How do you tell your child that their father is Britain’s most horrific killer?
WOMAN’S DREAD OVER MAN SHE CLAIMS IS DAD OF HER SON
A WOMAN today claims serial killer Levi Bellfield fathered her child just weeks before kidnapping and murdering Milly Dowler.
The mum of three says Bellfield – calling himself Levi Taylor – chatted her up at a nightclub and drove her home in the very same red Daewoo Nexia he used to abduct Milly, 13.
She says she fell pregnant on the one-night stand and she has spent two decades hiding the truth from her son, for fear it will leave him “broken”.
The mum says: “How do you tell your child their father is Britain’s most dangerous killer?”
Police papers and social services documents seen by the Sunday Mirror show the woman alerted authorities about her link to hammer killer Bellfield in 2006, before he faced court.
The woman – who the Sunday Mirror is not naming – claims:
■ Creep Bellfield serenaded her on the dance floor.
■ After sex, he “joked” about kidnapping schoolgirls and burning them with cigarettes.
■ She later realised the comment may have been a test to see whether she could be a “Myra Hindley” accomplice. ■ Around the time Milly was raped and murdered, Bellfield rang the mum, saying he had “had a bad day”. ■ Bellfield begged the mum to call her baby Levi. But he wanted nothing to do with the child and warned the woman: “Don’t ever f*** with me.”
■ She fled her home after being told Bellfield planned a petrol attack on her property.
■ She only realised who he was years later when the Daewoo featured in an appeal on TV’s Crimewatch.
MISTAKE
The married mum says she has not found the courage to tell her son, now 19, about Bellfield.
He murdered Milly, students Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell – and attempted to murder schoolgirl Kate Sheedy.
Bellfield’s name does not appear on the lad’s birth certificate.
But the police documents reveal the woman referred to “the worst mistake of my life” and told officers the stress and guilt of harbouring the secret had led to her suffering depression.
Social services papers detail how she was forced to flee her home in 2014 after neighbours heard about Bellfield and threatened to tell the lad.
The mum, in her first ever interview, said of her claims: “This is something I’ve kept a secret for more than 20 years. I’ve not wanted to talk about it.
“I’ve kept it quiet for such a long time, I haven’t even been able to speak his name.
“My son is gentle and caring, he’s nothing like Levi.
“He’s just a gentle boy, he’s never asked who his dad is.
“I’ve always said I would never tell him because I don’t want him to carry that around. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lie to my son. What if I die one day and he finds out his dad is a serial killer and
I’ve not told him the truth? If I died tomorrow and he finds out and I’ve not told him, will he hate me?
“How do you tell him? It would be easier for me if Levi died in prison, but even then I wouldn’t tell my son.”
The claims, just weeks after the 20th anniversary of Milly’s abduction in Waltonon-Thames, Surrey, mean killer Bellfield, 53, could be the father of 12 children.
He is already known to have at least 11 children by three other women.
The mum was celebrating her 29th birthday in February 2002 when she says Bellfield began chatting her up in the queue at a nightclub where he worked. She says he ushered her into a VIP section and plied her with champagne, before serenading her with the 1976 Real Thing hit, You To Me Are Everything.
The woman claims he drove her home, had a cup of tea, then instigated sex on the sofa of her flat in Kingston upon Thames, six miles from the spot where Milly was snatched.
Recalling that night, she says: “I was a single mum and I had been single for quite a long time.
“He paid me attention and I’ve always liked tall, big men. He started talking to us when we were in the queue and paid me a lot of attention through the night.
“He introduced himself as Levi Taylor and seemed cheery and like a cheeky chappy.
“At one point he went to the DJ and requested a song, then he stood there singing it to me on the dance floor. I wasn’t one for having one-night stands but he manipulated me.
“It’s terrifying to know I was in the same car he used to snatch Milly. I feel lucky to have survived.
“Once we got back to mine he came on to me. But then I slept with him and it was quite gross. I decided right then, I would never see him again. I just felt sick.”
Just moments after sex, she alleges Bellfield turned to her and said: “I’ve always thought about burning schoolgirls with cigarettes.”
LISTENING
The horrified mum adds: “He was quite manipulative – he would come out with a comment and then laugh.
“I wonder if he was trying to recruit me to be his ‘Myra Hindley’.
“But I just said, ‘You’re sick’. Why would someone just come out with something like that? I’ve a daughter myself. It was horrific.”
The mum says Bellfield, who was a wheel clamper, bombarded her with calls. She claims he would turn up at her home and stand outside listening in to her conversations.
On one occasion – around the time of Milly’s disappearance – she claims he called and said that he had had a bad day. She says: “I asked him what was wrong and he said he couldn’t tell me, he said he couldn’t trust me.”
The woman says it was when Bellfield discovered she was pregnant that he admitted he was married with kids. She claims: “He came round. He said, ‘I don’t want nothing to do with it’, and I said, ‘Good, because I don’t want you to have anything to do with it’.
“He said he was married with children, I was just shocked. He said, ‘Don’t ever f*** with me’.”
Their next contact came after she gave birth in November 2002.
She claims: “He said, ‘Call him Levi’, and I said, ‘No’. He sent me loads of messages saying Levi, Levi, Levi, Levi, Levi – and it kept coming.”
When her son was eight months
It’s terrifying that I was in car he used to snatch Milly... I feel lucky to have survived MUM OF THREE CLAIMING SERIAL KILLER IS BOY’S DAD
old, the woman alleges she was contacted by one of Bellfield’s friends, who was later convicted of child sex offences. She claims: “He told me Levi was going to pour petrol outside my flat. So I just moved.”
But it wasn’t until July 2006 that police contacted the woman about her connection to Bellfield.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that a senior officer from Surrey Police called her but she refused to speak.
In notes taken at the time, the officer said: “She immediately stated that she does not want to talk about it any more as it is all making her ill.
“She explained she is suffering from depression and being reminded of sleeping with ‘that thing’ makes her feel even worse. She referred to her encounter with him as ‘the
worst mistake of my life’. She said that she cannot stand it every time she sees his face in a newspaper. She also mentioned that she is on medication for her depression.”
In February 2008, Bellfield was found guilty of killing Marsha, 19, and Amelie, 22, and trying to murder Kate, 18. Immediately after the trial, he was named as prime suspect in the murder of Milly. The woman says she called
police after CCTV of Bellfield’s Daewoo was shown on TV.
She says: “When it was broadcast I just had this gut feeling it was him in the car – it just looked like him. It was the way he sat in the car.”
Bellfield was found guilty of Milly’s murder in 2011 and is serving a whole life tariff at HMP Woodhill, Bucks.
Two months ago, he was reported to have given a statement claiming to have killed Lin Russell and her daughter Megan in Chillenden, Kent, in 1996.
He then allegedly retracted the confession.
But the woman believes he was the killer. She says: “I truly believe that was Levi. The sketch that the little girl did was identical to Levi.
“I’m lucky that I wasn’t harmed. He was a prowler.”
Bellfield – dubbed the Bus Stop Killer for targeting victims
as they waited at shelters – is reported to have fathered 11 children with three women. The eldest is Bobbie-Louise Bellfield, who said in 2011 she wants him to “rot in hell”.
The woman who says he fathered her son is also tormented by her association with him.
She explains: “When I see women on TV who speak about Levi, I used to think, ‘How can you admit that you know him?’ I feel ashamed of myself, but I know that if I hadn’t slept with him I wouldn’t have my son. But I feel like I’ve potentially hurt my son.”
In 2015, the woman contacted social services and told them that her son’s father was Bellfield. She said that
when people discovered her past, they accused her of “hiding bodies”.
In the documents seen by the Mirror, social workers state that her son’s father was a “prolific serial killer” who is “currently serving a number of life sentences”.
They state that he has “not requested contact” with his son.
The document states: “People then began to harass the family and post dog and cat poo through their letterbox and on the doorstep.
“This went on for six months or so.” While the insults ceased, the mum is still haunted by the consequences of meeting Bellfield.
She says: “It’s something I’ve got to live with. My son and I are very close, but he doesn’t ask about it.
“I’ve always said that I hoped Levi would die, every year that goes by, because it would make my life easier.
“But it wouldn’t make his victims’ lives easier. He deserves to rot in prison for those murders.
EVIL
“People have asked me about my son’s dad and I just say, ‘He’s dead, he drove off a cliff ’.
“It’s not just the people he’s murdered or tried to murder, we’re all collateral damage in Levi’s crimes.
“He’s affected so many lives, but is he really being punished? In prison, three meals a day? Is he being held accountable? I don’t think he is.
“He loves the attention. It’s evil. This has hung over me. I get scared, I’ve been in the front room when Levi is on telly and my son is just sat there watching. I just hold my breath. I feel like it’s been one big worry, all because of a choice I made 20 years ago. “I don’t want to drag my kids through this. I don’t want my kids to carry this around.
“He’s a narcissist, he controls people, he’s manipulative, he’s not scared of people.
“I think he’s responsible for so much more than we will ever know.
“I don’t regret what happened with Levi, because I have a son I love. He’s nothing like Levi, he’s so soft and wouldn’t hurt a fly. But this is just a big lie I’m carrying around, it’s exhausting.”
He wanted nothing to do with the child ...but then he begged me to name it Levi BOY’S MOTHER ON ALLEGED FLING WITH KILLER BELLFIELD