she enjoyed the job and found it rewarding.

But then, she was moved on to a workflow dealing with some of the most extreme content posted on TikTok.

"You don't want to see children being sexually assaulted, you don't want to see women going through all kinds of abuse, you don't want to see people self-harming, [...] using slur words all day long.

"It affected me."

Despite the type of content she was watching day in, day out, Lynda says there wasn't much support to keep moderators safe, and to ensure they were able to moderate TikTok's content effectively.

TikTok does tell moderators to take breaks when they need them and offers a mental health support platform.

But Lynda, and other moderators that Sky News has spoken to recently, say that in practice, they did not feel supported.

Instead, they felt pressured to work faster and harder, no matter how disturbing the content.

"You are monitored by AI all day long," she says.

This accusation that moderators are constantly monitored and feel pressured is something Sky News has previously been told by other moderators at the company.

"Moderators find themselves pressurised to deliver, so they have to carry on, even if you see something which really affects you and you feel like you have tears in your eyes," says Lynda.

"Sometimes you cry but then you carry on working because you have to reach those targets. Otherwise, your bonus will be affected, your job security, your salary, everything will be affected."

She says that pressure has a direct impact on user safety.

"When you work under pressure and you are under speed and you make errors, it means that things that should not be in the platform are actually still there.

"It's not good for the moderators, it is not good for the users of the platform."

That being said, according to its latest transparency report, TikTok removes more than 99% of harmful content before it is reported.

According to data gathered for the EU's Digital Services Act, it also has the lowest error rates and highest accuracy rates in moderation among all major social media platforms.

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After two years at TikTok, Lynda joined the United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW) union and became a union rep. This is when she started to feel like she was being bullied and harassed and believes it was because of her union membership.

"It took me some time, I would say a few months, to see the pattern."

She says as well as facing exclusion and bullying, her performance was downgraded from the highest possible rating to the lowest - but wasn't given a proper explanation as to why, even when she raised a grievance.

"Other employees who [previously] had no problems at all, which I helped recruit to become union members, also started going through the same pattern as myself."

When TikTok began a major restructuring programme to change how it moderates content last year, Lynda's team were told they were at risk. Of the 24 people at risk of redundancy, 11 lost their jobs.

According to the lawsuit, all of them had been openly involved in union activity at TikTok.

Stella Caram, head of legal at Foxglove, is helping to represent the former workers in the legal case.

"In this case specifically, we want compensation for the workers. They have been unlawfully dismissed because they were engaging with union activities," she tells Sky News.

"We wanted to make this a precedent because we've seen a lot of this happening across the world."

TikTok told Sky News: "We strongly reject these baseless and inaccurate claims.

"We have made ongoing enhancements to our safety technologies and content moderation, which are borne out by the facts: a record rate of violative content removed by automated technology (91%) and record volume of violative content removed in under 24 hours (95%)."

Eleanor Payne from UTAW said: "TikTok workers in London have been unionising for three years and aren't about to stop.

"TikTok have once again been caught using unlawful redundancy in a futile attempt to stop workers unionising for a stronger voice at work.

TikTok can play union-busting whack-a-mole all they like but, ultimately, it's a losing game. UTAW members know that by sticking together they'll win in the end."

Christopher Jackson, 27, appeared in the dock at the Old Bailey on Monday to plead guilty to causing Aalia Mahomed's death by dangerous driving on 18 March last year.

The van he was driving hit a metal gate, knocking it off its hinges, before colliding with the bench where the 20-year-old, who was in her second year of a physics and philosophy degree, was sitting, the court previously heard.

Jackson also pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after two other KCL students, Irem Yoldas and Yamin Belmessous - both in their 20s - were hurt after being hit by the gate and taken to hospital.

Police said Jackson had been picking up two electric vehicles from Bush House, in Aldwych, before driving at speed and hitting the gates, at the campus near The Strand.

The van mounted a flower bed, becoming briefly airborne, before Ms Mahomed, who was sitting on a bench, and then came to a stop close to the wall of St Mary-Le-Strand church.

Wearing a black shirt, Jackson stood in the dock with his head bowed as he entered his pleas, then sat looking at the floor for the rest of the short hearing.

Jackson, who is from Southampton, was remanded in custody ahead of a sentencing hearing on 6 March ahead of the anniversary of the incident.

Judge Philip Katz KC said: "It is inevitably going to be a substantial custodial sentence."

Jessica Clarke, defending, told the court Jackson has three young children with his fiance and has been trying to "earn as much money" as he can for his family before the sentencing.

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"Unlike many cases of death by dangerous driving which involve excessive speed, alcohol and drugs, this involves none of that. It was a tragic accident," she said.

In a previous statement, Ms Mahomed's family described her as "a bright, kind and beautiful soul, who brought joy and laughter to everyone".

"She was a ray of sunshine in our lives, and will be deeply missed by all her family and friends," they said.

"Her light will always live on in our memories and her smile will be our strength as we get through this difficult time."

Speaking outside court after the hearing, the Mahomeds' lawyer Trevor Sterling, a senior partner at Moore Barlow, told Sky News it was a day of "mixed emotions".

"They have been on a horrendous journey but today enables them at least to find at least some closure because of the guilty plea," he said.

"They wish this had never happened. It was one of the worst if not the worst days of their lives.

"They have no feeling towards him (Jackson), they just hope there's a level of accountability."

He said the family now wanted to focus on Ms Mahomed's legacy and had set up a charity in her name to help poorer children in Malawi.

"It would've made Aalia very, very proud and for the family that's the most important they will be able to get out of this process," he added.

Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Superintendent Donna Smith said: "Our thoughts remain with Aalia's friends and family at this time.

"We can only imagine the pain they are suffering and we know nothing can undo what's happened. We hope today's guilty plea brings them a small measure of comfort.

"I want to thank our officers for their dedication and professionalism in helping to achieve justice. We would also like to thank the members of the public who came to Aalia's aid, and to all of those who assisted us with our investigation."