Milly Dowler's uncle may have met her killer, Old Bailey is told

Levi Bellfield returned to his home to dispose of the 13-year-old's body in the middle of the night as Brian Gilbertson searched for her by torchlight, jurors were told.

Mr Gilbertson said he saw a man of Bellfield's description with a dog walking towards a bin shed at the block of flats near where Milly was last seen and where Bellfield lived.

Mr Gilbertson had become concerned about his missing niece and began his own search in the early hours of the morning after she vanished in Station Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on 21 March, 2002.

After searching the railway station with a torch, Mr Gilbertson found himself at flats in Collingwood Place, off Station Avenue, where he saw a man with a dog walking "with an air of confidence" towards him.

Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "You can conclude that the man Mr Gilbertson saw in the early hours was the defendant who had returned with the dog.

"If the prosecution is right that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler, then he had to dispose of her body and clean up."

Bellfield's phone had allegedly been silent for nine and a half hours overnight - time to drive Milly's body to the woods where it was found six months later.

Bellfield went on to murder two students - Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange - and attempt to murder a third, Kate Sheedy, during the next two years.

Former wheelclamper and bouncer Bellfield, 42, formerly of West Drayton, west London, denies Milly's kidnap and murder.

He also denies the attempted kidnap of 11-year-old Rachel Cowles in Shepperton, Surrey, the previous day.

Bellfield's partner, Emma Mills, said he had been out of tele- phone contact on the day Milly vanished.

She and their two children were staying at a friend's house when Bellfield later turned up, said Mr Altman.

They went to bed but between 3am and 4am Bellfield got up and left with his Staffordshire bull terrier.

Later that day, Bellfield had asked a young friend called Malcolm Ward to help him move something from a bedroom of the flat. "The defendant got him to help carry out a king-size mattress. This had been on the bed and it had no covers on it," said Mr Altman.

The following day Miss Mills said she went to the flat because Bellfield told her they had to move out.

Mr Altman continued: "When she entered the bedroom she saw that the sheets were off the bed.

"There was no duvet cover, sheet or pillowcases.Only the duvet was left in the middle of the bed.

"She rang the defendant on his mobile phone and she asked him about what she had seen.

"His response was to say that the dog had had an accident and he had 'chucked it all'."

The trial at the Old Bailey continues.