Outcry at killer’s ‘sickening’ plea to marry in jail
SERIAL killer Levi Bellfield’s request to marry in prison has “sickened and appalled” Boris Johnson – and the PM has signalled he intends to curtail the “human right” to such proposals.
Bellfield, 53, has applied for permission to wed in one of Britain’s most notorious jails – while his girlfriend has defended him passionately, declaring: “He is not a monster.”
But the murderer’s known victims – Milly Dowler, 13, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, – all had their chance to marry taken from them.
Bellfield, an ex-bouncer and wheel clamper, currently has a right to request permission to marry under Article 12 of the Human Rights Act.
The Government is planning to replace the
Act with a British Bill of Rights – although it is still unclear if this would prevent notorious criminals marrying behind bars.
The PM’s spokesman said: “Like the rest of the country, the Prime Minister is sickened and appalled, and his thoughts are with the families and loved ones of victims.
“With the Bill of Rights we want to introduce common sense and address inflations of rights which fly in the face of that.”
Yesterday, prisons minister Victoria Atkins launched an immediate review of the application.
Calling Bellfield “absolutely appalling”, she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “This man is an evil, evil monster who has left a trail of despair and grief in his wake.”
However, it is not obvious whether the authorities can prevent the union.
Father-of-11 Bellfield, who turned to Islam and calls himself Yusuf Rahim, is serving a whole life sentence at Durham’s HMP Frankland, known as “Monster Mansion”.
He was given the term for the murders of Marsha and Amelie and the attempted murder of an 18-year-old girl.
He was in prison when found guilty of murdering Milly.The 13-year-old was walking home from school in Walton-onThames when Bellfield kidnapped and strangled her in 2002.
He killed Marsha in 2003 and Amelie in 2004, battering both women with a hammer.
Bellfield is said to have got down on one knee before his prospective bride, who began writing to him two years ago.
His girlfriend – who we are not identifying – said that she has shared prison “kisses and cuddles” with the killer.
She added that she is “not ashamed of her relationship”, saying: “Yes he has a bad past, but 17 years in prison changes a person. He has remorse.
“There are always reasons a person goes wrong in life.”