UK Justice Forum 🇬🇧
Off Topic and General Discussions => Off topic, general discussions and the Wide Awake Club. => Topic started by: John on December 01, 2012, 04:38:07 PM
-
On 9 July 1996, three bodies were found in a little leafy copse beside a country lane in Chillenden, Kent. Mother, Dr Lin Russell, 45, and her two daughters, Megan, six and Josie, nine, had all suffered brutal head injuries caused by a blunt instrument. They had been tied up and their family dog, Lucy, was also found dead nearby. The head injuries looked so bad that Lin’s husband and the girls’ father, Dr Shaun Russell, was initially told that they had all died. Unbelievably, Josie was still alive, albeit barely. She was transferred immediately to King’s College hospital in London, where she was saved. In years to come, she made an even more miraculous recovery.
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/06/24/article-2007524-00317B8D00000258-170_634x432.jpg)
Battered: Lin Russell with Josie and Megan. Even their pet dog Lucy was killed in the attack.
The three Russells had been returning on foot from a swimming gala at about 4:20 pm along the country lane, when a car passed them. Josie even recalled waving to the driver in the car. As they walked further down the lane, the car was parked across the track, and its driver, a man, got out of the car with a hammer. He demanded money from them. Lin had left her money and purse at home but offered to go back to the house with him to get him the money, which he refused. Lin then told Josie to run to the nearest house to get help.
The man grabbed Josie and hit her on the head with a hammer but inflicted only a slight injury. He then walked the three of them and the dog off the track into a dense copse, where he tied them up with strips torn from Josie’s blue swimming towel, a bootlace and a pair of tights. He then hit Lin on the head at least 15 times, causing severe head trauma and killing her. Josie’s skull was smashed; brain tissue was protruding from a wound behind her left ear and there were several lacerations to her skull. There was extensive tearing to the covering of her brain. Megan had been hit at least seven times, suffering massive skull fractures with exposed brain tissue.
After the attack, the man got into his car and drove back along the way he had come. About half an hour after the murders had taken place, a man was spotted a mile away from the murder scene in an agitated state. The string bag containing bloodied towel strips was dropped in a hedgerow and the man then left the vicinity.
-
This is a reply to both. I am personally absolutely convinced of Stone's innocence. There appears to be no CCTV but the bootlace is not dead. I can't say more on that at the moment but hopefully soon.
Some time ago Stone and I went over his movements and he is fairly confident that on the day of the murders he was elsewhere. The reasoning behind that is lengthy but basically when he was questioned by Kent Police they confused him over the dates - it was nearly a year later, remember.
He believes that he was almost certainly in a certain place and that maybe an hour or less before the murders he made a phone call from a public phone box. Below is a link to the fruitless correspondence. The CCRC also blanked me. I've seen this sort of garbage before directed at me personally; it proves they're hiding something. Few people can understand the depths to which they will sink in order to protect their own, or even to frame the innocent. But that does not include Jeremy Bamber.
http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/JDgkAj887O3nqPd0Lo%2Bkiw
-
This is a reply to both. I am personally absolutely convinced of Stone's innocence. There appears to be no CCTV but the bootlace is not dead. I can't say more on that at the moment but hopefully soon.
Some time ago Stone and I went over his movements and he is fairly confident that on the day of the murders he was elsewhere. The reasoning behind that is lengthy but basically when he was questioned by Kent Police they confused him over the dates - it was nearly a year later, remember.
He believes that he was almost certainly in a certain place and that maybe an hour or less before the murders he made a phone call from a public phone box. Below is a link to the fruitless correspondence. The CCRC also blanked me. I've seen this sort of garbage before directed at me personally; it proves they're hiding something. Few people can understand the depths to which they will sink in order to protect their own, or even to frame the innocent. But that does not include Jeremy Bamber.
http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/JDgkAj887O3nqPd0Lo%2Bkiw
You don't need to worry about Jeremy, most of us know enough about his case to know the truth. I am very interested in Michael's case though and if he was 40 miles away surely there is a way to prove it.
Having seen both sides of our justice system Alexander I can assure you I take nothing for granted any more. I look forward to your participation in the forum.
-
Could we start a Michael Stone topic if darkman agrees to fill us in on the facts?
-
I think in some quaters they think Levi Bellfield did the crime (the Russell family murders) and not Michael Stone.
http://michaelstone.co.uk/
This looks a really good read.
-
Anyone wants to start one of these or write to the guy, contact me or check out
http://digitaljournal.com/article/328142
and linked websites
-
I already wrote to you offerring to supply evidence/proof that Kent Police falsify evidence and arrange for false testimonies in court, but you never wrote back
-
I have heard it said that Levin Bellfield might have done the Russell murders and not Michael Stone, It isn't an idea I buy into and the only references I can find are in the papers but I'll post what I have on the pair of them!
Michael Stone
http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/stone-michael.htm
Birth name: Michael John Goodban
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery - Heroin addict
Number of victims: 2
Date of murder: July 9, 1996
Date of arrest: July 14, 1997
Date of birth: 1960
Victims profile: Lin Russell, 45, and her daughter, Megan, 6
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: Chillenden, Kent, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to life in prison (minimum 25 years) on October 4 , 2001
Birth name: Michael John Goodban
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery - Heroin addict
Number of victims: 2
Date of murder: July 9, 1996
Date of arrest: July 14, 1997
Date of birth: 1960
Victims profile: Lin Russell, 45, and her daughter, Megan, 6
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: Chillenden, Kent, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to life in prison (minimum 25 years) on October 4 , 2001
Michael Stone (born Michael John Goodban in 1960) is a British criminal who was convicted of a notorious double-murder in 1996.
His original conviction was overturned on appeal but a second trial resulted in another verdict of guilty after another prisoner claimed that Stone had confessed to the killings while on remand in jail. His most recent appeal, in 2004, also failed.
Murder
On July 9, 1996, in a country lane in Kent, Lin Russell, aged forty-five, and her two daughters, six-year-old Megan and nine-year-old Josie, were tied up and savagely beaten with a hammer. Lin and Megan were killed but, despite appalling head injuries, Josie survived and went on to make a full recovery.
Josie's recovery and the way she and her father, Shaun Russell, coped with the aftermath of the tragedy were the subject of a BBC documentary. Father and daughter had by then moved to the Nantlle Valley in Gwynedd.
Trial and consequences
The crime received a great deal of publicity and in July 1997 police arrested and charged thirty-seven-year-old Michael Stone with the crimes. Stone pleaded not guilty at his original trial in 1998 but was convicted on the strength of testimony from three witnesses who claimed that he had confessed to them while in jail. He was sentenced to life.
It was later determined that Stone had previous convictions and had been diagnosed as a psychopath, and in the light of his conviction the Labour government suggested a plan to reform the 1983 Mental Health Act. Their proposal sought to reform the 1983 MHA's "treatibility test," which stated that only patients whose mental disorders were considered treatable could be detained. Because certain types of personality disorder are not considered treatable, patients with these conditions, including Michael Stone, could not be detained.
In response to the Michael Stone case and other widely publicized reports of mentally ill people committing atrocious crimes, the government wanted to allow those diagnosed with schizophrenia or personality disorders with a tendency towards violence to be detained against their will in mental health hospitals without having actually committed a crime. The reforms, ultimately enacted in 2007, changed the "treatability test" into an "appropriate medical treatment test." Under this new test, patients can be detained against their wishes as long as there is a medical treatment available to them that can alleviate or prevent the worsening of the disorder or one or more of its symptoms. There is no longer a requirement that treatments actually work, nor is there a requirement that patients participate in the treatment (ex: with taking therapies and other therapies that require active participation by the patient), merely that the treatment is considered appropriate, and is readily available to the patient.
Appeals and later developments
The Court of Appeal later ordered a retrial after a key prosecution witness went back on his evidence, but Stone was convicted a second time in 2001. Lawyers for Stone once again argued that his trial was not fair, this time because of the way the trial judge had summed up the case. Stone lost, and his life imprisonment term stands.
Michael Stone's conviction is still held by some to be a miscarriage of justice on the grounds that the evidence against him came from a prisoner in an adjoining cell who claimed that Stone had confessed by talking through a gap between the heating pipe and the wall between their cells. The prisoner who provided the evidence, Damien Daley, was described in court as a "career criminal". There was little forensic evidence available, and what there was (a few hairs, a bootlace, and a smudged fingerprint) could not be linked to Stone. However, Nigel Sweeney QC for the Crown, said that at the trial Daley had accepted "he was an individual who would lie when it suited him" but had nothing to gain by lying about Stone.
The jury were told by Nigel Sweeney QC that "we have to make you sure that Stone confessed" and so the jury tested the evidence of Damien Daley by actually visiting the cells in question where an extract from one of the Harry Potter stories was read out through the duct in the cell wall. The jury were able to listen to what was being read to them from the cell formerly occupied by Stone, which proved that it was possible for Stone to have confessed to Daley in the way he alleged.
Mr Williamn Clegg QC weakly defended by opining that "there was no proof the voice belonged to Stone".
The main issue however which forms the basis of the miscarriage of justice claim is that the jury were not told that the points of detail included in the confession had all been published in the national press on the day Stone was alleged to have confessed. They were told that Daley had been reading the Daily Mirror which contained some of the facts, but they were not told about the Daily Mail and The Times which had published the remaining facts.
On 21 December 2006, a High Court
On 21 December 2006, a High Court judge decided that Stone should spend at least 25 years in prison before being considered for parole. This means that he is likely to remain behind bars until at least 2023 and the age of 63. In September 2007 it was announced that The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is assessing if there is "any new evidence or anything to cast doubt on the safety of his convictions". CCRC spokeswoman said on Sunday: "His [Stone's] case file has been allocated to a case review manager."If there is any doubt over his convictions, then his case will be referred to the Court of Appeal. "We will look to consider whether there was anything that wasn't considered at trial or appeal." The spokeswoman added that the timescale for examining the case could be anything from a "few months to years".
On the 26th October 2010 the CCRC announced that they would not refer the case back to the Court of Appeal because they had found no new evidence to justify making a referral. They did not mention that the bootlace which had been dropped at the scene of the crime by the murderer, and which Stone had wanted to be re-examined to possibly identify a suspect who may have since been added to the DNA database, had been lost by the Kent police Exhibits Store. Only the exhibit bag previously containing the bootlace had been found, but the bootlace itself had gone missing.
Following the conviction of Levi Bellfield for two murders of young women (both in hammer attacks) and the attempted murder of a third (with the use of a vehicle) in February 2008, a website campaigning in favour of Michael Stone's innocence named Bellfield as a suspect for the Russell case, pointing out that Josie's description of the man fitted that of Bellfield and was quite different to the appearance of Michael Stone. A man fitting the description was also seen "panic stricken" and driving a Ford Orion in the country lanes around Chillenden on that fateful afternoon. Bellfield was also familiar with that part of Kent as he had friends living around there and also visited the area to trade drugs and also for work as a nightclub bouncer and wheel-clamper. However, it is unknown whether Bellfield ever owned or had access to the Ford Orion that was seen in the Chillenden area at the time of the murders.
Report
A report in to the murders for which Stone was convicted has made a number of criticisms of his care, including a failure to share information between agencies.
Stone begins life sentences
BBC News
Friday, 5 October, 2001
Convicted killer Michael Stone has begun serving his life sentences for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell, but protests he is innocent.
Stone, a 38-year-old former heroin addict, was given three life sentences on Thursday after a jury found him guilty of two counts of murder, and of attempting to murder Megan's sister Josie.
Derek Hayward - Stone's solicitor - said his client maintained his innocence and would appeal against the convictions "in the event of fresh evidence".
But the judge at Nottingham Crown Court described the Russell murders as horrific as he gave Stone three life sentences.
Confession
It was the second time Stone had been convicted of the murders after the Court of Appeal threw out the result of the first trial after a key witness, Barry Thompson, admitted he had lied.
This time, Stone was convicted on the evidence of Damien Daley, 26, who admitted on the stand that he had lied about his drug-taking exploits at the first trial at Maidstone Crown Court in 1998.
Daley said that Stone had confessed to the hammer murders, near Chillenden, in Kent, through a heating pipe into the next cell at Canterbury prison.
The jury at this second trial was convinced that it was Stone who attacked Dr Russell, 45, and her daughters as they walked home from a swimming gala along a country lane on 9 July 1996.
Last night Stone's sister Barbara, who has campaigned to clear her brother's name, said the British justice system had "let my brother down".
No alibi
Police built up a picture of what happened, based partly on Josie's recollections and partly on Stone's confessions.
There was no forensic evidence against Stone, who pleaded not guilty and maintained throughout that his cellmate was lying about his confession.
Kent Detective Superintendent Dave Stevens said outside court after Thursday's verdicts: "This remains one of the most horrific crimes ever committed.
"Josie's survival is a triumph over evil and her continued progress warms our hearts".
"I hope now they can find some peace as they struggle to rebuild their lives."
Stone, who had no alibi about where he had been on the day of the murders, had a police record dating back to 1972.
Previous convictions
In 1981 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for attacking a man with a hammer during the course of a robbery.
Two years later he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for two counts of actual bodily harm.
He had stabbed a friend in the chest while the victim slept.
In 1987 he was sentenced to 10 years for two armed robberies.
Stone 'lost in world of drugs'
BBC News
Thursday, 4 October, 2001
The exact motive for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell may never be known but the killings appear to be linked with Michael Stone's addiction to heroin.
Stone, who was unemployed, spent much of his time scouring Kent for goods which he could steal and sell to finance his £100-a-day drug habit.
The second trial heard that a bootlace found near the murder scene bore all the hallmarks of the type used by drug addicts as a tourniquet.
Forensic scientist Rodger Ide said the 99cm lace had three knots tied in it.
Injected several times a day
Stone was a drug user who injected heroin five or six times a day.
Some said they saw him use shoelaces, belts and a tie as tourniquets to bring up his veins.
The black, braided lace was found near a copse on Cherry Garden Lane.
If the lace was his it is not clear if he was "shooting up" before or after the murders.
Stone, who was born Michael John Goodban in Tunbridge Wells in 1960, was one of five children.
His building labourer father split up with his mother, who has married a total of four times, but not before Stone witnessed and suffered domestic violence as a child.
Confused and angry teenager
The young Stone ended up in a children's home in Eastry, near Canterbury, but he was abused and embarked on his teenage years as a confused, frustrated and angry boy.
When he was released from care he moved to Gillingham and took up a heroin habit.
He had a police record dating back to the age of 12 and his criminal career - mainly shoplifting and burglary - continued unabated into adulthood.
In 1981 he was jailed for two years at Middlesex Crown Court for robbery and grievous bodily harm after he attacked a homosexual man with a hammer.
Two years later he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for wounding, assault and dishonesty after he stabbed his sleeping victim in the chest with a kitchen knife.
Freed in 1993
In 1987 he was jailed again, this time for an armed robbery on a building society in Brighton which netted him a measly £577.
Stone was jailed for eight years and walked free in 1993.
Despite the resurgence of his drug habit, he was able to keep out of trouble with the law until that fateful day in July 1996.
Stone admitted he had been taking so many drugs that he had no idea where he was on the day of the murders.
In interviews after his arrest Stone repeatedly denied killing Dr Russell and her daughter but admitted he had no alibi.
The trial was told that Stone supplemented his income by driving around Kent and stealing lawnmowers, mobile generators, hi-fi equipment and other easily disposable goods.
One friend said he knew the Chillenden area "like the back of his hand".
'He wanted money'
Josie Russell, who was left for the dead in the attack, later told police a man had demanded money from them before tying them up and bludgeoning them with a hammer.
Stone admitted: "I haven't got an alibi."
Detectives asked him: "You had no idea at all where you were on that day?"
Stone said: "I can't remember. I can't remember for two reasons. One - I was badly on drugs and two - it was so long ago."
He told detectives that he had been a heroin user for years.
Before Stone's arrest the man heading the inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Stevens, speculated on what might have been going on in the killer's head.
He said: "Maybe he's got a down on stable families. This young family walking through the cornfield with their dog. Maybe he thought 'This is everything I want and I can't have it'."
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stone_(murderer)
Michael Stone (murderer)
Michael Stone (born Michael John Goodban in 1960) is a British criminal who was convicted of a notorious double murder in 1996. He has continued to assert his innocence. His original conviction was overturned on appeal but a second trial resulted in another verdict of guilty after another prisoner claimed that Stone had confessed to the killings while on remand in jail. His most recent appeal, in 2004, also failed.
Early life
One of five children, Stone was born in Tunbridge Wells in 1960. He had a turbulent childhood, with his parents separating and his mother marrying a total of four times. He was placed into a care home where he was physically and sexually abused. Stone's police record dates back to the age of 12 and he became involved in shoplifting and burglary which continued into adulthood. Once leaving the care system Stone began using heroin.
Stone served three prison sentences in the 1980s for robbery, grievous bodily harm and assault.
Murder
On 9 July 1996, in a country lane in Chillenden, Kent, Lin Russell, aged forty-five, her two daughters, six-year-old Megan and nine-year-old Josie and their dog Lucy, were tied up and savagely beaten with a hammer in a robbery attempt. Lin, Megan and Lucy were killed but, despite appalling head injuries, Josie survived and went on to make an excellent recovery. Josie's recovery and the way she and her father, Shaun Russell, coped with the aftermath of the tragedy were the subject of a BBC documentary. Father and daughter had by then moved to the Nantlle Valley in Gwynedd.
Trial and consequences
The crime received a great deal of publicity and in July 1997 police arrested and charged thirty-seven-year-old Michael Stone with the crimes. Stone pleaded not guilty at his original trial in 1998 but was convicted on the strength of testimony from a witness who claimed that he had confessed to them while in jail. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
It was later determined that Stone had previous convictions and had been diagnosed as a psychopath, and in the light of his conviction the Labour government suggested a plan to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. Their proposal sought to reform the 1983 MHA's "treatability test," which stated that only patients whose mental disorders were considered treatable could be detained. Because certain types of personality disorder are not considered treatable, patients with these conditions, including Michael Stone, could not be detained. In response to the Michael Stone case and other widely publicised reports of mentally ill people committing atrocious crimes, the government wanted to allow those diagnosed with schizophrenia or personality disorders with a tendency towards violence to be detained against their will in mental health hospitals without having actually committed a crime. The reforms, ultimately enacted in 2007, changed the "treatability test" into an "appropriate medical treatment test." Under this new test, patients can be detained against their wishes as long as there is a medical treatment available to them that can alleviate or prevent the worsening of the disorder or one or more of its symptoms. There is no longer a requirement that treatments actually work, nor is there a requirement that patients participate in the treatment (ex: with talking therapies and other therapies that require active participation by the patient), merely that the treatment is considered appropriate, and is readily available to the patient.
Appeals and later developments
The Court of Appeal later ordered a retrial after a key prosecution witness went back on his evidence, but Stone was convicted a second time in 2001. Lawyers for Stone once again argued that his trial was not fair, this time because of the way the trial judge had summed up the case. Stone lost, and his life imprisonment term stands.
Michael Stone's conviction is still held by some to be a miscarriage of justice on the grounds that the evidence against him came from a prisoner in an adjoining cell who claimed that Stone had confessed by talking through a gap between the heating pipe and the wall between their cells. The prisoner who provided the evidence, Damien Daley, was described in court as a "career criminal". There was little scientific evidence available, and what there was (a few hairs, a bootlace with DNA on it and a smudged fingerprint) could not be linked to Stone. Nigel Sweeney QC for the Crown, said that at the trial Daley had accepted "he was an individual who would lie when it suited him" but had nothing to gain by lying about Stone.
The jury were told by Nigel Sweeney QC that "we have to make you sure that Stone confessed" and so the jury tested the evidence of Damien Daley by actually visiting the cells in question where an extract from one of the Harry Potter stories was read out through the duct in the cell wall. The jury were able to listen to what was being read to them from the cell formerly occupied by Stone, which proved that it was possible for Stone to have confessed to Daley in the way he alleged.
Mr Williamn Clegg QC defended by opining that "there was no proof the voice belonged to Stone".
The main issue however which forms the basis of the miscarriage of justice claim is that the jury were not told that the points of detail included in the confession had all been published in the national press on the day Stone was alleged to have confessed. They were told that Daley had been reading the Daily Mirror which contained some of the facts, but they were not told about the Daily Mail and The Times which had published the remaining facts.
On 21 December 2006, a High Court judge decided that Stone should spend at least 25 years in prison before being considered for parole. This means that he is likely to remain behind bars until at least 2023 and the age of 63. In September 2007 it was announced that The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is assessing if there is "any new evidence or anything to cast doubt on the safety of his convictions". CCRC spokeswoman said on Sunday: "His [Stone's] case file has been allocated to a case review manager."If there is any doubt over his convictions, then his case will be referred to the Court of Appeal. "We will look to consider whether there was anything that wasn't considered at trial or appeal." The spokeswoman added that the timescale for examining the case could be anything from a "few months to years".
On the 26 October 2010 the CCRC announced that they would not refer the case back to the Court of Appeal because they had found no new evidence to justify making a referral. They did not mention that the bootlace which had been dropped at the scene of the crime by the murderer, and which Stone had wanted to be re-examined to possibly identify a suspect who may have since been added to the DNA database, had been lost by the Kent police exhibits store. Only the exhibit bag previously containing the bootlace had been found, but the bootlace itself had gone missing.
Following the conviction of Levi Bellfield for two murders of young women (both in blunt instrument attacks) and the attempted murder of a third (with the use of a vehicle) in February 2008, a website campaigning in favour of Michael Stone's innocence named Bellfield as a suspect for the Russell case, pointing out that Josie's description of the man fitted that of Bellfield and was quite different to the appearance of Michael Stone. A man fitting the description was also seen "panic stricken" and driving a Ford Orion in the country lanes around Chillenden on that same afternoon. Bellfield was also familiar with that part of Kent as he had friends living around there and also visited the area to trade drugs and also for work as a nightclub bouncer and wheel-clamper. However, it is unknown whether Bellfield ever owned or had access to the Ford Orion that was seen in the Chillenden area at the time of the murders. However, it has since been established that he did have a beige Ford Sierra Sapphire at the time and later reported it as having been stolen, just as another car he owned was reported stolen in the aftermath of the murder of Surrey teenager Amanda Dowler in 2002 (for which he was convicted nine years later). In the aftermath of that conviction, the police who investigated the Russell murders faced demands to re-open the case and establish whether it was Bellfield and not Stone who committed the crime.
Despite the identification of Bellfield as a suspect for the Russell murders, Stone's application for his case to be referred back to the Court of Appeal was rejected on 8 December 2011.
Report
A report into the murders for which Stone was convicted has made a number of criticisms of his care, including a failure to share information between agencies.
Recent events
• December 4, 2002: The website IsMichaelStoneGuilty opens
• May 21, 2003: The Michael Stone website moves to its own domain; later another supporter opens a similar site
• January 9, 2012: A Michael Stone supporter interrupts the Leveson Inquiry.
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Bellfield
Levi Bellfield
Levi Bellfield (born 17 May 1968) is a British serial killer. A former nightclub bouncer and manager of a car clamping business, he was convicted on 25 February 2008 of murdering Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy. On 23 June 2011, Bellfield was found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler.
Early and personal life
Bellfield was born in Isleworth, Middlesex, to Joseph Rabetts and Jean (now Bellfield), and is of Romani descent. When Bellfield was 10, his father died at age 37 of a heart attack. He has two brothers and a sister and was brought up on a South West London council estate. He attended Crane Junior School, Hampton and Feltham Comprehensive. He has been married four times and has fathered 11 children with five women, the youngest three with his most recent girlfriend, Emma Mills. His first conviction was for burglary in 1981. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer in 1990. He also has convictions for theft and driving offences. By 2002, he had nine convictions.
Character
In an interview with the media, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton of the Metropolitan Police, who led the murder hunt, described him in some detail: "When we started dealing with him he came across as very jokey, like he's your best mate. But he's a cunning individual, violent. He can switch from being nice to being nasty, instantly."
Bellfield searched for victims on streets he knew intimately. Detectives tracked down a number of ex-girlfriends, who all described a similar pattern of behaviour when they got involved with him. "He was lovely at first, charming, then completely controlling and evil. They all said the same" said Detective Sergeant Jo Brunt.
Modus operandi
At the time of the attacks, Bellfield ran a wheel-clamping business which operated in and around West Drayton in West London where he lived. Detective Chief Inspector Sutton speculated: "[Bellfield] has a massive ego to feed, he thinks he's God's gift to everyone. He drives around in his car, feels a bit 'whatever' and sees some young blonde girl. Young blonde girl says 'go away' and he thinks 'you dare to turn down Levi Bellfield, you're worth nothing' and then she gets a whack over the head. It is shown in the case of Kate Sheedy. She was smart enough to think she didn't like the look of his car and crosses the road. He thinks 'You think you're so clever' and whoosh, he runs her over."
Bellfield was seen driving around in his van, talking to young girls at bus stops, while under police surveillance. Amelie Delagrange was seen by CCTV cameras which showed her walking towards Twickenham Green after she missed her stop on the bus home. She may have stopped and spoken to Bellfield between the last two sightings of her. She was attacked shortly afterwards.
Bellfield was first identified as a suspect in connection with the crimes on 9 November 2004, and was arrested on 22 November 2004 before being bailed. He was finally re-arrested and charged on 1 March 2006.
Victims
Milly Dowler
Amanda "Milly" Dowler was a 13-year-old girl who went missing in Walton-on-Thames on 21 March 2002 and was found dead in Hampshire six months later. In August 2009, Surrey Police submitted a dossier to the CPS containing evidence regarding Bellfield's alleged involvement in the murder of Milly Dowler. On 30 March 2010, Bellfield was charged with the kidnap and murder of Milly, as well as the attempted kidnap of then 12-year-old Rachel Cowles on 20 March 2002. He was convicted of Dowler's murder on 23 June 2011
Marsha McDonnell
Marsha Louise McDonnell, a 19-year-old woman, died in hospital after being beaten over the head with a blunt instrument near her home in Hampton. She is believed to have been killed just after she got off the 111 bus from Kingston upon Thames at the stop on Percy Road. Bellfield sold his Vauxhall Corsa car for £1,500 six days after the murder, having bought it for £6,000 just five months earlier.
Kate Sheedy
Kate Sheedy, then aged 18, was run over as she crossed the road near an entrance to an industrial estate in Isleworth on 28 May 2004. She survived, but suffered multiple injuries and spent several weeks in hospital. She went on to give evidence against Bellfield when he was tried with her attempted murder nearly four years later.
Amelie Delagrange
Amelie Delagrange was a 22-year-old French student visiting the UK. She was found at Twickenham Green on the evening of Thursday 19 August 2004 with serious head injuries, and died in hospital the same night. Within 24 hours, the police established that she might have been killed by the same person who had killed Marsha McDonnell 18 months earlier. Bellfield reportedly confessed to the murder while on remand.
Other charges
Bellfield was also charged with abduction and false imprisonment of Anna-Marie Rennie (then aged 17) at Whitton on 14 October 2001, after she identified him in a video identity parade four years later. He was also charged with the attempted murder of Irma Dragoshi (then aged 39) at Longford Village on 16 December 2003. The jury failed to reach verdicts on either of these charges.
Conviction and imprisonment
Bellfield was found guilty of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange (as well as the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy) on 25 February 2008. The following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released. Bellfield was not in court to hear his sentence, as he had refused to attend court owing to "unfair press coverage" following his conviction.
Despite the trial judge's comments, the European Court of Human Rights has been reviewing whether lifelong imprisonment amounts to a violation of human rights legislation. Should the court decide that lifelong imprisonment is unlawful, then Bellfield and all other prisoners serving such sentences in Europe would have their cases recalled to court for a new minimum term to be set.
On 30 March 2010 Bellfield was charged with Milly Dowler's abduction and murder. As a result, the inquest into the death was adjourned. On 6 October 2010 he appeared in court via video link and was formally charged with one count of attempted abduction, one count of abduction, one count of disposal of evidence] and one count of murder.
Bellfield's second trial began on 10 May 2011 and concluded on 23 June 2011 with the jury finding Bellfield guilty. He was again sentenced to life imprisonment the following day and the trial judge recommended that his life sentence should mean life – just as the judge at his trial for the other crimes had done three years earlier. The trial of Bellfield on another charge of attempted abduction of Rachel Cowles, an 11-year-old girl offered a lift in the Walton area by a man in a red car on 20 March 2002, was abandoned due to newspapers publishing prejudicial material, and the judge ordered that the charge should remain on file.
On 3 August 2011, it was reported that Bellfield had suffered facial cuts and bruising in an attack by a fellow prisoner in September 2010, and would be claiming compensation of up to £30,000 from the Prison Service. Three months later it was reported that Bellfield had converted to Islam; sources at Wakefield Prison claimed they "are convinced Bellfield is doing this for better meals and a cushier life" and "He has the right to pray five times a day so it gives him a break". It was also claimed that he had done it to avoid retribution from jailed Islamic extremists.
Links to other crimes
After his 2008 murder trial, Bellfield was named by police as a suspect in connection with numerous unsolved murders and attacks on women dating back to 1990 – as well as the murder of a 14-year-old girl in 1980, when Bellfield was 12 years old and attending the same school as the victim.
Around the same time, a website campaigning against the conviction of Michael Stone for the murder of Kent woman Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan at Chillenden, Kent, in July 1996, named Bellfield as a suspect for the crime as he was of a similar age and appearance to the attacker described by Russell's other daughter Josie (who was nine years old at the time and suffered near-fatal head injuries) and to a panic-stricken man seen by other witnesses driving a Ford car in the area at the time of the attack. Stone had been jailed for life for the crime in October 1998, but granted a re-trial in 2001 after a key witness at the original trial admitted to giving false information in court. Stone was convicted of the crime again in October that year at his second trial. In the aftermath of Bellfield's conviction for the murder of Amanda Dowler, the suggestion that he killed Lin and Megan Russell was mentioned in the national media for the first time.
-
http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bellfield-levi.htm
Levi Bellfield
A.K.A.: "The bus stop killer"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Stalker - Sadist
Number of victims: 2 - 3 +
Date of murders: 2003 / 2004
Date of arrest: November 22, 2004
Date of birth: May 17, 1968
Victims profile: Marsha McDonnell, 19 / Amelie Delagrange, 22 / Amanda Dowler, 13
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released on February 26, 2008
Levi Bellfield (born 17 May 1968) is a British murderer. He is a former nightclub bouncer and manager of a car clamping business who was convicted on 25 February 2008 of murdering Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy. Bellfield was described by police as a prime suspect in the murder of Amanda Dowler. The Crown Prosecution Service announced on 30 March 2010 that he is to be charged with her murder.
Early and personal life
Bellfield was born in Isleworth, West London, to Joseph Rabetts and Jean (now Bellfield), and is of Romani gypsy descent. When he was eight, his father died at age 37 of a heart attack. He has two brothers and a sister and was brought up on a West London council estate. He attended Crane Junior School, Hampton and Feltham Comprehensive. He has been married four times and has fathered 11 children with five women, the youngest three with his most recent partner Emma Mills. His first conviction was for burglary in 1981. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer in 1990. He also has convictions for theft and driving offences. By 2002, he had nine convictions.
Character
In an interview with the media, Detective Chief Insp Colin Sutton of the Metropolitan Police, who led the murder hunt, described him in some detail: "When we started dealing with him he came across as very jokey, like he's your best mate. But he's a cunning individual, violent. He can switch from being nice to being nasty, instantly."
Bellfield searched for victims on streets he knew intimately. Detectives tracked down a number of ex-girlfriends, who all described a similar pattern of behaviour when they got involved with him. "He was lovely at first, charming, then completely controlling and evil. They all said the same." said Det Sgt Jo Brunt, who spoke to several of them.
A couple of weeks after his relationship with a woman began, Bellfield would take her mobile phone and swap it with another which contained only his number, saying it was all she needed. He would then stop her from seeing friends, parents or going out without his permission, and would constantly phone to check what she was doing.
One former girlfriend said that following an argument he told her to sit on a stool in the kitchen and not move. He went to bed and she sat there all night. D.S. Brunt said: "We asked her what she did about going to the toilet and she said she would rather wet herself than have moved from that stool. That shows how frightened they were of him."
Bellfield, "a psychology PhD waiting to happen", according to Sutton, was very close to his mother. His father died when he was young. "He dotes on his mother and her on him. It's a troubling relationship," said Sutton.
Modus Operandi
At the time of the attacks, he ran a wheel-clamping business which operated in the western suburbs of London. He sometimes made a good living at this and while giving evidence at the Old Bailey he explained to the jury how to succeed in the clamping business. Police officers could only make conjectures about motivation, as Bellfield maintained his innocence throughout.
Det Ch Insp Sutton explained his own theory: "He has a massive ego to feed, he thinks he's God's gift to everyone. He drives around in his car, feels a bit 'whatever' and sees some young blonde girl. Young blonde girl says 'go away' and he thinks 'you dare to turn down Levi Bellfield, you're worth nothing' and then she gets a whack over the head.
"It is shown in the case of Kate Sheedy she was smart enough to think she didn't like the look of his car and crosses the road. He thinks 'you think you're so clever' and whoosh, he runs her over."
While he was under police surveillance, Bellfield was seen driving around in his van, talking to young girls at bus stops. Sutton's theory is also suggested in the timing of Amelie Delagrange's last movements.
CCTV cameras showed her walking towards Twickenham Green after she missed her stop on the bus home. She slowed her pace between the last two sightings, around the time Bellfield passed her in his van. Sutton said she probably stopped to speak to him. Within minutes he had attacked her and left her to die. Bellfield claimed that it was no coincidence that all his victims were of a similar appearance. His last girlfriend, Emma Mills, told police Bellfield always chased after small blonde girls with large chests.
Victims
Marsha McDonnell
Marsha Louise McDonnell (14 October 1983 – 5 February 2003) died in hospital after being beaten over the head with a blunt instrument near her home in Hampton. She is believed to have been killed just after she got off the 111 bus from Kingston upon Thames at the stop on Percy Road. Bellfield sold his Vauxhall Corsa car for £1,500 six days after the murder, having bought it for £6,000 just five months earlier.
Kate Sheedy
Kate Sheedy, then aged 18, was run over as she crossed the road near an entrance to an industrial estate in Isleworth on 28 May 2004. She survived, but suffered multiple injuries and spent several weeks in hospital. She went on to give evidence against Bellfield when he was tried with her attempted murder nearly four years later.
Amelie Delagrange
Amelie Delagrange (2 February 1982 – 19 August 2004) was a French student visiting the UK. She was found at Twickenham Green on an evening with serious head injuries, and died in hospital the same night. Within 24 hours, the police established that she may have been killed by the same person who had killed Marsha McDonnell 18 months earlier. Bellfield reportedly confessed to the murder while on remand.
Other charges
Bellfield was also charged with abduction and false imprisonment of Anna-Marie Rennie (then aged 17) at Whitton on 14 October 2001, after she identified him in a video identity parade four years later. He was also charged with the attempted murder of Irma Dragoshi (then aged 39) at Longford Village on 16 December 2003. The jury failed to reach verdicts on either of these charges.
Other notable events
Bellfield was admitted to hospital on 25 August 2004 – six days after Delagrange's death – with a suspected breakdown after taking an overdose and telling a friend: "You don't know what I've done".
Bellfield was first identified as a suspect in connection with the crimes on 9 November 2004, but not questioned until 22 November 2004. He was charged on 1 March 2006.
Possible other victims
Det Ch Insp Sutton said: "We looked at a dozen crimes in west London and we have not been able to eliminate Levi from any of them. I fear we may have only scratched the surface." One case police are revisiting and are reportedly questioning Bellfield is that of Amanda Dowler, a 13 year old girl who went missing in Walton-on-Thames on 21 March 2002 and was found dead in Hampshire six months later.
In August 2009, Surrey Police submitted a dossier to the CPS containing evidence regarding Bellfield's alleged involvement in the murder of Dowler. The CPS will assess the dossier and decide whether to charge Bellfield with Dowler's murder. On 30 March 2010, Bellfield was charged with the kidnap and murder of Dowler, as well as the attempted kidnap of then 12 year old Rachel Cowles on 20 March 2002.
Conviction and imprisonment
Bellfield was found guilty of the murders of McDonnell and Delagrange (as well as the attempted murder of Sheedy) on 25 February 2008. The following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released. Bellfield was not in court to hear his sentence, as he had refused to attend court due to "unfair press coverage" following his conviction.
Despite the trial judge's comments, the European Court of Human Rights has been reviewing whether lifelong imprisonment amounts to a violation of human rights legislation. Should the court decide that lifelong imprisonment is unlawful, then Bellfield and all other prisoners serving such sentences in Europe would have their cases recalled to court for a new minimum term to be set.
It has since been reported that Bellfield is planning to appeal against his convictions.
Documentary
A documentary, My Dad the Serial Killer, was shown on Channel 4 on 30 January 2009. It was presented by Bellfield's first child Bobbie-Louise, and also featured three of his other daughters, their mother, and the mother's daughter from her second marriage. The mother of his first three children stated that their relationship began when she was 18, and that he was charming at first, but became violent after the birth of their first child. Despite that, she stayed with him for a few more years, until finally ending the relationship after he raped her at least twice.
-
Stalker guilty of student murders
BBC News
Monday, 25 February 2008
A man has been found guilty of murdering two students he stalked at bus stops in south-west London.
Levi Bellfield, 39, of West Drayton, west London, was convicted of killing Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19.
He has also been found guilty of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy.
Bellfield attacked the women in 2003 and 2004. Police also suspect him of carrying out 20 other attacks on women. He will be sentenced on Tuesday.
Police revealed after the trial that the other attacks Bellfield is suspected of carrying out include six attempted date rapes involving drugs and they believe more victims will now come forward.
The former bouncer is also due to be questioned over the murder of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who went missing on her way home from school in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey on 21 March 2002.
During the trial the prosecution said Bellfield trawled buses and bus stops for women and attacked them when they rejected him.
Miss McDonnell was "bludgeoned to death" just yards from her front door after she got off a bus in February 2003.
And in August 2004 Miss Delagrange died from severe head injuries following an attack on Twickenham Green when she was walking home after missing her bus stop.
Miss Sheedy suffered extensive injuries when she got off a bus and was hit by a car, which reversed back over her before driving off, in May 2004, when she was 18.
Speaking outside court, Miss Sheedy said she would never forget what happened to her.
"I have waited for nearly four years for this day and it is hard to express how much it means to me," the former convent school head girl said.
"The road to recovery has been emotionally and physically hard.
"There were times when I thought I would never get better.
"The fact that Bellfield has been found guilty means more than I can say."
'Barbaric crimes'
Miss McDonnell's uncle, Shane McDonnell, said: "Five years have passed since the night our beloved Marsha was so cruelly taken from this world, a girl that only had love in her heart, brutally slain by a man who only has hate in his.
"For her family, life will never quite be the same ever again, the pain and hurt that we carry will always be there.
"It is a sentence with no remission. We welcome the news today that the man responsible for these barbaric crimes has finally been proved to be guilty, after nearly five months of having to endure the cowardly charade of innocence put forward by the defence, we at last get to see Levi Bellfield for what he truly is."
Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton, from the Metropolitan Police, said Bellfield was a clever, cunning, arrogant and very dangerous man.
"He clearly is a dangerous man and clearly south west London in general will be a much safer place, particularly for women.
"This wicked series of attacks ended in 2004 when Levi Bellfield was arrested."
Miss Delagrange's parents, Jean Francois and Dominique, said they had attended the trial as their "way of being there in memory of our daughter".
'Short tragedy'
The couple said Bellfield had shown an "unbelievable level of arrogance" and had winked and mouthed obscenities to family members during the trial.
Mr Delagrange said: "This court trial has at least allowed us to understand the final page of her very short existence.
"Today we have arrived at the last chapter of this very short tragedy of Amelie's life."
The jury of seven women and five men was unable to reach verdicts on two other charges.
These were the kidnap and false imprisonment of Anna-Maria Rennie, 17, and the attempted murder of hairdresser Irma Dragoshi, 33.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it would not seek a retrial on the two counts.
The relatives of Miss Delagrange, Miss McDonnell and Miss Sheedy held hands with supporters at the back of the court when the verdicts were read out.
Profiles of Bellfield's victims
BBC News
Monday, 25 February 2008
Former bouncer Levi Bellfield, 39, has been convicted of murdering two young women and trying to kill another in south-west London.
Here are profiles of the women he attacked:
MARSHA MCDONNELL - MURDERED
Marsha McDonnell, 19, had completed her A-levels and was taking a gap year before starting university when she died.
Described in court as an "attractive blonde", she was attacked just yards from the Hampton home she shared with her parents, Phil and Ute, her two sisters and younger brother.
Ms McDonnell, who was working in a gift shop in Kingston, had visited the cinema with friends on the night she was attacked.
Her sister Nathalie said: "She always thought of other people. She was a free spirit."
Speaking after the verdict, her uncle, Shane McDonnell, said: "Five years have passed since the night our beloved Marsha was so cruelly taken from this world, a girl that only had love in her heart, brutally slain by a man who only has hate in his."
Her uncle described the family's loss as devastating.
"Marsha we miss you, our world now is incomplete, like a rainbow with a colour missing, we thank you for the joy that you brought us in your short life, your goodness, sense of fun, spirit and passion for life remain with us", he said.
Ms McDonnell was passionate about music and a music room at the local children's hospice is dedicated to her memory.
Her uncle said: "For her family, life will never quite be the same ever again, the pain and hurt that we carry will always be there. It is a sentence with no remission."
AMELIE DELAGRANGE - MURDERED
Amelie Delagrange, 22, had a "passion for the English language" and had moved to Britain to further her studies.
Ms Delagrange, from Amiens in France, had passed her baccalaureate exams "with ease", and spent six weeks living in Manchester as part of a language course.
She enjoyed and wanted to return to the UK - she had been living in Twickenham for just three months when she was killed.
She was working at a patisserie in Richmond, had a close circle of both English and French friends and was happy, the court heard.
Her parents Jean Francois and Dominique Delagrange travelled from France to the Old Bailey, to hear details of their daughter's death.
"She was a good student, sensible, and never gave her parents any problems," her mother told the court.
Her boyfriend, Olivier Lenfant, also described her as a sensible girl who thought she lived in a safe area.
In a statement Ms Delgrange's parents Dominique and Jean-Francoise said: "It is nearly four years since our lives and our family's lives were so seriously disrupted, descending into a horror - a living nightmare."
They added: "We would like to have heard from Bellfield a confession of sorts, some evidence of remorse. In this we were disappointed."
A memorial tree and a bench were placed on Twickenham Green by the local community and her family, dedicated to her memory.
KATE SHEEDY - SURVIVED
Kate Sheedy, now 21, was the head girl at her convent school in Isleworth at the time of the attack.
She had spent the evening saying goodbye to friends after her last day at Gumley House School and was walking home when she was mown down by a car.
Ms Sheedy had organised celebrations for the sixth form leavers and gave a speech remembering her time at the school.
She missed her A-levels because of the attack but was granted her predicted grades, AAB, by the exam board and is now studying history and drama at York University.
The trial heard she remains mentally and physically scarred by the attack.
In a statement, Ms Sheedy said: "On the day I was attacked I was celebrating about moving onto a new and exciting time in my life.
"All that hope and excitement was taken from me and I thought my life had changed for ever."
The attack meant she attended university a year later than she had hoped.
"I will never be able to forget what happened to me, the scars on my body and the memories I have, are something I will never be rid of, but hopefully I can move on." she explained.
On top of the physical and mental ordeal, Ms Sheedy said there had also been the additional trauma and stress from the police investigation.
-
Bellfield 'is controlling and evil'
By Sarah Bell - BBC News
Monday, 25 February 2008
A former nightclub bouncer has been convicted of bludgeoning Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange to death, and of another savage attack on a woman in south-west London.
But what is known about a man who stalked the streets, attacking lone women near bus stops?
Levi Bellfield is by all accounts a charismatic and charming man.
But he can change in a flash.
"When we started dealing with him he came across as very jokey, like he's your best mate," said Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton, who led the murder hunt.
"But he's a cunning individual, violent. He can switch from being nice to being nasty, instantly."
Born and raised in west London, Bellfield, 39, prowled for victims on streets he knew intimately.
Detectives believe he could be responsible for a number of other attacks, other than the three he has been convicted of.
He had lived in, had family in or had business links with all the locations where his attacks took place.
'Controlling womaniser'
Despite his unattractive appearance in the dock - overweight, with slicked-back hair and a squeaky voice - he was reputedly a womaniser, boasting 11 children by five women.
Detectives tracked down a number of ex-girlfriends, who all described a similar pattern of behaviour when they got involved with him.
"He was lovely at first, charming, then completely controlling and evil. They all said the same," said Det Sgt Jo Brunt, who spoke to several of them.
After a couple of weeks of them being together, Bellfield would take their mobile phone and swap it with another which contained only his number, saying it was all they needed.
He would then stop them from seeing friends, parents or going out without his permission, and would constantly phone to check what they were doing.
One girlfriend said following an argument he told her to sit on a stool in the kitchen and not move. He went to bed and she sat there all night.
Det Sgt Brunt said: "We asked her what she did about going to the toilet and she said she would rather wet herself than have moved from that stool. That shows how frightened they were of him."
Bellfield, "a psychology PhD waiting to happen", according to Det Ch Insp Sutton, was very close to his mother. His father died when he was young.
"He dotes on his mother and her on him. It's a troubling relationship," said Det Ch Insp Sutton.
'Massive ego'
At the time of the attacks, he ran a wheel-clamping business which operated in the western suburbs of London, with a motley crew of workers with names like "Builder Bob" and "Fat Brian."
At times he made good money, and while giving evidence at the Old Bailey he explained to the jury formula on how to succeed in the clamping business.
Bellfield, a former body-builder, constantly denied any involvement in the attacks - and detectives could only guess at his motivation.
Det Ch Insp Sutton explained his own theory: "He has a massive ego to feed, he thinks he's God's gift to everyone.
"He drives around in his car, feels a bit 'whatever' and sees some young blonde girl.
"Young blonde girl says 'go away' and he thinks 'you dare to turn down Levi Bellfield, you're worth nothing' - and then she gets a whack over the head.
"It is shown in the case of Kate Sheedy - she was smart enough to think she didn't like the look of his car and crosses the road. He thinks 'you think you're so clever' and whoosh, he runs her over."
While he was under police surveillance, Bellfield was seen driving around in his van, talking to young girls at bus stops.
Det Ch Insp Sutton's theory is also suggested in the timing of Amelie's last movements.
CCTV cameras captured her walking towards Twickenham Green after she missed her stop on the bus home.
She slowed her pace between the last two sightings, around the time Bellfield passed her in his van.
Det Ch Insp Sutton said she probably stopped to speak to him. Minutes later she lay dying from massive head wounds in the middle of a cricket pitch.
Victims chosen
He said it was no coincidence all his victims were of a similar appearance.
His last girlfriend, Emma Mills, told police Bellfield always chased after small blonde girls with large chests.
Bellfield faces a life sentence for his murderous trail of senseless violence.
Det Ch Insp Sutton said: "We looked at a dozen crimes in west London
and we have not been able to eliminate Levi from any of them.
"I fear we may have only scratched the surface."
-
Michael stone
http://www.michaelstone.co.uk/
Convicted of Murder
"This is the most horrific and terrible murder I have had the misfortune to come across
in my 23 years as a police officer - whoever has done this must have a propensity to do it again".
Detective Chief Inspector Dave Stevens - 11th July 1996
At about 4 pm on Tuesday 9th July 1996, after a swimming gala at a local school, Dr Lin Russell, then aged 45, and her two daughters Megan, aged 6, and Josie, aged 9, set off to walk home with their family dog. The walk should have taken about 45 minutes. At about 4.25 pm, as they were walking along Cherry Garden Lane, Chillenden, Kent, a quiet unmade track, they were attacked. Their attacker tied them up with torn towels and shoe laces, blindfolded them, and beat them over their heads with a hammer. Dr Lin Russell and Megan died, but although seriously injured, Josie survived.
The Prosecution.
"The evidence of the main prosecution witness Damien Daley should not be dismissed
just because he is a self- confessed liar." - Mr Justice Poole.
Michael Stone was convicted of murder before two juries, but can a person ever receive a fair trial and be safely convicted on the strength of a confession which merely repeats facts that are in the public domain?
He was arrested on 17th July 1997 just over a year following the crime as a result of a tip-off from his psychiatrist who said the police e-fit looked familiar. Stone denied any knowledge of the crime and was remanded in custody while an ID parade was arranged. On 23rd September 1997 he was moved to a cell next to a heroin addict named Damien Daley who admitted to being an accomplished liar "in order to get by in life."
In the evening Michael Stone (also a drug addict) allegedly confessed his guilt to Damien Daley by speaking through a gap between a heating pipe and their cell wall, which was reported to the police three days later.
The Confession - 'spoken' by Michael Stone on 23rd September 1997
"I tied them up with wet towels while their dog barked loudly. One of them tried to run away."
Damien Daley
The prisoner who reported Stone's 'confession' to the police.
The jury agreed that it would have been "like winning the lottery" for Damien Daley to have discovered the details of the crime "which only the murderer could have known" in the time-scale available to him while locked up in the segregation unit of Canterbury Prison; and accordingly Stone was found guilty.
The jury was not told however that all the details in the confession had actually been published in the morning newspapers on the 23rd September 1997 (the day of the 'confession'). The jury heard that Daley had read some of the details in The Daily Mirror published on that day, but it was not told about when or where the remaining details had appeared - only that "they were either in the public domain, or capable of being inferred from material in the public domain."
This clever admission by Mr Nigel Sweeney QC for the Crown was accepted by Mr William Clegg QC for the defence, but it served no purpose other than to conceal the link between the confession and the newspaper articles, which were not shown to the jury following the agreement between counsel.
The jury therefore could only speculate on how easy or difficult it might have been for Daley or even Stone to have learnt about the crime from published sources. The verdict hung on the sole issue of which drug addict was telling the truth, but if the national newspapers published on 23rd September 1997 had been shown to the jury, they could have addressed the question that if prisoners could be aware of the contents of the Daily Mirror, why not other newspapers?
The jurors were told they had to be sure Stone had confessed before they could convict, so they visited Canterbury prison and took turns to lie on a mattress in Daley's cell while a forensics expert in Stone's cell recited an extract from a Harry Potter novel. The jurors were able to hear every word spoken through the tiny hole which Daley had faithfully described, but they could not have suspected while cupping their ears to the wall that even if Stone had shouted out his confession from the rooftop, or had admitted his 'guilt' to the prison governor, his account of the crime would have been equally worthless.
Trial Summary and Appeals
Michael Stone said he was "fitted up by other prisoners", but experienced police officers and legal counsel (who should have known better) must accept responsibility for the consequences of turning a blind eye to newspaper articles published on the day of the alleged confession and for not showing those newspapers to the jury in two trials.
Ms Anne Rafferty QC (now Mrs Justice Rafferty) told the jury that Mark Jennings, a convicted murderer, felt moved to testify against Stone because "his conscience had troubled him." It was "not because of a £5,000 reward" promised him by the Sun newspaper, with a further £10,000 to be paid if Stone was convicted. The learned QC added that "Stone was in the mood for killing. He is a tourniquet-using, E-fit resembling man with local knowledge of the area."
Mr Nigel Sweeney QC (now Mr Justice Sweeney) told the Court of Appeal that Damien Daley - the 'hard man' of Canterbury Prison - "had been so upset by the horrific details he heard in the confession that he needed medical help" and was prescribed sleeping pills by a psychiatric nurse for a week after hearing Stone confess.
It is not known what effect this submission had on their Lordships' judgement and whether they had to adjourn to regain their composure, but the consequences of naively accepting the word of prisoners while withholding evidence to gain a conviction meant that the search for the murderer ceased and other innocent victims would pay the price for the miscarriage of justice.
Nobody in authority considered it remarkable that if Michael Stone's confession was genuine, it would indeed have been like winning the lottery, since it contained all six details of the crime which had ever been published - and no other details.
Barry Thompson was one of the early prisoners who claimed Stone had confessed. He retracted his evidence post-trial and said: "None of what I said was true. They've put a man away for life for nothing, while the man who did it is still at large."
-
Levi Bellfield was convicted in February 2008 of a number of murderous attacks on young women, whom he would approach at random in a car before attacking them with a hammer. His conviction throws a new light on the Chillenden Murders case.
An 'agitated' suspect driving away from the crime scene had a "round red face with podgy cheeks and short gingery-blonde hair in a straight fringe. He was aged between 20-30yrs". (Levi Bellfield photos and witness descriptions).
Several witnesses saw a "beige Ford Escort-style family saloon" in the vicinity.
Josie Russell said the murderer got out of his car and assaulted her when she tried to run away. He was "clean-shaven with yellow hair, about 25 yrs old, and a tall man, like my father " (6'). She used her thumb and finger to draw up her hair and said "his hair was kind of spikey". She also stated that his build was "similar" to the interviewing detective (weight: 20 stones).
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Levi Bellfield is 6' 1" tall and would have been 28yrs old at the time of the crime. He bears a strong resemblance as he then looked to various witness descriptions of the main suspect. (Bellfield photos and witness descriptions).
It is yet to be established whether Bellfield had adopted his 'blonde' look in July 1996, but family sources have confirmed that he used to bleach his hair regularly. His facial characteristics compared to the police E-fit merits further investigation regardless of his hair colour in the summer of 1996. The police said when issuing the e-fit: "make no mistake, this could be the murderer."
If Josie Russell was right about the murderer's build and height- and she would know because she was in direct physical contact with him - this could explain why she was unable to pick out Michael Stone in an identity parade: she was looking for a much heavier and taller man - "like my father."
Michael Stone was then 36yrs old and is 5' 7" tall. He was noticeably older, shorter and lighter than either Josie's father or Bellfield. His hair was receding and mid-brown and he does not have the telling features of "podgy cheeks", whereas Bellfield does.
A single fingerprint impressed in blood was found on Josie Russell's green lunchbox and there was a suggestion that the perpetrator may have rummaged through the victims' belongings. That fingerprint did not belong to Stone, but the prosecution implied that it "could have been made" by Lin Russell, since she had a low loop count pattern on her right middle finger.
Anne Rafferty QC said when deciding to prosecute Michael Stone that "he was not forensically linked to the murder scene" but "cases such as these, in my experience, often shift a little, even a lot, as they progress. Albeit not the strongest, there is a realistic prospect of a conviction, though it could easily improve, and just as easily diminish, during a trial."
Perhaps it is time for the Crown Prosecution Service to ask the more pertinent question of whether or not the defendant appears to be guilty based upon the evidence, rather than asking whether there is a 'realistic prospect of a conviction' based upon the selective filtering of evidence and clever admissions which help to conceal the true facts.
Levi Bellfield's former partner Johanna Collings stated that he would frequently assault her by tying a belt around her neck (a propensity to bind his victims). Significantly, he also drove her beige E reg 1987 Ford Sapphire car in the summer of 1996 which was later reported stolen and burn out. Bellfield could assume an aura of cunning 'charm'. The perpetrator said to the Russell family "I'm just going to tie you up, but you can free yourself later".
The use of a vehicle to stalk victims before attacking them with a hammer is a unique hallmark of Bellfield's modus operandi; and his predeliction for accosting school girls in uniforms is well established. In a separate case on 15th October 2001 - five years after this crime - 17 year old Anna-Marie Rennie gave a description of her attacker: He was about "6' 3" tall, 25 yrs old, with short blond hair and a round fat face." The man fitting this description turned out to be Levi Bellfield, who admitted to being at the scene of the attack although he blamed his friend for the assault.
The question for the police to investigate is whether Bellfield was in the Chillenden area close to Canterbury in Kent on 9th July 1996. If he was not responsible for the Chillenden Murders then it means another 6' tall man with 'podgy' cheeks, "yellow hair" and a 'short, straight fringe' was also driving around with a hammer looking for schoolgirls to murder.
The solution of this crime will require a thorough forensic investigation rather than a reliance on a patently bogus confession. Kent police may not be looking for anyone else and indeed they stopped searching the moment they arrested Stone 14 years ago, but there is as much chance of Michael Stone being the murderer as the judge who sentenced him.
LINKS
1st Trial 6th October 1998
1st Appeal Court Judgement
Appeal allowed on 8th February 2001 - retrial order.
2nd Trial 5th September 2001
2nd Appeal Court Judgement
Appeal Dismissed on 21st January 2005
NOTES:
(i) March 1999 - The Guardian (15/3) - Mrs Batt refuses to speak to her daughter. "I disowned her because of her lying. If Mick done it, he wants cutting up in little pieces and put down a sewer. All right, he's a psycho but he didn't kill them. They had no forensics and people lied in the witness box for money. Me and my husband are the only two out of the whole lot who haven't sold our souls."
(ii) Feb 2009 - A Scotland Yard task force is investigating Bellfield in relation to as many as 20 unsolved crimes, including murders, rapes, and a number of hammer assaults. These include the murder of Bellfield's school friend Patsy Morris, 14, who was strangled in Hounslow in 1980, as well as hammer attacks on women in south-west London in 1994 and 1996. There are also attacks in Blackpool, where Bellfield went on holiday, and in Sussex, where he worked.
(iii) March 2010 - the CCRC have requested to examine the 99cm bootlace found at the scene of the crime which was dropped by the murderer while making his getaway. Such long laces (99 cm to 200 cm) are sold with hunting boots. Levi Bellfield used to go hunting.
(iv) October 2010 - The CCRC have confirmed that the bootlace has been 'lost'. The Forensic Science Service state that they would have returned the whole lace to Kent Police in 1998, but when it was retrieved for further examination in 2010, only small fragments of previously examined lace remained, while the 80 cm long section of lace had been mislaid.
(v) May 2011 Levi Bellfield has been tried for the attempted kidnapping of Rachel Cowles on 20th March 2002 and the murder of Milly Dowler on 21st March 2002 - as in the Chillenden Murders case, both girls were approached while they were walking home from school wearing school uniforms. CPS Announce Milly Dowler Charges
(vi) 23rd June 2011 - Levi Bellfield is found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler.
(vii) 5th March 2012 - Kent police have provided authority to Mr Stone's defence team to examine the forensic case files held by the Forensic Science Service.
(viii) 20th July 2012 - Kent police have reversed their decision to provide authority to access the DNA test results stored in the archives of the Forensic Science Service.
The problem for the police and the CPS to address is that the primary exhibit in the case was a 1m long black bootlace which was dropped at the scene of the crime by the perpetrator. The lace was used to strangle Megan Russell. Multiple male DNA readings of D19 -12,14 were detected at various points along the lace, but that reading is not within Stone's profile. The CPS suggested that the DNA must have come from one of Stone's fellow drug addicts who may have used the lace elsewhere as a tourniquet.
The same reading D19-12,14 was however detected at both ends of the girls' swimming towel which was torn into strips by the perpetrator. Male DNA of THO1-6 was also detected on both ends of the strips. The last person to handle the black lace and the end of the strips of towelling was the perpetrator. These readings of D19 - 12,14 and THO1-6 must therefore belong to the perpetrator's profile. They are not within Michael Stone's profile and therefore he could not have been the person who brought the lace to the crime scene, strangled Megan Russell and then dropped it while making his escape. He could also not have been the person who tore their swimming towel into strips.
An examination of test results obtained from other items handled by the perpetrator would enable further DNA readings in the perpetrator's profile to be determined. If the foregoing readings of D19-12,14 and THO1-6 are within Mr Bellfield's profile then Kent police and the CPS have a clear duty to allow unfettered access to the case papers for further appraisal.
-
The problem for the police and the CPS to address is that the primary exhibit in the case was a 1m long black bootlace which was dropped at the scene of the crime by the perpetrator. The lace was used to strangle Megan Russell. Multiple male DNA readings of D19 -12,14 were detected at various points along the lace, but that reading is not within Stone's profile. The CPS suggested that the DNA must have come from one of Stone's fellow drug addicts who may have used the lace elsewhere as a tourniquet.
The same reading D19-12,14 was however detected at both ends of the girls' swimming towel which was torn into strips by the perpetrator. Male DNA of THO1-6 was also detected on both ends of the strips. The last person to handle the black lace and the end of the strips of towelling was the perpetrator. These readings of D19 - 12,14 and THO1-6 must therefore belong to the perpetrator's profile. They are not within Michael Stone's profile and therefore he could not have been the person who brought the lace to the crime scene, strangled Megan Russell and then dropped it while making his escape. He could also not have been the person who tore their swimming towel into strips.
An examination of test results obtained from other items handled by the perpetrator would enable further DNA readings in the perpetrator's profile to be determined. If the foregoing readings of D19-12,14 and THO1-6 are within Mr Bellfield's profile then Kent police and the CPS have a clear duty to allow unfettered access to the case papers for further appraisal.
In March 2010 - the CCRC requested to examine the 99cm bootlace found at the scene of the crime which was dropped by the murderer while making his getaway. Such long laces (99 cm to 200 cm) are sold with hunting boots. Levi Bellfield used to go hunting.
In October 2010 - the CCRC confirmed that the bootlace had been 'lost'. The Forensic Science Service stated that they would have returned the whole lace to Kent Police in 1998, but when it was retrieved for further examination in 2010, only small fragments of previously examined lace remained, while the 80 cm long section of lace had been mislaid.
-
Where was Michael Stone on he day the Russell's were murdered near Chillenden?
Stone was arrested a year after the murders; unless there is a special reason, most people can't remember what they were doing a year ago, however, we believe we have traced Stone's movements on the day as accurately as possible. All we need is verification.
12.20pm: Stone is at Cash Converters in Gillingham with a fellow petty crook where they sell a tennis racket and a drill casing they had picked up from Rochester the previous Sunday. He is given a dated and timed till receipt.
15.30: Stone and his criminal associate arrive at 9 Martin Road, Strood.
Just after 16.00, Stone and two companions leave Martin Road on foot for the phone box outside the main Post Office where one of them sells some drugs to a customer.
Around 16.15, Stone walks to the Civic Centre calling into a baker’s shop en route. About this time, Dr Russell and her two young daughters are walking home.
NB. The villages of Strood and Chillenden are approximately 40 miles apart.
Around 16.20, Stone's companion books an appointment at the Civic Centre for Thursday, two days hence. The two of them then walk back towards the Post Office and meet up with the third man who gives Stone his share of the money from the drug sale. About this time, Dr Russell and her daughters are attacked.
Around 16.45, Stone and two others leave Martin Road in his white Tercel for Wiltshire Close, arriving there around 17.00.
Around 17.10, the Tercel arrives at Gillingham Station, Stone gets out, and his companion drives back to Stone's Skinner Street flat. Stone makes a call from a phone box at the front of the station to a business contact.
Around 17.20, Stone catches a train from Gillingham to Rochester.
17.30: Stone arrives at Rochester.
He leave Rochester around 19.00 and spends the rest of the night selling the half ounce of heroin he and an associate had bought earlier from his supplier. He makes a handsome profit which he splits with his partner in crime; he also pays another associate for fixing and driving the Toyota Tercel.
Read more... (http://www.infotextmanuscripts.org/stone-photo-appeal.html)
-
Hi Darkman. Do you think that Michael Stone has been wrongly convicted?
I see there was an attempt to prove an alibi for him on the basis that he was miles away when the brutal murders of Lin and Megan and the brutal assault on Jodie were carried out. Was consideration ever given to CCTV cameras along his route, petrol stations payments, mobile phone site records etc?
Having just read a little about the case I find it appalling that one of the main pieces of evidence picked up from the murder scene, a boot lace, and which did not belong to Michael Stone has gone missing from the exhibits room at Kent police Station...only the exhibits bag remained.
I fail to comprehend why if Stone was in Strood some 40 miles away from the murder scene in Chillenden and has an alibi for the time of the murders he was still convicted? Didn't several other people see him in and around Strood at the time of the murders? Didn't he make telephone calls from Strood?
-
Bellfield once approached me and I am no way blonde. He was with some of his mates on a west London high street in the middle of the day wearing hi-viz jackets. Grabbed my arm and demanded a light. Made a fuss about "Why not" with his mates laughing and making obscene gestures, I pulled away and they made racist comments. They continued shouting abuse at other women. The sight of this hulking, great brute towering and jeering over me frightened me for days and I avoided the area. A few months later he was arrested and his picture was in the paper and I realized who it was. The terror these poor girls must have suffered haunts me. To this day the sight of men in hi-viz jackets revolts me.
It is only in this country that men swagger around in dirty, yellow, one Dollar, plastic jackets and think it is a uniform that gives them some kind of authority. Now we have imitation policemen wearing them.
A revolting ape who is the best argument going for a death penalty.
-
As I understand it, Damien Daley, the fellow prisoner who told of a confession by Stone, mentioned details about the murders that were not in the public domain. From the little that I have read about this case, it would appear that without this evidence, there is no case against Stone. Or is there?
-
I have never really understood this case. It may be prejudice on my side but it always worries me when someone's alibi is "It could not have been me as I was committing a criminal offence somewhere else."
I just do not know. There is a surviving eye witness of course. Maybe I am too deeply affected by this case to dig too deeply. I suppose that is a common reaction.
-
It is good to see that Josie Russell is making a success of her life
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/josie-russell-forging-successful-art-1797241
-
Will be interesting to see how she takes the confession of Levi Bellfield http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42144445
-
Will be interesting to see how she takes the confession of Levi Bellfield http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42144445
Seems Mark McDonald is the man helping to free Michael Stone http://www.33bedfordrow.co.uk/barristers/mark-mcdonald.html
I wonder how long it takes to get this case in front of COA judges? Surely it should be bumped to the top of the list.
This case has the potential to shake up the criminal justice system NOT cases like Jeremy Bamber's - who is clearly guilty!
Levi Bellfield confession:
He added: "We have now conducted a full review of the case papers and have an independent witness who saw Levi Bellfield close to the scene of the murders at about the time they were committed.
"And importantly we have identified forensic material from the scene of the murders which corroborates the confession made by Levi Bellfield.
"The Russell Murders by Levi Bellfield fits perfectly with his modus operandi.
"He is a man known to attack and murder women in remote locations and his weapon of choice is a hammer.
"This material, including the detailed confession is now before the Criminal Case Review Commission."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/29/new-evidence-links-milly-dowlers-killer-levi-bellfield-hammer/
-
Seems Mark McDonald is the man helping to free Michael Stone http://www.33bedfordrow.co.uk/barristers/mark-mcdonald.html
I wonder how long it takes to get this case in front of COA judges? Surely it should be bumped to the top of the list.
This case has the potential to shake up the criminal justice system NOT cases like Jeremy Bamber's - who is clearly guilty!
Levi Bellfield confession:
He added: "We have now conducted a full review of the case papers and have an independent witness who saw Levi Bellfield close to the scene of the murders at about the time they were committed.
"And importantly we have identified forensic material from the scene of the murders which corroborates the confession made by Levi Bellfield.
"The Russell Murders by Levi Bellfield fits perfectly with his modus operandi.
"He is a man known to attack and murder women in remote locations and his weapon of choice is a hammer.
"This material, including the detailed confession is now before the Criminal Case Review Commission."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/29/new-evidence-links-milly-dowlers-killer-levi-bellfield-hammer/
Apparently Bellfield wants to take a lie detector test? I wonder if that's because he heard about Bambers and Luke Mitchell's *&^^&
Bellfield, like Bamber, blames everyone else http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/levi-bellfield-blames-surrey-police-for-releasing-appalling-information-of-milly-dowler-murder-a6873051.html
"Referring to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace) - the legislation which governs police interviews - he said: "Under Pace, I have made no admission to murder. This is fact
A psychopath like Bamber https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r5uIy2KHWPc
-
Apparently Bellfield wants to take a lie detector test? I wonder if that's because he heard about Bambers and Luke Mitchell's *&^^&
Bellfield, like Bamber, blames everyone else http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/levi-bellfield-blames-surrey-police-for-releasing-appalling-information-of-milly-dowler-murder-a6873051.html
"Referring to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace) - the legislation which governs police interviews - he said: "Under Pace, I have made no admission to murder. This is fact
A psychopath like Bamber https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r5uIy2KHWPc
Here are Levi Bellfields projections http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127991/New-evidence-links-Levi-Bellfield-1996-murders.html
I'm guessing he still mangoes to manipulate his family to do his bidding?
Bellfield was reportedly worried about DNA advances saying 'my life in jail would be over if they could prove it was me' and that it would 'tear his mother in two'.
"Tear his mother in two?" Wonder what kind of relationship he has with his mother? Seems his mother is/was in denial http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-mother-says-doesnt-7347660
-
Here are Levi Bellfields projections http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127991/New-evidence-links-Levi-Bellfield-1996-murders.html
I'm guessing he still mangoes to manipulate his family to do his bidding?
Bellfield was reportedly worried about DNA advances saying 'my life in jail would be over if they could prove it was me' and that it would 'tear his mother in two'.
"Tear his mother in two?" Wonder what kind of relationship he has with his mother? Seems his mother is/was in denial http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-mother-says-doesnt-7347660
I'd like to hear what Julie Price and Dennis Eady have made of the Levi Bellfield confession http://thejusticegap.com/2013/09/simon-hall-confession-a-time-to-take-stock/
http://thejusticegap.com/2013/09/keeping-perspective/
Especially given the fact Dennis Eady is part of Bamber's campaign
-
Here are Levi Bellfields projections http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127991/New-evidence-links-Levi-Bellfield-1996-murders.html
I'm guessing he still mangoes to manipulate his family to do his bidding?
Bellfield was reportedly worried about DNA advances saying 'my life in jail would be over if they could prove it was me' and that it would 'tear his mother in two'.
"Tear his mother in two?" Wonder what kind of relationship he has with his mother? Seems his mother is/was in denial http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-mother-says-doesnt-7347660
Here's Richard Baker who Bellfield keeps referring to https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/21/audreygillan
Maybe Admin could spilit this thread?
-
Here are Levi Bellfields projections http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127991/New-evidence-links-Levi-Bellfield-1996-murders.html
I'm guessing he still manages to manipulate his family to do his bidding?
Bellfield was reportedly worried about DNA advances saying 'my life in jail would be over if they could prove it was me' and that it would 'tear his mother in two'.
"Tear his mother in two?" Wonder what kind of relationship he has with his mother? Seems his mother is/was in denial http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-mother-says-doesnt-7347660
Wonder where Levi Bellfield heard about Richard Baker and the tablet http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3646473/One-Britain-s-notorious-rapists-tablet-computer-containing-hundreds-vile-images-children-young-four-raped-hidden-picture-frame-CELL.html
Sounds to me as though it's Bellfield who is obsessed with what he accuses other's of
"He had spent the previous four years at Broadmoor Hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, where he is claimed to have shared a wing with Levi Bellfield, Ian Huntley and Harold Shipman.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/I+WANT+TO+DIE+IN+JAIL%3B+THE+FIRST+INTERVIEW+WITH+THE+DJ+WHO+RAPED+UP...-a060171247
-
Wonder where Levi Bellfield heard about Richard Baker and the tablet http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3646473/One-Britain-s-notorious-rapists-tablet-computer-containing-hundreds-vile-images-children-young-four-raped-hidden-picture-frame-CELL.html
Sounds to me as though it's Bellfield who is obsessed with what he accuses other's of
"He had spent the previous four years at Broadmoor Hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, where he is claimed to have shared a wing with Levi Bellfield, Ian Huntley and Harold Shipman.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/I+WANT+TO+DIE+IN+JAIL%3B+THE+FIRST+INTERVIEW+WITH+THE+DJ+WHO+RAPED+UP...-a060171247
"Baker claimed Bellfield told him it was 'deeply hilarious that numpty Stone is serving life for what I did', The Sun reported.
The rapist also said Bellfield told him at Durham's Frankland Prison how he bludgeoned Lin and her daughters before performing a sex act on himself.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5131871/Serial-killer-Levi-Bellfield-confesses-1996-murders.html#ixzz4zwII6ofZ
-
"Baker claimed Bellfield told him it was 'deeply hilarious that numpty Stone is serving life for what I did', The Sun reported.
The rapist also said Bellfield told him at Durham's Frankland Prison how he bludgeoned Lin and her daughters before performing a sex act on himself.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5131871/Serial-killer-Levi-Bellfield-confesses-1996-murders.html#ixzz4zwII6ofZ
Levi Bellfield had previously been referred to as a fantasist and compulsive liar by a police officer in a TV interview
"Milly Dowler murderer Bellfield branded the allegations from Stone's lawyers the work of a 'fantasist' and 'compulsive liar
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5131871/Serial-killer-Levi-Bellfield-confesses-1996-murders.html#ixzz4zwLaPaPc
-
Here are Levi Bellfields projections http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127991/New-evidence-links-Levi-Bellfield-1996-murders.html
I'm guessing he still mangoes to manipulate his family to do his bidding?
Bellfield was reportedly worried about DNA advances saying 'my life in jail would be over if they could prove it was me' and that it would 'tear his mother in two'.
"Tear his mother in two?" Wonder what kind of relationship he has with his mother? Seems his mother is/was in denial http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-mother-says-doesnt-7347660
"Despite his 20-stone frame, incongruously girlish voice and Neanderthal habits, he believed women should fall at his feet, and relentlessly pestered women and schoolgirls for sex.
To him, women were little more than a commodity, to be used for his own gratification and then discarded “with complete disdain”.
Remarkably, some of them fell for his cocky chat-up lines; he married four times and had 11 children by five different mothers.
But for anyone who shunned his crude advances, the consequences could be fatal. Bellfield, who once told a fellow prison inmate “you can do what you want” to women, is known to have murdered at least three women who resisted him. Police believe he has raped and possibly killed many others.
“He has an immense ego, supreme arrogance and voracious sexual desires,” said retired Det Chf Insp Colin Sutton, the policeman who investigated the murders of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell. “When you put those things together you get a man who is highly dangerous to women.
He would approach women and try to chat them up, and if they refused it was a case of ‘how can they turn down the great Levi Bellfield?’ so he attacked them.
“He treated women with complete disdain, and had no regard for normal behaviour or morality in everything he did. He was a huge collector of speeding fines and parking tickets, and just did whatever he wanted in life.”
Bellfield, 43, was born in Hounslow, west London, into a gipsy family and would often boast of being of “pure gipsy blood”. His father Joseph, a motor mechanic, died when he was eight, and he and his three siblings were brought up by their formidable mother Jean, the only woman Bellfield ever loved.
Even when he was married, Bellfield, who worked as a nightclub bouncer and wheel-clamper, would devote his spare time to finding other women for sex. He kept an empty flat near his home specifically for the purpose, taking prostitutes there and other young women he had plied with drink and drugs.
He would even invite friends to the flat to “share” girls who were barely conscious, and one former colleague said Bellfield had given the date-rape drug Rohypnol to a young girl he met in a nightclub in Maidenhead, Berks., before raping her in a car and stealing her mobile phone. When the girl’s mother rang her, he boasted about what he had just done.
He told one girlfriend that blondes were “sluts” who “deserved to be messed around with”. Police tried to charge him with six cases of drug-induced rape on girls aged 14 to 16 two years before he was jailed for the murders of Miss McDonnell and Miss Delagrange, but he was not charged due to lack of evidence.
Bellfield has never admitted to any of his crimes, and police have given up hope of him telling them if he has killed anyone else – while his mother is still alive, at least.
Jean Bellfield, now aged 74, remains convinced her son is the innocent victim of a police “fit up” and speaks to him every day over a prison telephone. Incredible as it may seem, Bellfield’s only fear in life is that his mother will realise what a monster he is.
Mr Sutton said: “Shortly after he was remanded in custody he was caught smoking cannabis and sent to solitary confinement for a week. When his mother asked him why he hadn’t been calling her, he lied and said someone had called him a pikey and he had got into a fight to defend the honour of gipsies.
“He couldn’t even admit to his mother that he had been smoking drugs, so I don’t think there’s any chance he will tell us what really happened to Milly or whether there are any other victims.
“Maybe he will open up once his mother dies, to gain extra notoriety, but we can only hope.
“He was as prolific an offender as you could ever come across, and I’m sure there are other sex attacks, rapes and possibly more murders he has committed.”
Bellfield refused to attend court to hear the judge sentence him to life imprisonment for Milly’s murder – as he had done when he was sentenced for the two previous murders.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8597604/Profile-Levi-Bellfield-sexual-predator-who-treated-women-with-disdain.html
-
Levi Bellfield had previously been referred to as a fantasist and compulsive liar by a police officer in a TV interview
"Milly Dowler murderer Bellfield branded the allegations from Stone's lawyers the work of a 'fantasist' and 'compulsive liar
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5131871/Serial-killer-Levi-Bellfield-confesses-1996-murders.html#ixzz4zwLaPaPc
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/police-examine-confessions-of-serial-killer-levi-bellfield-milly-dowler
-
Here are Levi Bellfields projections http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127991/New-evidence-links-Levi-Bellfield-1996-murders.html
I'm guessing he still mangoes to manipulate his family to do his bidding?
Bellfield was reportedly worried about DNA advances saying 'my life in jail would be over if they could prove it was me' and that it would 'tear his mother in two'.
"Tear his mother in two?" Wonder what kind of relationship he has with his mother? Seems his mother is/was in denial http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-mother-says-doesnt-7347660
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/249273/Levi-Bellfield-a-fat-lump-says-lover-s-mother
-
Police previously said of Levi Bellfield:
Det Ch Insp Sutton said: "We looked at a dozen crimes in west London and we have not been able to eliminate Levi from any of them.
"I fear we may have only scratched the surface."
-
there's a reason he was found guilty twice, it's because he is guilty!
-
Seems Mark McDonald is the man helping to free Michael Stone http://www.33bedfordrow.co.uk/barristers/mark-mcdonald.html
A bio for Mark McDonald’s is here https://www.mansfieldchambers.co.uk/mark-mcdonald/
Mr McDonald appears to have claimed as having once worked in a hospital accident and emergency department
If anyone finds anything to support this assertion pls post proof
-
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/murderer-launches-new-freedom-bid-22634854
2017
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5131871/amp/Serial-killer-Levi-Bellfield-confesses-1996-murders.html?__twitter_impression=true
2014
“The man who runs the Sherlock Holmes Museum has launched a bizarre investigation to try to clear a notorious murderer
John Aidiniantz has spent thousands of pounds – made from tourists at the museum – on preparing an appeal for the man who murdered Dr Lin Russell and her daughter Megan and left her other little girl, Josie, for dead.
Drug addict Michael Stone attacked Lin, 45, and Megan, six, in a quiet Kent country lane in 1996. Stone, now 53, was convicted after a fellow prisoner said he had confessed to him”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541854/amp/Boss-Sherlock-museum-launches-10-000-bid-clear-Lin-Megan-Russells-killer-conviction-Holmes-choke-pipe.html?__twitter_impression=true
-
Levi Bellfield has admitted, allegedly to being in the area at the time of the murders ,
Levi Bellfield confesses to being in the area where Lin and Megan Russell were murdered and driving a beige car similar to one spotted by the crime scene
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9958515/Levi-Bellfield-confesses-area-Lin-Megan-Russell-murdered.html
-
Just been reading about Michael Stone.
I remember the murders, never paid much attention after that, always assumed they had a safe conviction but b....r me if he wasn't convicted on the strength of alleged confessions to crooks (one of whom later retracted & admitted he lied) nothing actually links him directly to the crime scene.
Could he have done it?
Maybe, but I don't believe the prosecution actually proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt & neither did Mr Russell apparently.
-
Insult to injury he's almost served his sentence but will be denied parole because he hasn't shown remorse or admitted to the killings he denies.
-
...And the police lost evidence, a boot lace used as a ligature (that didn't have Stone's DNA on it), claimed it had been destroyed in testing, then it re emerges in a police station 14 years later!
This case has potential MOJ all over it imo.
-
...And the police lost evidence, a boot lace used as a ligature (that didn't have Stone's DNA on it), claimed it had been destroyed in testing, then it re emerges in a police station 14 years later!
This case has potential MOJ all over it imo.
Yes it does.
-
Yes it does.
The quality of evidence used to convict is almost as horrifying as the murders themselves IMO.
-
"The evidence of the main prosecution witness Damien Daley should not be dismissed
just because he is a self- confessed liar." - Mr Justice Poole.
Michael Stone was twice convicted of murder on the strength of an alleged confession to another prisoner, which merely repeated facts that were in the public domain. He was arrested on 17th July 1997 just over a year following the crime as a result of a tip-off from his psychiatrist who believed the police e-fit looked familiar.
Stone denied any knowledge of the crime and was remanded in custody while an ID parade was arranged.
On 23rd September 1997, following his request to the prison Governor to be moved to the segregation unit to 'escape from prisoners who were making up stories about his involvement in the crime', he was placed in a cell next to a heroin addict named Damien Daley, who later admitted in court to being an accomplished liar "in order to get by in life."
In the evening Michael Stone (also a drug addict) allegedly confessed his guilt to Damien Daley by speaking through a gap between a heating pipe and their cell wall, which was reported to the police three days later, on the evening of 26th September.
The Confession - 'spoken' by Michael Stone on 23rd September 1997
"I tied them up with wet towels while their dog barked loudly. One of them tried to run away."
Following the first trial on 6 October 1998, a prisoner who had testified that Stone had confessed admitted that he had lied; and so a retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal which took place in 2001; Stone was again found guilty solely on the strength of the alleged confession. At the end of the trial the jury sent a note to the judge asking "how much of the alleged confession is agreed to be in the public domain, such as 'tried to run away', 'dog present' etc? Judge's Summing up.
The jury heard that Daley had read some of the details of the crime in The Daily Mirror published on the day of the confession, but it was not told about when or where the remaining details had appeared - only that "they were either in the public domain, or capable of being inferred from material in the public domain." This admission by Mr Nigel Sweeney QC for the Crown was accepted by Mr William Clegg QC for the defence on the basis that it was made "in the context of there having been, prior to 23rd September 1997, publication of the Russell girls having attended a swimming gala on the day of the attack and that the defendant had tied the victims with strips of towel and it not having been possible to identify all media coverage prior to 23rd September 1997."
The two barristers neglected to inform the jury that further details of the crime had appeared in the national press on the day of the confession. The jury was informed that other newspapers apart from the Daily Mirror were available to prisoners in the cell block - but they were not disclosed. The jurors were told they had to be sure Stone had confessed before they could convict, so they visited Canterbury prison and took turns to lie on a mattress in Daley's cell while extracts from a Harry Potter novel were read out from Stone's cell. The jurors could hear every word spoken through the hole which Daley had faithfully described, but they could not have suspected while cupping their ears to the wall that even if Stone had shouted out his confession from the rooftop, or had admitted his 'guilt' to the prison governor, his account of the crime would have been equally worthless, as several hundred thousand people living in Kent and who had read the newspapers on the 23/9/97 could have made a similar "confession."
The Daily Mirror - published on 23rd September 1997
The family were tied up and battered to death with a hammer.
The Daily Mail - published on 23rd September 1997
Josie was tied up with strips from one of the towels the girls had been carrying home from a swimming lesson. Mrs Russell and Megan and their family dog were all killed.
The Times - published on 23rd September 1997
Mrs Russell urged Josie to run away, but the man caught her
Michael Stone said he was "fitted up by other prisoners", but the authorities and barristers (who should have known better) must accept responsibility for the consequences of turning a blind eye to newspaper articles published on the day of the alleged confession and for not considering the glaringly obvious repetiton of details.
Ms Anne Rafferty QC (now Mrs Justice Rafferty at the Court of Appeal) naively told the jury that a convicted murderer Mark Jennings felt moved to testify against Stone because "his conscience had troubled him." It was "not because of a £5,000 reward" promised him by the Sun newspaper, with a further £10,000 to be paid if Stone was convicted. The learned QC added, as if to emphasise Stone's guilt, that "Stone was in the mood for killing. He is a tourniquet-using, E-fit resembling man with local knowledge of the area."
Mr Nigel Sweeney QC (now Mr Justice Sweeney at the Court of Appeal) told the Court of Appeal, equally naively, that Damien Daley - the 'hard man' of Canterbury Prison - "had been so upset by the horrific details he heard in the confession that he needed medical help" and was prescribed sleeping pills by a psychiatric nurse for a week after hearing Stone confess.
The consequences of accepting the word of prisoners in order to gain a conviction meant that the search for the murderer ceased and other innocent victims would have to pay the price for the miscarriage of justice. Nobody in authority considered it remarkable that Michael Stone's alleged confession contained all six details of the crime which had ever been published - and no other details.
Barry Thompson was one of the prisoners in the first trial who claimed Stone had confessed. He retracted his evidence post-trial and said: "None of what I said was true. They've put a man away for life for nothing, while the man who did it is still at large."
http://michaelstone.co.uk/
-
The photofit based on Josie’s evidence bears a closer resemblance to a young Levi Bellfield than it does Michael Stone.
-
The photofit based on Josie’s evidence bears a closer resemblance to a young Levi Bellfield than it does Michael Stone.
Yes I've just been reading further on the website, she didn't pick stone out in a line up either, despite him allegedly having spoken to her.
However, the attacker demanded money & that wasn't Bellfield's MO.
Certainly it could have been Stone, he bashed a nonce with a hammer years prior, robbed & burgled, fantasised about murder & sometimes used a shoelace when injecting....but all that is still far from convincing me beyond doubt.
-
Confession of a serial killer?
Levi Bellfield and the Chillenden Murders
BBC Wales Investigates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weHbbwCQvkA
-
...And the police lost evidence, a boot lace used as a ligature (that didn't have Stone's DNA on it), claimed it had been destroyed in testing, then it re emerges in a police station 14 years later!
This case has potential MOJ all over it imo.
Quite agree.
-
KILLER CONFESSES Evil Levi Bellfield admits to hammer murders of mum and daughter Lin and Megan Russell in chilling confession letter
5 Feb 2022
LEVI Bellfield has finally made a formal confession to the hammer murders of mum and daughter Lin and Megan Russell — and revealed chilling details of the killings.
For the first time, the monster — serving life for the murder of schoolgirl Millie Dowler — has told how he killed Lin and daughter Megan, six, and tried to kill Josie Russell, nine, in 1996.
Their brutal deaths in the picturesque Kent countryside on a sunny day shocked the nation.
The document means Michael Stone — convicted of the Russell murders in 1998 — could have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
In a four-page statement made last month and lodged with a solicitor, Bellfield discloses in matter-of-fact detail how he carried out the murderous attack.
He even reveals that he took a hair scrunchie as a macabre souvenir — and that he killed the family dog after it bit him.
The statement says: “I was wearing bright yellow marigold washing up gloves and holding a hammer in my right hand.
“In my car I had a screwdriver, a lock knife, a hammer, yellow marigold gloves and a very long black bootlace.
“My first intention was to just attack Lin, but I quickly changed my mind due to the screams and was worried she would fight back given the children were with her.
“I approached Lin and held her right arm tight.
“She asked me not to harm her children. She was calm.
“Had she screamed I would have attacked her and left not harming the children.
“The situation just got out of control and the more she complied it just gave me more confidence.
“I walked all three of them off the track. I forced Lin to sit down.”
The statement goes on to detail how he killed Lin and Megan and left Josie for dead with appalling injuries.
He also states that he killed the family dog, saying: “I grabbed the dog by the collar and it bit my wrist. I hit the dog and killed it.
“There was blood everywhere and all up my legs, arms and shorts.”
The confession means that Bellfield is responsible for at least six murders — making him one of Britains’ worst serial killers.
The 53-year-old is already serving life for the deaths of Millie, 13, Amelie Delagrange, 22, and 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell.
He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.
As well as admitting killing Josie and Lin in the 14-paragraph statement, Bellfield also admits the murder of a woman called Judith Gold in North London in 1990.
He has previously admitted being in the Chillenden area of Kent at the time of Lin and daughter Megan’s killings.
But his new statement provides new details — and discloses how after the murders he stopped at services on the M25 in Surrey to wash off blood before going on to work his shift as a nightclub bouncer.
He said: “On my return I stopped at Clacket Lane Services and cleaned up.
“I used my T-shirt to clean myself and wipe my shorts. I used bottled water. It was warm and I drove the rest of the journey with no top on. I didn’t look out of place.”
On his return to his home in Twickenham, South West London, Bellfield says he got changed and went to work.
He claims that the following day he threw the hammer he used to carry out the attacks into the Thames near Walton, Surrey.
He then fled on holiday to Turkey with his then-girlfriend — but returned after just a few days to have the beige Ford Sierra he was driving the day he says he killed the Russells cleaned because it was “full of their DNA”.
He added: “It had blood stains on the seat.”
Bellfield made the 14-paragraph statement to solicitor Paul Bacon, who represents Michael Stone — the man currently serving life after being convicted of the killings.
Bellfield is now known as Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam.
The confession document will now be sent to watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission — which has the power to order re-trials and is considering an appeal by Stone, 61.
Stone has always denied responsibility for the killings.
He was found guilty of the Russell murders in 1998 but these convictions were later quashed.
He was subsequently found guilty at a retrial in 2001.
Bellfield ends his statement, saying: “Something like this has never happened to me, in the sense I’ve committed a crime and another person has been arrested for it.
“I apologise to Stone and the Russell family for my heinous acts.”
Bellfield was jailed for life in 2008 for the hammer killings of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy in South West London.
Three years later, he was finally convicted of the 2002 murder of Milly Dowler and handed a second life term.
Josie Russell was left with horrific brain injuries following the attack. Her condition was so appalling that medics who treated her at the scene initially assumed she was dead.
But she survived and had to learn to talk again. She later moved to Wales with her father Shaun, a doctor.
We told last May how Bellfield — who claims he has never met Stone — was being investigated over the Russell killings by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
A bootlace found at the scene and lost by police was rediscovered last year and sent for lab tests.
Bellfield previously told pals he was worried about his DNA being found on a lace.
The Russell family did not wish to comment on Bellfield’s claims.
LIN and Megan Russell and their dog Lucy were killed as they walked home from a swimming gala on July 9, 1996.
Josie, then nine, survived the attack near Chillenden, Kent.
Petty criminal and ex-heroin addict Michael Stone was found guilty of the murders and attempted murder in 1998 despite a lack of forensic evidence.
He successfully appealed but was then found guilty at a second trial in 2001, based partly on a confession he is said to have made in prison.
Stone launched another appeal, which failed in 2004. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is now examining the case.
In 2017 Stone’s solicitors identified Bellfield as a suspect in the murders and claimed he had made his own prison confession.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17559472/levi-bellfield-confession-letter-russell/
-
The photofit based on Josie’s evidence bears a closer resemblance to a young Levi Bellfield than it does Michael Stone.
It would seem justice is coming for Michael Stone, and true justice for Lin and Megan Russell.
-
Strange he'd send a confession to Stone's lawyer, but not directly to the police or CCRC.
As Colin Sutton has said previously....
“The Criminal Cases Review Commission will look at this. They have good investigators. But knowing Bellfield as I do, this could be him playing mind games.”
-
KILLER CONFESSES Evil Levi Bellfield admits to hammer murders of mum and daughter Lin and Megan Russell in chilling confession letter
5 Feb 2022
LEVI Bellfield has finally made a formal confession to the hammer murders of mum and daughter Lin and Megan Russell — and revealed chilling details of the killings.
For the first time, the monster — serving life for the murder of schoolgirl Millie Dowler — has told how he killed Lin and daughter Megan, six, and tried to kill Josie Russell, nine, in 1996.
Their brutal deaths in the picturesque Kent countryside on a sunny day shocked the nation.
The document means Michael Stone — convicted of the Russell murders in 1998 — could have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
In a four-page statement made last month and lodged with a solicitor, Bellfield discloses in matter-of-fact detail how he carried out the murderous attack.
He even reveals that he took a hair scrunchie as a macabre souvenir — and that he killed the family dog after it bit him.
The statement says: “I was wearing bright yellow marigold washing up gloves and holding a hammer in my right hand.
“In my car I had a screwdriver, a lock knife, a hammer, yellow marigold gloves and a very long black bootlace.
“My first intention was to just attack Lin, but I quickly changed my mind due to the screams and was worried she would fight back given the children were with her.
“I approached Lin and held her right arm tight.
“She asked me not to harm her children. She was calm.
“Had she screamed I would have attacked her and left not harming the children.
“The situation just got out of control and the more she complied it just gave me more confidence.
“I walked all three of them off the track. I forced Lin to sit down.”
The statement goes on to detail how he killed Lin and Megan and left Josie for dead with appalling injuries.
He also states that he killed the family dog, saying: “I grabbed the dog by the collar and it bit my wrist. I hit the dog and killed it.
“There was blood everywhere and all up my legs, arms and shorts.”
The confession means that Bellfield is responsible for at least six murders — making him one of Britains’ worst serial killers.
The 53-year-old is already serving life for the deaths of Millie, 13, Amelie Delagrange, 22, and 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell.
He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.
As well as admitting killing Josie and Lin in the 14-paragraph statement, Bellfield also admits the murder of a woman called Judith Gold in North London in 1990.
He has previously admitted being in the Chillenden area of Kent at the time of Lin and daughter Megan’s killings.
But his new statement provides new details — and discloses how after the murders he stopped at services on the M25 in Surrey to wash off blood before going on to work his shift as a nightclub bouncer.
He said: “On my return I stopped at Clacket Lane Services and cleaned up.
“I used my T-shirt to clean myself and wipe my shorts. I used bottled water. It was warm and I drove the rest of the journey with no top on. I didn’t look out of place.”
On his return to his home in Twickenham, South West London, Bellfield says he got changed and went to work.
He claims that the following day he threw the hammer he used to carry out the attacks into the Thames near Walton, Surrey.
He then fled on holiday to Turkey with his then-girlfriend — but returned after just a few days to have the beige Ford Sierra he was driving the day he says he killed the Russells cleaned because it was “full of their DNA”.
He added: “It had blood stains on the seat.”
Bellfield made the 14-paragraph statement to solicitor Paul Bacon, who represents Michael Stone — the man currently serving life after being convicted of the killings.
Bellfield is now known as Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam.
The confession document will now be sent to watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission — which has the power to order re-trials and is considering an appeal by Stone, 61.
Stone has always denied responsibility for the killings.
He was found guilty of the Russell murders in 1998 but these convictions were later quashed.
He was subsequently found guilty at a retrial in 2001.
Bellfield ends his statement, saying: “Something like this has never happened to me, in the sense I’ve committed a crime and another person has been arrested for it.
“I apologise to Stone and the Russell family for my heinous acts.”
Bellfield was jailed for life in 2008 for the hammer killings of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy in South West London.
Three years later, he was finally convicted of the 2002 murder of Milly Dowler and handed a second life term.
Josie Russell was left with horrific brain injuries following the attack. Her condition was so appalling that medics who treated her at the scene initially assumed she was dead.
But she survived and had to learn to talk again. She later moved to Wales with her father Shaun, a doctor.
We told last May how Bellfield — who claims he has never met Stone — was being investigated over the Russell killings by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
A bootlace found at the scene and lost by police was rediscovered last year and sent for lab tests.
Bellfield previously told pals he was worried about his DNA being found on a lace.
The Russell family did not wish to comment on Bellfield’s claims.
LIN and Megan Russell and their dog Lucy were killed as they walked home from a swimming gala on July 9, 1996.
Josie, then nine, survived the attack near Chillenden, Kent.
Petty criminal and ex-heroin addict Michael Stone was found guilty of the murders and attempted murder in 1998 despite a lack of forensic evidence.
He successfully appealed but was then found guilty at a second trial in 2001, based partly on a confession he is said to have made in prison.
Stone launched another appeal, which failed in 2004. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is now examining the case.
In 2017 Stone’s solicitors identified Bellfield as a suspect in the murders and claimed he had made his own prison confession.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17559472/levi-bellfield-confession-letter-russell/
Anothet miscarriage of Justice based on a prison confession ?
-
Strange he'd send a confession to Stone's lawyer, but not directly to the police or CCRC.
As Colin Sutton has said previously....
“The Criminal Cases Review Commission will look at this. They have good investigators. But knowing Bellfield as I do, this could be him playing mind games.”
Hmm, now if a certain German suspect was accused of mind games ............
-
Solicitor as now received a letter.
The man serving life for the murder of schoolgirl Millie Dowler has confessed to killing mother and daughter Lin and Megan Russell, a lawyer has said.
Another man, Michael Stone, has twice been found guilty of the murders of Ms Russell and her six-year-old daughter in Kent in July 1996.
His solicitor says he has now received a statement written by Levi Bellfield which details the killings.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-60278013
-
I'm very surprised that Bellfield has confessed, back in September he denied involvement: "Bellfield denied making any such confession and his solicitor said Stone, who was believed to have been in a separate wing of HMP Frankland from Bellfield, had offered him payment to confess.
Julie Cooper said: "Mr Bellfield denies the murders of the Russell family and denies ever making such a confession.
"Mr Stone has offered payment to our client, which he anticipates receiving as compensation for time served in custody."
Perhaps Stone made him a better offer?
-
I'm very surprised that Bellfield has confessed, back in September he denied involvement: "Bellfield denied making any such confession and his solicitor said Stone, who was believed to have been in a separate wing of HMP Frankland from Bellfield, had offered him payment to confess.
Julie Cooper said: "Mr Bellfield denies the murders of the Russell family and denies ever making such a confession.
"Mr Stone has offered payment to our client, which he anticipates receiving as compensation for time served in custody."
Perhaps Stone made him a better offer?
That's a pretty far fetched theory IMO.
-
Bellfield's denial of a prior prison confession.
https://youtu.be/J20ZEJsGx9w?t=120
-
That's a pretty far fetched theory IMO.
Why?
-
Why?
What use has Bellfield for large sums of cash, given that with this latest confession he is even less likely to ever be free to enjoy it?
-
This is interesting though
In 2017, The Sunday Times reported that Bellfield's ex-wife Johanna Collings had told investigators in the Delagrange case that he was with her on the day for her 25th birthday, the time of the Russell murders, and had spent all day in Twickenham and Windsor, 100 miles away from the scene of the murders which occurred at around 4.30pm. It was an alibi which detectives found credible.[45] Collings had helped detectives convict Bellfield for his previous murders, such as in the Milly Dowler murder, giving evidence that he knew the area where her body was left well.[46] In regards to the Russell murders, however, she clarified in a BBC documentary in 2017:
My daughter was born in '96 and that was the day of my birthday. He [Bellfield] never left my side, all day and all night, so there's absolutely no way he could have got from Twickenham, where I lived, or Windsor, where I kept my horses, to Kent, done what they say he did, and got back without me not knowing he was there. I can hand on my heart, I hate to say it, but I can say hand on my heart he didn't do it.[46
-
What use has Bellfield for large sums of cash, given that with this latest confession he is even less likely to ever be free to enjoy it?
Leaving money to family, spending it in commissary? He was already serving a whole life tariff so confessing to these crimes doesn't make a difference to his sentence.
I'm very skeptical of anything Bellfield says and I think there's a fairly strong case against Stone. Certainly the MO matches Stone more than Bellfield.
-
Leaving money to family, spending it in commissary? He was already serving a whole life tariff so confessing to these crimes doesn't make a difference to his sentence.
I'm very skeptical of anything Bellfield says and I think there's a fairly strong case against Stone. Certainly the MO matches Stone more than Bellfield.
The robbery part, I agree.
It's just Josie's e-fit & description that don't match the 5'7" & balding Stone.
-
(https://e3.365dm.com/16/07/1600x900/16017765_3727651.jpg?bypass-service-worker&20160707033056)
Levi Bellfield is 6' 1" tall and would have been 28yrs old at the time of the crime. He bears a strong resemblance as he then looked to various witness descriptions of the main suspect. (Bellfield photos and witness descriptions).
It is yet to be established whether Bellfield had adopted his 'blonde' look in July 1996, but family sources have confirmed that he used to bleach his hair regularly. His facial characteristics compared to the police E-fit merits further investigation regardless of his hair colour in the summer of 1996. The police said when issuing the e-fit: "make no mistake, this could be the murderer."
If Josie Russell was right about the murderer's build and height- and she would know because she was in direct physical contact with him - this could explain why she was unable to pick out Michael Stone in an identity parade: she was looking for a much heavier and taller man - "like my father."
Michael Stone was then 36yrs old and is 5' 7" tall. He was noticeably older and shorter than either Josie's father or Bellfield. His hair was receding and mid-brown and he does not have the telling features of "podgy cheeks", whereas Bellfield does.
A single fingerprint impressed in blood was found on Josie Russell's green lunchbox and there was a suggestion that the perpetrator may have rummaged through the victims' belongings. That fingerprint did not belong to Stone, but the prosecution suggested that it could have been made by Lin Russell. DNA found on a shoelace left at the scene of the crime did not belong to Stone - but the prosecution said it might have belonged to a friend of Stone, since the lace had three knots in it which could have been used by a drug user.
http://www.michaelstone.co.uk/
-
Leaving money to family, spending it in commissary? He was already serving a whole life tariff so confessing to these crimes doesn't make a difference to his sentence.
I'm very skeptical of anything Bellfield says and I think there's a fairly strong case against Stone. Certainly the MO matches Stone more than Bellfield.
How many similar attacks had Stone previously carried out? Were you sceptical of Bellfield when he said he didn’t do it?
-
He had previous for robbery & a hammer attack.
.............
He had a police record dating back to the age of 12 and his criminal career - mainly shoplifting and burglary - continued unabated into adulthood.
In 1981 he was jailed for two years at Middlesex Crown Court for robbery and grievous bodily harm after he attacked a homosexual man with a hammer.
Two years later he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for wounding, assault and dishonesty after he stabbed his sleeping victim in the chest with a kitchen knife.
In 1987 he was jailed again, this time for an armed robbery on a building society in Brighton which netted him a measly £577.
Stone was jailed for eight years and walked free in 1993.
-
This is interesting though
In 2017, The Sunday Times reported that Bellfield's ex-wife Johanna Collings had told investigators in the Delagrange case that he was with her on the day for her 25th birthday, the time of the Russell murders, and had spent all day in Twickenham and Windsor, 100 miles away from the scene of the murders which occurred at around 4.30pm. It was an alibi which detectives found credible.[45] Collings had helped detectives convict Bellfield for his previous murders, such as in the Milly Dowler murder, giving evidence that he knew the area where her body was left well.[46] In regards to the Russell murders, however, she clarified in a BBC documentary in 2017:
My daughter was born in '96 and that was the day of my birthday. He [Bellfield] never left my side, all day and all night, so there's absolutely no way he could have got from Twickenham, where I lived, or Windsor, where I kept my horses, to Kent, done what they say he did, and got back without me not knowing he was there. I can hand on my heart, I hate to say it, but I can say hand on my heart he didn't do it.[46
It seems a pretty solid alibi considering she was willing to testify against him for everything else he'd done.
-
How many similar attacks had Stone previously carried out? Were you sceptical of Bellfield when he said he didn’t do it?
Several similar attacks using a hammer to rob people.
I'm skeptical of anything a convicted murder says .
-
Several similar attacks using a hammer to rob people.
I'm skeptical of anything a convicted murder says .
Was it established that robbery was the motive in this case? Weren’t at least two of Bellfield’s victims killed by blows to the head with a blunt object?
-
It seems a pretty solid alibi considering she was willing to testify against him for everything else he'd done.
Exactly, this is what's bothering me. She was instrumental in the other convictions.
-
I think Bellfield is just the kind of evil nut case who'd quite enjoy making a false confession to get himself in the news again, frustrate Stone when the police take no notice, waste the CCRC & a bunch of other peoples time.
He's got nothing better to do whilst he sits in prison pretending to be a muslim for the rest of his life.
Hopefully the CCRC find some DNA evidence when they retest samples, I think science is the only thing that will solve this matter once & for all.
-
Was it established that robbery was the motive in this case? Weren’t at least two of Bellfield’s victims killed by blows to the head with a blunt object?
I believe so on the first point. On the second point yes, but Bellfield's motive was never robbery
-
This isn't the same ex partner who gives him an alibi.....
6 Feb 2022
Levi Bellfield's ex-partner thinks he did murder mum and daughter following 'confession'
The ex-partner of Levi Bellfield and mum to his four daughters Rebecca Wilkinson told the Mirror she believed 'his claims that he murdered Lin and Megan Russell' which were made in a letter to solicitor Paul Bacon
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfields-ex-partner-thinks-26155252
"Mr McDonald admitted there is nothing in Bellfield’s statement which has not previously been in the public domain, raising the possibility he has fabricated it using known facts."
-
He claims to have been wearing yellow Marigolds during the attack.
I think Josie might have remembered that somehow.
You never know, she did have serious head injuries & some memory loss.
-
Barbara Stone
Just going to do an interview. Checklist: Have I emptied the jars on bathroom window?
Do my shoes match trousers? Have I cussed Mick for putting me through? Yes everything in order I ll be off soon ×
Kevin McMahon
Have you had a hair makeover?😂😂
Barbara Stone
Just trying g to organise and I defo thought of you and Ron. Do everytime I have to go and play x
(Sic) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/487090761485587/permalink/1777870049074312/)
Sounds about right 🙄
Kevin McMahon is an ex police officer who ‘claimed to be a private investigator’ and was done for perverting the course of justice
-
Mark McDonald also represents serial killer Ben Geen.
McDonald went on national TV and lied about the facts of the case.
At around 33:00-34:00 of the ‘Nurses Who Kill’ TV show on Geen, Mark McDonald refers to one of the syringes and states,
’4th when he dropped this in the bin’
(The show was here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jOwqpXF9jg8 but removed not long after the lie was highlighted)
The evidence given at serial killer Ben Geen’s trial was that Geens then girlfriend Megan Crabbe found a syringe in Geen’s pocket after he’d finished an early shift.
She told the court she put it in the bin.
-
And Innocence Fraud promoter and charlatan Sandra Lean still hasn’t explained why McDonald lied nor has she or Geens campaign named the prescription drugs he and his girlfriend were stealing
Sandra Lean has recently - via her podcast - attempted to promote the innocence fraud of serial killer Ben Geen
She claims not only did Geen ’not commit the crimes they didn’t happen’
Maybe during her next podcast she’ll name the prescription drugs Ben Geen was stealing from Horton General hospital, the quantities he stole, the dates on which he stole them and in what properties linked to Geen they were found in
Also maybe she can tell us why Mark McDonald (Ben Geen’s lawyer) contradicted Megan Crabbe’s evidence in chief during the ‘Nurses who kill’ documentary
And how many loaded syringes Ben Geen and his fiancé Megan Crabbe were aware of - not including the one found on him upon arrival to work when he was arrested by police
And narc Richard Gill has even since accused Geen’s then girlfriend & others of planting the syringe
-
From today’s Times
Levi Bellfield’s confession to Lin and Megan Russell murders ‘is a sick joke’
February 07 2022, 12.01am
Levi Bellfield’s confession to the murders of Lin and Megan Russell is a “sick joke”, it was reported yesterday, as police reviewed evidence from two new witnesses who have come forward since the serial killer’s disclosure of details about the crime.
According to The Sun, the witnesses contacted police after she recognised Bellfield, now 53, in media reports. She is also said to have identifieed him during a virtual parade.
In the alleged confession, Bellfield said he saw a woman as he drove away from the murder scene. He said: “As I left, I pulled out in front of [a] lady. I kept looking in the rear-view mirror at her.”
The other witness, according to the newspaper, claims that a prisoner, Damien Daley has admitted making up a story about Stone, now 61, having confessed to the murders.
It comes amid fresh doubt over Bellfield’s alleged confession and four-page apology, which has been passed to a criminal convictions watchdog by lawyers acting for Stone. According to the Sunday Mirror, a source claimed that Bellfield, now known as Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam, is now denying the murders. The source said: “Bellfield is a narcissist who loves the limelight, he’s now saying he just wanted to mess with Stone’s legal team.”
They added that Bellfield’s confession was a “sick joke”. The former detective Colin Sutton, who helped secure three convictions against him including for the murder of the Milly Dowler, told The Times last week that Bellfield’s confession should be treated with an “immense amount of caution”.
Lin Russell, 45, and Megan, six, were attacked with a claw hammer as they walked along a country lane in July 1996. Megan’s sister Josie, then nine, survived.
Stone has served 24 years in jail but always denied involvement. His original conviction in 1998 was quashed because of concerns about a witness. He was convicted again in 2001.
-
Jayne Zito and the Zito Trust lionising serial killer Michael Stone here
👇
http://theerrorsthatplaguethemiscarriageofjusticemovement.home.blog/2022/08/04/quite-a-hall-tale-part-17d%ef%b8%8f/
-
How many ‘unsolved’ murders are linked to Michael Stone?
This👇 ‘independent inquiry’ and subsequent report failed to take into account Michael Stone’s murder of Francis Jegou - which he carried out when he was 16 years old
https://hundredfamilies.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/MICHAEL_STONE_JULY96.pdf