Levi Bellfield guilty of Milly Dowler murder

Summary of story from BBC News, 23 June, 2011

Former nightclub doorman Levi Bellfield has been found guilty of murdering 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002.

Milly vanished in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, as she walked home from school on 21 March 2002. Her remains were found six months later in Hampshire.

An Old Bailey jury found Bellfield, 43, guilty of abducting and murdering Milly after she walked past his home. In 2008 he was convicted of murdering two young women in west London and attempting to murder a third. He was also accused of attempting to abduct 11-year-old Rachel Cowles the day before Milly’s disappearance.

Both Milly’s mother, Diana, and sister Gemma had broken down in the witness box after it was suggested that Milly had run away or committed suicide because she was unhappy.

At one stage Milly’s father, Robert, became a suspect after it emerged he had an interest in bondage sex.

During his trial, Bellfield refused to give evidence in his defence. His former partner, Emma Mills said he had gone “missing” on the day of Milly’s disappearance. The couple had been house sitting for a friend in west London.

When Bellfield returned after 10pm he was wearing different clothes and he later got up during the night, between 3 and 4am, saying he was going back to the flat.