Serial killer ‘confesses’ to Megan and Lin Russell murders
DOUBT has been cast on the conviction of a man serving life sentences for the brutal murder of a mother and daughter.
Serial killer Levi Bellfield allegedly confessed to the infamous killings of Lin Russell and her sixyear-old daughter, Megan, to a sex offender while in prison – according to lawyers for Michael Stone, twice convicted of the 1996 murders.
Diagrams of the murder scene in Kent and a description of where the bodies were left are included in the “very detailed” Bellfield confession, say lawyers for Stone – who has always protested his innocence.
SERIAL killer Levi Bellfield has given a “very detailed confession” to the murder of Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter, Megan, according to the solicitor of the man convicted of the killings.
Lawyers for Michael Stone, twice convicted of the murders of Lin Russell and her daughter, Megan, in Kent in 1996, say they have new evidence of his innocence, including the confession from Bellfield.
Stone has always protested his innocence.
Now his solicitor, Paul Bacon, has claimed Milly Dowler’s murderer, Bellfield, admitted the killings in prison.
He told a press conference in London: “We have now received evidence of a full confession by Levi Bellfield to the Russell murders.
“In the confession, Bellfield describes how he came across Lin Russell and her two children, how he attacked them with a hammer and his motivation for the killing.
“The confession is detailed and has a number of facts which are not in the public domain.”
Stone is serving three life sentences for bludgeoning Lin Russell and Megan to death in an attack in Chillenden near Canterbury, Kent, in which her other daughter, Josie, nine, suffered severe head injuries and the family’s dog, Lucy, was killed.
The mother and daughters were attacked as they walked home along a country lane in July 1996 just months after they had moved from north Wales.
Lin, 45, and six-year-old Megan were killed, while Josie survived but was left with severe head injuries and brain damage.
Five months later Josie and her father, Dr Shaun Russell, moved back to Wales to start a new life in the Nantlle Valley.
Stone was convicted of the murders of Lin and Megan and the attempted murder of Josie at two trials, but serial killer Bellfield has been linked to the case on several previous occasions.
Lawyers for Stone, who has always maintained his innocence, have in the past put forward several pieces of evidence linking Bellfield – who was convicted of 13-year-old Milly Dowler’s killing – to the sadistic attack on the Russells.
Known as the bus stop killer, Bellfield is currently serving two wholelife terms. He would launch socalled blitz attacks on women as they made their way home, bludgeoning them with a hammer from behind.
In 2011 the nightclub bouncer and wheel-clamping contractor was convicted of abducting and murdering 13-year-old Milly Dowler as she walked home from school in Surrey in 2002.
By then Bellfield had already been convicted of three other attacks in south-west London. He murdered 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell in 2003 and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in 2004. In the same year he attempted to kill 18-year-old Kate Sheedy by running her over. She survived her injuries.
Despite being convicted twice and having had three appeals rejected, Stone has always maintained his innocence.
Paul Bacon, Stone’s solicitor, made several claims linking Bellfield to the murders in the past, including:
The method Bellfield used to kill two of his three victims was strikingly similar to the Russell murders;
A police e-fit issued at the time looked more like Bellfield than Stone;
Josie described the attacker as being taller than her 6ft dad. Bellfield is 6ft 1in tall, while Stone is 5ft 7in.
Josie said he had “spiky” hair, as did Bellfield, and said he drove a Ford. At the time Bellfield was driving a beige Ford Sapphire, which he later reported stolen. After Milly’s killing, he reported the red Daewoo he used as stolen and disposed of it.
Bellfield used to drive to Kent, where the Russells were killed, in the 1990s while working as a wheelclamper and drug dealer.
Paul Bacon said yesterday: “We have new evidence that points towards Levi Bellfield and we hope that the police will investigate.”
Bellfield’s solicitors said earlier they have not had “any instructions” from their client and have been contacted for comment following the claims by Mr Bacon.