Milly’s killer: I battered Lin and Meg an Russell to death
Levi Bellfield ‘tells fellow prisoner he carried out notorious hammer attack’
‘Compulsive liar and fantasist’
SERIAL killer Levi Bellfield has made a ‘full’ and ‘detailed’ confession to the hammer murders of Lin and Megan Russell, it was claimed yesterday.
Lawyers acting for Michael Stone, who is serving life sentences for bludgeoning to death Mrs Russell, 45, and her six-yearold daughter, alleged Bellfield has admitted being the real killer.
They claim the ‘confession’ to a fellow inmate – believed to be a notorious sex offender – contains details known only to the person who really carried out the killings.
Stone’s legal team also claimed the alleged admission is ‘corroborated’ by forensic evidence and bolstered by a new witness who places Bellfield close to the murder scene near Chillenden in Kent in 1996.
His lawyers have submitted a dossier to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which could refer the matter to the Court of Appeal and lead to the possibility that Stone’s murder convictions are quashed.
The frenzied hammer killings of Mrs Russell and Megan is one of Britain’s most notorious murder cases. It also left Mrs Russell’s other daughter, Josie, then nine, with serious head injuries. Stone was first convicted of the two murders in 1998 and, after a retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal, found guilty again in 2001. But the heroin addict and convicted armed robber has always maintained his innocence.
Last night, Bellfield, 49, who was convicted of murdering Surrey schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 13, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, denied being responsible for the Russell killings.
In a statement, the psychopath identified serial ‘DJ rapist’ Richard Baker as the inmate he allegedly confessed to but branded him a ‘compulsive liar’ and ‘fantasist’.
Dismissing the new evidence, he added: ‘God help Mr Stone and our justice system if Mr Baker’s manipulation and lies are relied upon.’
In a statement, Stone’s solicitor Paul Bacon insisted the confession was credible. ‘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.’
Barrister Mark McDonald, who has been representing Stone for 15 years, added that Bellfield allegedly made the confession to a serious sex offender, whom he refused to name, at HMP Frankland in Durham following a BBC2 documentary on the Chillenden murders aired in June this year. Bellfield is said to have been anxious about the coverage and his confession allegedly includes diaher grams made by the fellow inmate of the murder scene and where the bodies were left.
Following many days of lengthy conversations the prisoner says he had with Bellfield, he made notes and reported what he had been told to his solicitor, a police officer and a prison liaison officer.
The prisoner alleged: ‘He [Bellfield] said “I’ve never told anyone this before… I killed another child and got away with it… the police were never even close”.’
Bellfield is said to have told him he had spotted the Russells walking home and approached them with a hammer. Mrs Russell had begged him not to hurt her children.
According to the prisoner, Bellfield said he struck her first and then Josie; then their dog was killed followed by Megan. Even though he wore gloves, 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’.
Mr McDonald told the Mail: ‘ The evidence has gone to the CCRC. It now needs to be referred to the Court of Appeal so it can be properly
assessed. It has to be put in the context that the only thing that convicted Stone ironically was a cell confession.’
Bellfield was first linked to the Russell murders in 2011 when lawyers representing Stone claimed there was ‘compelling’ evidence linking him to the case.
They said Bellfield bore a remarkable likeness to an e-fit issued at the time of the Russell killings and that an ex-girlfriend had claimed that he used to drive to Kent in the 1990s to sell drugs and work as a wheel clamper. Stone’s lawyers also said in 2011 that Josie, who was left for dead, described a ‘beige’ Ford at the murder scene. At the time, Bellfield was driving a beige Ford Sapphire that he later reported stolen.
The Russells were attacked from behind by a man with a hammer, the same method Bellfield used to kill two of his victims: Marsha McDonnell in 2003 and Amelie Delagrange in 2004. A murder confession allegedly made by Stone to a drug addict in an adjoining cell is still claimed by his lawyers to be unreliable.
Stone, who has a long history of mental illness, was convicted in 1998 and given three life sentences. Those convictions were quashed on appeal in February 2001 after a key witness admitted lying and a retrial was ordered.
But in October that year a jury at Nottingham Crown Court again found Stone guilty. He lost a second battle to overturn his convictions.
Last night police dismissed the merits of Stone’s latest appeal bid. Colin Sutton, the former Scotland Yard detective who secured the Delagrange and McDonnell convictions, said his confession was just a cruel ‘mind game’.
He said: ‘I think he was capable of it but I don’t think he did it. He is playing mind games here. He loves being the centre of attention, he likes to create a story and he knows it will cause greater pain and anguish for his victims’ families.’
He added that Bellfield would likely go back on his confession: ‘He is a manipulative and cunning liar.’
‘He is playing mind games’