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Wednesday, February 07, 2007 | 12:00
POLICE are investigating after it emerged a man confused with Suffolk killings suspect Steve Wright has been found dead.
Just weeks after a national newspaper confused their identities, Gareth Roberts, from Phwllehi in Wales, was found dead at his home.
A group photo showing Mr Roberts and Wright, while they were both working as stewards on the QE2 cruise ship, was printed in the Daily Mail in December.
The picture - published on the Mail's front page - wrongly identified Mr Roberts, 48, as his former colleague.
The newspaper apologised and paid compensation to father-of-two Mr Roberts, but yesterday he and his friend Ian Stedham, also in his 40s, were found dead at the maisonette they shared in North Wales.
North Wales Police said the deaths were being treated as “unexplained” but not suspicious at this stage and that post mortem examinations are scheduled for today.
At the time, a spokesman for the Daily Mail said: "We apologise to Mr Roberts and his family for our error and any embarrassment caused."
The newspaper said the picture, taken on New Year's Eve 1976, had been supplied by “a normally reliable news agency".
A solicitor acting for Mr Roberts, Michael Strain, said the undisclosed settlement made with his illustrated the "seriousness" of the incident.
"It was a serious mistake to make, but to be fair the paper admitted they were at fault immediately," added Mr Strain.
The discarded bodies of Annette Nicholls, 29, Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, and Paula Clennell, 24, were all found in remote locations around Ipswich within two weeks of each other in December.
Wright, 48, was arrested in December and charged with the murder of all five women days later. He is due to appear at Ipswich Crown Court on May 1.
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