Serial killer found guilty of Milly Dowler's murder

Published on Thursday 23 June 2011 19:03

MEMBERS of schoolgirl Milly Dowler's family broke down and wept hysterically in court as killer Levi Bellfield was finally convicted of her murder, nine years after she disappeared.

Milly's father, Bob Dowler, fought to hold back his emotions as he attempted to console his wife and daughter at the Old Bailey.

A jury found Bellfield, 43, guilty of the 13-year-old's abduction and murder in March 2002, following a one-month trial.

It has taken nine years for Mr Dowler, 59, and his family to get justice for Milly, even though her murderer lived just 50 yards from where she vanished.

Teacher Sally Dowler, 51, began to shake and cry along with Gemma, 25, at the back of the court. But Bellfield yawned as he was led from court and later refused to come back.

As Mrs Dowler was helped through the double doors, she collapsed on to the floor, wailing. Gemma also became hysterical, screaming and calling out "Guilty".

Mrs Dowler was picked up and taken away in the care of the court matron as her daughter again lost control outside. The women's screams could be heard for several minutes as people sat in court in shocked silence."

Both parents had earlier broken down while giving evidence when the defence probed into their lives and suggested Milly may have been running away because she was unhappy.

For Mr Dowler, an IT management consultant, there was the humiliation of having to admit that he had an interest in bondage sex..

Milly had found a porn magazine with contact numbers for women providing kinky sex, and she felt let down by her father, the court heard. This led to detectives considering Mr Dowler as a suspect - the first of 54 checked out by Surrey Police over the years.

Gemma was so upset that her evidence had to be read to the court. Milly vanished as she was walking home from school after leaving Walton-on-Thames station.

During the trial it emerged that police knocked on the door of Bellfield's flat in Collingwood Place, off Station Avenue, 11 times, but did not try to contact the letting agent to trace him.

Bellfield went on to kill again twice before he was arrested two years later. It was then that he became a suspect in Milly's murder.

He moved his family out of Collingwood Place the day after killing Milly and dumping her body 25 miles away in Yateley Heath Wood, Hampshire.

Milly's bones were found six months later by mushroom pickers. She may have been strangled or suffocated.

Bellfield's partner, Emma Mills, told detectives they had been living near Station Road and moved out suddenly.

His red Daewoo Nexia car, which was seen turning into Station Avenue 22 minutes after Milly was last seen, has never been found.

Bellfield, a former wheel- clamper and bouncer, killed Marsha McDonnell, 19, in 2003 and murdered Amelie Delagrange, 22, and attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, in 2004.

All the attacks took place near bus stops on the borders of London and Surrey.

Ms Sheedy was in court to hear the verdicts, along with Ms Delagrange's parents.

The jury was sent home to consider a verdict on a count of attempted abduction of 11-year-old Rachel Cowles, the day before Milly disappeared.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Michael Stone has claimed Bellfield could also be behind the hammer murders of Lin and Megan Russell 15 years ago, which his client was jailed for.

Speaking after the Milly Dowler verdict, Paul Bacon said: "The police have said they are going to look into about 20 other cases for a possible link with Bellfield. I'd like to know if that includes the Russells.

"There is compelling circumstantial evidence that suggests it could have been him. The chances of two men going round the south-east of England bludgeoning females with a hammer are remote, to say the least."