00:00:04
-In February 2003,
00:00:07
police were trying to track down
a vicious attacker
00:00:10
who was targeting young,
blond women.
00:00:14
-He would run up behind them
and hit them on the head,
00:00:17
often with a hammer, repeatedly,
00:00:20
and then run back to his car
and disappear into the darkness.
00:00:23
-One woman, Marsha McDonnell,
00:00:25
had died from her injuries,
00:00:27
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
and, by August 2004,
00:00:30
the assailant had claimed
a second victim:
00:00:32
Amélie Delagrange.
00:00:35
-He's a predator.
00:00:36
He's stalking his prey.
00:00:38
He's staking them out
and he's very organized
00:00:41
and he's very planned and that
makes him incredibly dangerous.
00:00:46
-The killer was a man
named Levi Bellfield.
00:00:51
Even after his
incarceration in 2008,
00:00:54
he was linked
with the shocking murder
00:00:57
of a 13-year-old schoolgirl.
00:00:59
-I hate it when people refer
to him as an animal
00:01:02
because animals
don't behave like that.
00:01:04
They kill to survive,
not for fun and pleasure.
00:01:07
He was born evil.
00:01:08
He is pure, pure evil.
00:01:12
-Levi Bellfield
had cemented his place
00:01:15
as one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:01:17
♪♪
00:01:19
[ Suspenseful music climbs ]
00:01:22
♪♪
00:01:31
♪♪
00:01:33
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
00:01:38
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:01:39
-Levi Bellfield is one
00:01:41
of<i> the</i> most notorious British
killers in recent memory.
00:01:45
He was responsible
for the brutal murders
00:01:47
of two young women
00:01:49
and the attempted murder
of another,
00:01:51
across a 16-month period
between 2003 and 2004.
00:01:57
While serving time in prison,
00:01:59
he was again found guilty,
in 2011,
00:02:02
of one of the highest-profile
cases of the 21st century:
00:02:07
the murder of schoolgirl
Milly Dowler,
00:02:10
a crime that had gone unsolved
for almost a decade.
00:02:14
-They've waited nine years
00:02:16
and been put through the trauma
of this court case.
00:02:18
They linked arms
as the jury foreman
00:02:20
pronounced Levi Bellfield
guilty of murder.
00:02:23
-But this killer's
shocking story began
00:02:26
over 40 years before.
00:02:28
♪♪
00:02:30
[ Shutter clicks ]
Levi Bellfield was born
00:02:33
into a Romani Gypsy family
00:02:35
in Isleworth, West London,
on the 17th of May, 1968.
00:02:40
He was one of five children.
00:02:43
Age 10, Bellfield lost
his father to leukemia
00:02:46
and, as a result,
00:02:48
he formed a very close bond
with his mother.
00:02:52
-Bellfield was very much
a mother's boy,
00:02:56
<i> much</i> beloved of his mother.
00:02:58
It was a close-knit family,
brought up in West London,
00:03:03
in what was effectively once
a<i> huge</i> community of Travellers
00:03:10
and was groomed to thinking,
from very early days,
00:03:13
that he was very special,
00:03:16
that there was something
particular about him.
00:03:19
His mother encouraged him
in that view.
00:03:21
-I think, during his childhood,
he was a bit of a tearaway.
00:03:25
He was a young lad who wanted
to do what<i> he</i> wanted to do
00:03:29
and not much stood in his way,
00:03:31
so he was often
kind of larking around
00:03:33
and getting into a bit
of trouble at school,
00:03:36
but nothing completely
out of the ordinary.
00:03:39
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
-By the time Bellfield was 13,
00:03:41
he'd had his first brush
with the law
00:03:44
and was arrested
for burglary in 1981.
00:03:47
It would not be the last time he
was in trouble with the police.
00:03:52
-I believe Bellfield occupied
what you might describe
00:03:55
as the halo of Levi Bellfield:
"I am greater than anything."
00:04:00
He was above the law,
above suspicion,
00:04:03
operated entirely
under his own steam,
00:04:05
in his own way, at his own time.
00:04:07
-In 1989,
00:04:09
21-year-old Bellfield
set up home with a girlfriend.
00:04:14
They went on to have
four children together.
00:04:18
-He could literally charm
the birds off the trees.
00:04:20
This is a 19.5-, 20-stone man
with a huge neck,
00:04:25
almost occupying
his entire shoulders.
00:04:27
He wasn't an attractive man,
00:04:29
but, my goodness, me,
he had the gift of the gab
00:04:32
and he didn't half use it
to his advantage,
00:04:35
particularly when it came
to girls.
00:04:37
-Another woman who fell
under Bellfield's spell
00:04:39
and would go on to have
two children with him
00:04:42
was his common-law wife
Jo Collings.
00:04:45
-I first met him when I was
about 17, 18, 'cause we all used
00:04:49
to go to a place in Twickenham
called Cellars,
00:04:53
but I kind of knew him
a little bit before then
00:04:55
because, where I used
to keep my horses,
00:04:57
he used to drink at a pub
just round the corner
00:04:59
and his mum lived
just down the road.
00:05:01
Everyone knew him.
He was always, you know,
00:05:03
everyone wanted to be
around him.
00:05:04
He was like the sort of
the fun person to be with,
00:05:09
you know, always loud.
00:05:12
-But Bellfield was not
a man of morals
00:05:14
and often had
extramarital affairs.
00:05:18
His job as a nightclub doorman
helped him meet girls.
00:05:21
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
00:05:23
-That way, he had access
to any number of young women,
00:05:26
all of whom,
how I can put it politely,
00:05:29
were not backward
in coming forward.
00:05:33
They were out for a good time
00:05:34
and Bellfield was out
to help them have one.
00:05:37
-He had the talk,
you know, the cuteness,
00:05:40
and, like I said, I mean,
back in the day,
00:05:42
he was good-looking, you know.
00:05:44
Always had the nice car,
always had nice clothes,
00:05:47
and, you know,
he could get the women.
00:05:50
-But his charming persona
soon disappeared,
00:05:54
once he'd got what he wanted.
00:05:56
-In adulthood,
Levi Bellfield became a man
00:06:00
that women
should be quite fearful of.
00:06:03
He's somebody
who was really entitled.
00:06:07
He had a real sense that women
were there to serve his needs
00:06:11
and, when they didn't comply
with his expectations,
00:06:14
he would turn violent
and very nasty.
00:06:17
-The abuse started five, six
months after we got together,
00:06:22
might not even have been
that long,
00:06:24
just with the odd slap and dig,
00:06:26
and then he'd be really sorry
and it's 'cause
00:06:27
he'd said he'd never felt
this way about anyone.
00:06:30
I'd found out I was
pregnant, as well,
00:06:33
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
so it was more
00:06:36
he was trying to make out
that, you know,
00:06:38
he really cared
and everything else,
00:06:42
but, I mean, he was still seeing
00:06:43
the one he was with
before me, at the time.
00:06:46
Some of the abuse, he'd punch
you, bite you, kick you,
00:06:50
burn you with cigarettes,
00:06:52
make you sleep naked
on the floor, spit at you.
00:06:55
You couldn't go to the toilet,
unless he was sat
00:06:58
on the bath beside you.
00:07:02
All sorts of things.
00:07:04
♪♪
00:07:06
-Despite Bellfield's
violent behavior
00:07:09
towards the women in his life,
00:07:11
they rarely reported him
to the police,
00:07:13
for fear of what
he might do to them.
00:07:17
-Time after time,
in Bellfield's career,
00:07:20
the women in his life
could've pursued
00:07:24
cases against him
for violent attack
00:07:28
and, yet, persistently
chose not to
00:07:30
and that pays some tribute
to his extraordinary charisma.
00:07:34
-I was the only one that had
an injunction put on him
00:07:37
and, within half an hour
of him being served,
00:07:40
it was torn up in an envelope
through my front door
00:07:43
and he'd written
on the envelope,
00:07:44
"Now I'm gonna kill you".
00:07:45
♪♪
00:07:46
-By 2002,
00:07:48
Bellfield had fathered
11 children
00:07:51
with five different women.
00:07:53
He'd started a new job,
clamping cars,
00:07:56
and was living in the leafy,
Surrey town
00:07:58
of Walton-on-Thames.
00:08:01
On March 21, 2002,
00:08:04
13-year-old schoolgirl
Amanda Dowler,
00:08:07
known affectionately as Milly,
00:08:09
went missing from her home.
00:08:11
Journalist Martin Brunt
remembers that day very well.
00:08:16
-She was on her way home.
00:08:18
She'd got off the train,
00:08:20
was going to walk
00:08:22
the half-mile or so back
to her home.
00:08:26
She was in her school uniform,
very identifiable.
00:08:29
This was daylight,
busy time of the afternoon,
00:08:33
lots of people around,
but nobody saw anything.
00:08:38
-Milly had phoned her father
to say she was heading home,
00:08:41
but never arrived.
00:08:43
-She seemed to have
disappeared into thin air.
00:08:47
There was CCTV footage of her
getting off the train
00:08:50
at Walton Station,
some very blurred images of cars
00:08:56
and the odd person in the street
where she was headed home,
00:09:00
but nothing more than that
00:09:02
and it became clear,
very early on,
00:09:05
that police
were really struggling
00:09:07
to find
what had happened to her.
00:09:09
-The last sighting
of Milly Dowler
00:09:11
was on Station Avenue in Walton,
00:09:14
just 50 yards from the home
of Levi Bellfield.
00:09:18
-The search has taken in
stretches of water,
00:09:21
including the River Mole,
00:09:23
but police have been
concentrating on ground
00:09:25
near the busy station,
and interviewing commuters.
00:09:29
-We have nothing that gives us
any positive indication
00:09:33
that she's gone off
of her own volition.
00:09:36
Equally, we have
no positive information
00:09:38
that she has been taken
off the street and abducted.
00:09:42
At this time, all of our lines
of inquiry are open.
00:09:45
-On September 18, 2002,
00:09:49
six months
after her disappearance,
00:09:52
the body of Milly Dowler
was found by a group of foragers
00:09:55
[ Shutter clicks ]
amongst the trees
00:09:56
of Yateley Heath Wood,
in Hampshire.
00:10:01
-So, Milly was identified
through dental records.
00:10:05
She was known to be missing,
dental records were obtained,
00:10:08
and then they were compared
to the remains that were present
00:10:12
and, sadly for her family,
00:10:15
it confirmed that
that's who it was.
00:10:17
-It was clear
00:10:19
to forensic ecologist
Professor Patricia Wiltshire
00:10:22
that Milly's body
had been in the woods
00:10:24
ever since she'd disappeared.
00:10:27
-I was able to tell the police
00:10:29
how long each bone
had been there
00:10:30
and how long ago
it had been moved
00:10:33
because the bones were moved
around by animals, you see.
00:10:37
There was no doubt
in my mind, really,
00:10:38
that she had been there
since the early spring.
00:10:42
[ Shutter clicks ]
-How Milly was killed
00:10:44
remained a mystery.
00:10:46
The degree of change that the
body goes through after death,
00:10:50
particularly in the sort
of timescales
00:10:52
we're talking about with
Milly Dowler, really hinders
00:10:56
what the pathologist can see,
what the pathologist can say.
00:11:00
It doesn't mean that there's
nothing we can see or say,
00:11:02
but, clearly,
the less we have to work with,
00:11:04
the more difficult it is.
00:11:06
-One likes to be objective.
00:11:08
One likes not to think
of the remains as a person.
00:11:10
One likes to just
look for the evidence
00:11:13
and, but, yet,
you try to be objective
00:11:16
and then, of course,
they take you into a scenario
00:11:19
where you become
fairly emotional.
00:11:22
Well, you can't help it.
00:11:24
It's an emotional
sort of scenario.
00:11:28
And then it comes
a bit of a shock, really.
00:11:29
[ Suspenseful music climbs ]
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:11:31
-The police have no suspects
and no forensic evidence
00:11:35
and, just five months
00:11:36
after the discovery
of Milly Dowler's body,
00:11:39
only a few miles
from Walton-on-Thames,
00:11:42
another young woman
was murdered.
00:11:46
At around midnight
on the 3rd of February 2003,
00:11:51
[ Sinister music plays ]
in Kingston, London,
00:11:52
19-year-old Marsha McDonnell
caught the bus home
00:11:56
after a night out
at the cinema with friends.
00:11:59
It was the last time
they would ever see her.
00:12:02
Walking home, Marsha was
attacked from behind,
00:12:06
less than 50 yards
from her parents' front door.
00:12:10
Colin Sutton was one
of the lead detectives
00:12:13
with the Metropolitan Police,
at the time.
00:12:16
-Marsha was found
on the street where she lived,
00:12:19
10 or 15 doors down
from her parents' house.
00:12:22
Local resident heard a noise,
00:12:25
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
heard her whimpering,
00:12:27
if you like, and called police
00:12:29
and she was found there
with this terrible head wound
00:12:31
and she was taken to hospital
00:12:33
and died two or three
days afterwards.
00:12:36
Marsha was killed
with a single blow
00:12:38
to the back of the head
with a heavy implement.
00:12:41
-Forensic evidence suggested
the weapon used
00:12:44
was most likely a hammer.
00:12:47
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:12:48
-Hammers are effective
striking tools,
00:12:51
so it's no great surprise
that you can cause
00:12:54
very severe damage
to a human skull
00:12:57
with relatively little effort,
with an effective hammer.
00:13:00
You'll often see lacerations.
00:13:03
They're often curved, to match
the profile of the hammer,
00:13:06
and you'll often see
skull fractures
00:13:09
that are quite often depressed
00:13:11
or pushed inwards
toward the brain
00:13:13
because the hammer is exerting
its force so focally.
00:13:17
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
00:13:19
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:13:20
-Nightfall, and detectives
in Hampton still work on,
00:13:23
but, though they've searched
tirelessly all day,
00:13:26
they remain baffled
as to who carried out
00:13:28
this apparently random attack.
00:13:30
-Often, these things happen
00:13:33
and are carried out
by somebody the victim knows.
00:13:37
In this case,
I'm sure police looked
00:13:38
at boyfriends, family members,
00:13:42
but very quickly ruled out any
kind of suspect like that, so,
00:13:46
it soon became obvious that
this was a stranger murder,
00:13:51
and those are very rare.
00:13:54
So, very soon, very quickly
after Marsha's murder,
00:13:59
people in the area
became very concerned
00:14:01
that there was a killer
on the loose.
00:14:04
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
00:14:05
-Subsequent investigations
led police
00:14:08
to a mentally unstable
16-year-old
00:14:11
who wasn't competent enough
to be charged,
00:14:14
or even interrogated
about the incident.
00:14:18
-And, as a result,
he was sectioned
00:14:20
and was put into some sort
of institution compulsorily
00:14:25
and, although he hadn't been
charged with the offense,
00:14:28
everybody kind of thought,
"Well, it was him
00:14:30
and so we can put
that offense to bed
00:14:33
and, you know, we've
solved that," if you like.
00:14:35
-But then, investigators noticed
00:14:38
a possible link
to similar attacks
00:14:40
that had happened in the area
in the months before.
00:14:44
-There was another
16-year-old schoolgirl that,
00:14:47
[sigh] she was thought,
at first,
00:14:49
to have slipped over in the snow
and banged her head
00:14:51
and it was only then,
when Marsha was murdered,
00:14:54
that police looked
at this occurrence,
00:14:56
some two months previously,
00:15:00
and realized that that
could've been an assault as well
00:15:02
and they went back to this girl,
00:15:03
who had been treated
in hospital,
00:15:06
and were able to talk
to hospital staff
00:15:08
and look at the description
of her wounds
00:15:09
and some photographs
and conclude that
00:15:12
the likelihood was
that she, too,
00:15:13
had been attacked,
but had survived.
00:15:16
We found a couple of other
offenses, as well.
00:15:18
Again, young ladies had been
attacked in the street
00:15:21
and hit over the back
of the head
00:15:23
and, in both these cases,
they'd survived.
00:15:26
-However, none of these
other victims
00:15:29
were able to identify
the attacker.
00:15:32
-They just, you know, said,
"I was walking along
00:15:34
and, the next thing I knew,
00:15:35
I woke up in hospital," some
hours or some days later, so,
00:15:39
we didn't have any kind
of clue or sighting
00:15:43
that led us
towards the suspect for it
00:15:45
because they just simply
couldn't remember it.
00:15:48
-All of the attacks seemed
to be totally unprovoked.
00:15:52
Could they all
have been committed
00:15:54
by the same perpetrator,
00:15:56
the man who murdered
Marsha McDonnell?
00:15:59
-As everybody knows,
00:16:00
most murders are committed
by someone you know,
00:16:03
whether it's a husband,
wife, lover, jilted lover.
00:16:09
It's comparatively rare
for random attackers to kill.
00:16:15
-Then, on the 28th of May 2004,
00:16:19
13 months after the murder
of Marsha McDonnell,
00:16:23
18-year-old student Kate Sheedy
was heading home
00:16:27
after a night out
in Twickenham, West London,
00:16:29
to celebrate the end
of her A-levels.
00:16:33
Just after midnight, she caught
the bus to nearby Isleworth
00:16:37
and began to walk the few
hundred yards to her front door.
00:16:43
-She's walking along the road.
She's aware,
00:16:44
up ahead of her
was a people-carrier
00:16:46
that was sitting, parked,
with the engine running
00:16:50
and she said it was white
and "it was sinister,"
00:16:53
was the phrase that she used.
00:16:54
She said it looked a bit
sinister because it was --
00:16:55
it had blacked-out windows
00:16:57
and she just thought
it was up to no good.
00:16:59
She didn't like it.
Some sort of sixth sense
00:17:01
or whatever said to her,
"No, don't walk past that."
00:17:03
So she crossed the road,
00:17:05
so that she would be walking
on the other side of the road
00:17:07
when she walked past
the people-carrier.
00:17:11
She heard this people-carrier
start up, accelerate,
00:17:15
and it literally came
across the road
00:17:17
and simply ran into her,
just ran her over.
00:17:20
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
00:17:21
She ended up on the road
between the front wheels
00:17:25
and the back wheels
of the people-carrier.
00:17:28
It then reversed,
so the front wheels went
00:17:31
over her body again,
and drove off.
00:17:34
-Incredibly, Kate survived
the frenzied and brutal attack.
00:17:40
-To overrun a human body
with a large vehicle,
00:17:43
like a people-carrier,
can cause very severe injuries.
00:17:47
You've got all the weight
of that vehicle
00:17:49
going through the tires
onto the body.
00:17:52
If that's across the limbs,
you're going to get fractures.
00:17:55
If it's across the head,
head injuries.
00:17:57
Obviously, the chest and abdomen
00:17:59
are very prone to injury
from that pressure on it
00:18:02
and, for somebody to be
overrun twice and survive
00:18:05
is very close to miraculous
and I suspect it's a compliment
00:18:10
to the skill of the people
who attempted to save her life.
00:18:14
-She had terrible injuries,
you know.
00:18:15
She had every rib broken.
00:18:17
She had her liver was in two
and various sort of injuries
00:18:21
that she was so brave
when she overcame
00:18:24
and she ended up going
to university
00:18:25
and, you know,
getting on with her life.
00:18:28
-Although the attack
on Kate Sheedy
00:18:30
seemed very different to the
murder of Marsha McDonnell
00:18:33
and all the other
reported incidents,
00:18:35
detectives still believed
they could all be linked.
00:18:39
-It's similar in its outcome.
00:18:40
It's similar in the area
where it took place
00:18:43
and the age and the victim,
00:18:45
what she looks like
and all this sort of thing.
00:18:46
It's just the weapon.
00:18:48
Substitute car for hammer,
and it's the same.
00:18:50
They ranged in age
between sort of 16 and 32.
00:18:56
They were all blond
or blondish
00:18:59
and I guess all of them
were well-dressed
00:19:02
and were quite kind of
sophisticated,
00:19:04
looked quite well-off
rather than,
00:19:07
perhaps, some of the other
people in the street.
00:19:09
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:19:10
-Someone who fitted
that description perfectly
00:19:13
was 22-year-old French exchange
student Amélie Delagrange
00:19:18
and, just three months
after the attack on Kate Sheedy,
00:19:21
Amélie was found,
00:19:23
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
dead.
00:19:25
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
On the 19th of August 2004,
00:19:29
22-year-old French exchange
student Amélie Delagrange
00:19:33
caught the bus home to her
rented flat in Twickenham,
00:19:36
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
but she missed her stop.
00:19:39
-It was a nice night in August
and she thought,
00:19:41
"Oh, it's not very far.
I'll walk,"
00:19:43
and, you know,
that was her fateful decision.
00:19:45
Had she waited for the bus,
00:19:46
she may well have been
okay that night.
00:19:48
At about quarter past 10:00,
00:19:50
there's a young man walking
around Twickenham Green
00:19:52
and there's
a cricket pitch there
00:19:53
and he walked
across the cricket pitch
00:19:55
and found what he thought,
at first,
00:19:58
was just a bundle of rags
or a bundle of clothes,
00:20:01
but turned out to be Amélie
00:20:04
and she was lying there
on the grass.
00:20:05
Her shopping bag, with her
shopping in, was next to her
00:20:09
and she had her single wound
across the back of the head,
00:20:12
was bleeding profusely.
00:20:14
He thought she was still alive,
00:20:16
at that point,
called for an ambulance.
00:20:18
He ran to the shops
on the north side of the Green
00:20:21
and alerted people to call
police and ambulance
00:20:23
and she was taken to a hospital
00:20:26
and died an hour or so later
of this single wound,
00:20:30
which caused a, you know,
00:20:32
a catastrophic sort of fracture
to her skull and brain injury.
00:20:35
♪♪
00:20:37
-It appeared that Amélie
had been killed
00:20:39
by a blow to the head
with a hammer,
00:20:41
just like Marsha McDonnell.
00:20:43
Police were now certain
the killings were
00:20:46
more than just a coincidence.
00:20:48
-We were conscious
that there had been
00:20:51
a number of similar attacks
in the area
00:20:53
over the preceding
sort of 18 months or so.
00:20:56
One of those was the murder
of Marsha McDonnell
00:20:58
and the other was the attempted
murder of Kate Sheedy
00:21:01
and, as our investigation
progressed,
00:21:03
looking at the Amélie murder,
so we realized
00:21:05
that we had to look at these
previous offenses as well.
00:21:09
[ Shutter clicks ]
-Like all the attacks reported,
00:21:12
there appeared no motive
for the murder.
00:21:15
-Absolutely no reason for it,
none, simply a random killing,
00:21:19
the most difficult kind
of killer to catch,
00:21:21
incidentally, because
there's no connection.
00:21:25
There was no connection
between Amélie Delagrange
00:21:26
and Marsha McDonnell.
None.
00:21:28
They didn't know each other.
They weren't friends.
00:21:30
There was no connection between
those two and Kate Sheedy.
00:21:35
-A second senseless murder
in the same area
00:21:38
meant the story
was now front-page news.
00:21:41
-Suddenly, we had, potentially,
a serial killer on the loose,
00:21:46
not on some
scuzzy council estate,
00:21:49
but in leafy Twickenham
and Hampton,
00:21:52
and that<i> really</i> struck fear
in the neighborhood
00:21:55
and police were struggling
to find an answer for a motive.
00:22:00
-Media were very keen
to ask us,
00:22:02
"Is this a series? Are we
dealing with a serial killer?"
00:22:04
Because those words have
a particular sort of connotation
00:22:06
and mean something and,
00:22:08
because we couldn't
link them formally,
00:22:10
by DNA or fingerprints,
we couldn't really say that,
00:22:12
so what we said was that we had
a linked investigative series
00:22:16
and what that meant was these
offenses are so similar in MO
00:22:21
and in their location
and the profile of the victim
00:22:25
that it would be a nonsense
00:22:27
to investigate them
with different teams.
00:22:29
-Pressure to catch the killer
was mounting.
00:22:32
[ Shutter clicks ]
-Truth was that,
00:22:34
without being
too sort of dramatic
00:22:36
or too sort of clichéd, we knew,
while we were investigating it,
00:22:39
that, if we didn't succeed,
00:22:41
that he was going
to do another one, you know.
00:22:43
There was a time element
in this one.
00:22:46
-But there was
very little evidence
00:22:48
for Colin and his team
to work with,
00:22:50
particularly in Amélie's case.
00:22:53
[ Shutter clicks ]
-Nobody had seen anything.
00:22:54
There was no CCTV
covering there.
00:22:57
She had a boyfriend.
00:22:58
She had no other kind
of contacts, really,
00:23:03
you know, no family or friends
or life history in England.
00:23:07
She'd not been here very long.
00:23:08
And it had all the
kind of characteristics
00:23:11
of a completely random attack
00:23:13
and they're often the very
hardest to investigate because,
00:23:16
not only do you not have
the links to help you,
00:23:21
but also, they're quite
often those murders
00:23:23
that are preplanned and,
when people preplan murders,
00:23:27
they tend to think
about things like CCTV
00:23:29
and their mobile-phone data
and all the other tricks
00:23:32
and DNA and fingerprints
and things.
00:23:34
All the things that we can use
in most murder cases
00:23:37
can be absent
in preplanned murders.
00:23:39
-There was no DNA evidence
at the scene
00:23:42
of<i> any</i> of the attacks,
00:23:43
but Amélie's mobile phone
was missing.
00:23:47
Police checked data, to see
when it was last located.
00:23:51
-They were able,
from the phone company,
00:23:52
to get the information
that her phone
00:23:55
had switched off
from the network,
00:23:57
had been lost by the network,
if you like,
00:23:59
at Walton-on-Thames
at a particular time.
00:24:02
This time was something
like eight or nine minutes
00:24:05
after she was found dying
on Twickenham Green
00:24:09
and Walton-on-Thames is
a considerable distance away
00:24:12
and it pointed to the bag
with her phone in it
00:24:16
having been taken away
by somebody in a vehicle.
00:24:19
-Detectives trolled
through 2,000 hours of CCTV
00:24:23
and, eventually, identified
a white van at the scene,
00:24:27
parked close to where
Amélie was murdered.
00:24:30
But there were
over 25,000 similar vans
00:24:33
registered in the UK,
00:24:35
so the police weren't optimistic
about finding the right one.
00:24:39
But luck was on their side.
00:24:43
-We had this file that was --
00:24:45
The official name for it
is the single-suggestion file,
00:24:47
I think, where people
ring up and say,
00:24:49
"I've got an idea who might have
committed that crime.
00:24:51
It is..."
and give a name.
00:24:53
And we had 129 people
in this file
00:24:57
and every one of them
had been suggested to us
00:24:59
from a former wife
or former girlfriend,
00:25:01
or even a current wife
or a current girlfriend,
00:25:03
and I termed it
the women-scorned file.
00:25:06
So we thought, "Oh, we'll go
and have a look through that
00:25:08
and see if anybody in there
had access to a white van
00:25:12
and we might be able to kind of
shortcut the search that way."
00:25:15
-The name Jo Collings surfaced.
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
00:25:18
She'd come forward
after the murders were reported
00:25:21
and suggested her ex-partner
Levi Bellfield
00:25:25
as a possible suspect.
00:25:27
-I was technically with him
in a relationship
00:25:30
three, four years,
00:25:32
but he ruled my life
for 11 years, every day.
00:25:36
He would drive past my house
five, six, 10 times a day,
00:25:42
constantly ring me.
00:25:43
He would walk down the alleyway
at the back of my house
00:25:46
and he'd ring me and tell me
what time I'd put the kettle on,
00:25:48
what I was wearing,
00:25:51
who was round my house,
everything.
00:25:54
-Jo told detectives
00:25:56
Bellfield had a white van
for his wheel-clamping business
00:26:00
and that he had
a violent nature,
00:26:03
with a particular hatred
of blond women.
00:26:06
It was a pivotal moment
in the case.
00:26:09
-I'd always,
at the back of my mind,
00:26:12
because of how twisted
and warped he is,
00:26:14
you always think, "He could go
that one step further."
00:26:18
I mean, people say
I'm as guilty as he is
00:26:20
because I didn't
come forward before,
00:26:23
but there was never
enough evidence
00:26:24
or enough people
willing to say,
00:26:26
"Yes, actually, he did do this.
He did do that,"
00:26:29
because so many people
were scared of him.
00:26:31
-We get the report we've had,
which says,
00:26:34
"My ex-partner Levi Bellfield
is a very violent man.
00:26:38
He has a hatred of women,
particularly blondes.
00:26:40
I found a magazine
where he'd stabbed through
00:26:43
all the photographs
of blond girls in it.
00:26:46
He's very weird and it's just
the sort of thing
00:26:47
he'd want to do and he now works
as a wheel clamper
00:26:50
and uses a little,
white van to do it."
00:26:53
So, oh, you know, that's exactly
what we're looking for,
00:26:55
somebody that's got
a small, white van,
00:26:56
so let's try and progress that.
00:26:58
-It was the ownership
of that van that, in the end,
00:27:02
led the police
to Levi Bellfield's door.
00:27:06
-By joining the dots,
00:27:08
Colin and his team could link
Bellfield to another vehicle:
00:27:12
the car that
ran Kate Sheedy down.
00:27:15
-One of the times that he
was arrested was in May 2004,
00:27:19
when he was arrested
for kidnap,
00:27:22
which was kidnapping
the landlord of a pub
00:27:25
near where he lived,
in West Drayton.
00:27:27
And nothing happened about it
00:27:28
and the landlord,
in the end, said, "Oh, no.
00:27:29
It was just a prank
that went wrong.
00:27:31
Don't worry about it,"
didn't want to press charges.
00:27:32
No charges were brought,
00:27:34
but the crucial thing was that
that arrest took place
00:27:39
and that abduction
took place, indeed,
00:27:41
[ Shutter clicks ]
in a vehicle,
00:27:42
and that vehicle was
a white Toyota Previa.
00:27:45
Kate Sheedy had been
attacked in Isleworth,
00:27:48
not by being hit
across the head,
00:27:50
but by being run over
by a large vehicle,
00:27:53
and she said that this vehicle
00:27:55
was something
like a Ford Galaxy.
00:27:57
Of course, that's exactly
what a Toyota Previa is.
00:28:00
-The white people-carrier,
that was actually on my drive
00:28:04
about two weeks before he
ran Kate Sheedy over with it,
00:28:09
only because he asked me
if he could leave it there
00:28:10
for a couple of nights,
and I begrudgingly said yes.
00:28:13
-And I got somebody to go
and do a check
00:28:15
on the number plate
of the Previa
00:28:17
that Levi had been arrested in
and I remember her saying to me,
00:28:20
"Governor, I think we might
have hit the jackpot,"
00:28:22
and said it was white.
00:28:24
We now had somebody,
Levi Bellfield,
00:28:26
who had the right kind
of white van
00:28:29
that was used at the time
Amélie Delagrange was murdered
00:28:33
and the right type of vehicle
00:28:35
at the time that Kate Sheedy
was run over.
00:28:38
-Bellfield was now
the prime suspect.
00:28:41
At dawn on the
22nd of November 2004,
00:28:46
police raided
his West Drayton home.
00:28:49
In the attic is a naked
Levi Bellfield.
00:28:53
He'd covered himself up,
00:28:54
in the hope that no one
would find him.
00:28:57
Well, they did and, indeed,
the sergeant got him down
00:28:59
and duly handcuffed him.
00:29:01
-Of course, he said to us,
"Oh, I was only hiding
00:29:03
'cause I thought it was a gang.
00:29:04
I thought it was
somebody after me."
00:29:06
Well, it was somebody
after you, Levi,
00:29:07
but it was the murder squad.
00:29:10
-At 8:30 this morning,
00:29:12
police raided several homes
in West Drayton.
00:29:14
The one behind me,
00:29:16
that of 36-year-old
Levi Bellfield
00:29:18
and his common-law wife.
00:29:20
The nightclub bouncer
is currently being held
00:29:22
at a West London
police station.
00:29:25
Bellfield was interrogated
by detectives
00:29:28
in relation to a long
string of offenses,
00:29:31
ranging from rape
to grievous bodily harm.
00:29:34
He refused to answer any
questions and, at one point,
00:29:37
he even petulantly turned
his back on investigators.
00:29:41
[ Shutter clicks ]
He was remanded in custody
00:29:43
for almost 18 months,
until the 2nd of March 2006,
00:29:48
when he was formally charged
00:29:49
with the murder
of Amélie Delagrange
00:29:52
and the attempted murder
of Kate Sheedy.
00:29:55
The murder of Marsha McDonnell
was added to his list of charges
00:29:58
on May 25, 2006.
00:30:02
Bellfield's trial began
at the Old Bailey
00:30:04
on October 12, 2007.
00:30:08
He pleaded not guilty
on all counts.
00:30:11
Levi Bellfield's trial,
for the murders
00:30:13
of Amélie and Marsha
was very long, very drawn out.
00:30:19
He was an imposing figure
in the dock, big, tall,
00:30:24
but it was his manner
throughout it
00:30:26
that I think drew
most attention.
00:30:28
He looked very bored.
00:30:31
He did give evidence.
00:30:32
There were glimpses
of the charm,
00:30:35
in a way,
when he<i> was</i> talking.
00:30:38
There was a point
where he was explaining
00:30:40
how you can be
a successful wheel-clamper.
00:30:43
I'm not suggesting
he charmed the jury,
00:30:45
but I think some of them
might have found him captivating
00:30:49
while he was talking
in those terms,
00:30:51
but he also had
a very squeaky voice,
00:30:53
that, again, was at odds
with this
00:30:55
rather physically
imposing man in the dock.
00:31:00
Denied any of the charges.
00:31:02
And you got the impression
that he felt
00:31:04
that he would be acquitted
at the end of it.
00:31:06
[ Shutter clicks ]
-But the circumstantial evidence
00:31:08
weighed heavily
against Bellfield.
00:31:11
They found 20 or 30 sightings
of this van,
00:31:14
separate bits of CCTV,
00:31:16
and that's when we built up
the picture of this van
00:31:19
circling Twickenham Green,
effectively,
00:31:21
and driving round for a period
of something like 45 minutes
00:31:24
before Amélie was murdered.
00:31:26
Hunting.
No other word for it, you know.
00:31:28
He was cruising
a very small area,
00:31:31
looking for people to approach.
00:31:35
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
-On February 25, 2008,
00:31:38
Bellfield was found guilty
of the murders
00:31:40
of Amélie Delagrange
and Marsha McDonnell,
00:31:44
as well as the attempted
murder of Kate Sheedy.
00:31:47
[ Shutter clicks ]
Judge Mrs. Justice Rafferty
00:31:50
sentenced Bellfield
to a whole-life tariff.
00:31:53
He was immediately sent
to Woodhill Prison.
00:31:56
He will never be released.
00:31:59
His modus operandi,
according to the police,
00:32:02
was that he got very angry,
if he approached a young woman
00:32:06
that he was attracted to
and felt rejected by them
00:32:10
and it is suggested
that this is what happened,
00:32:13
in the case
of the two women he killed.
00:32:16
-So, so, these women, they were
disposable objects to him.
00:32:20
They were part of his
killing game,
00:32:22
his sort of hobby,
his leisure activity.
00:32:26
-The day after Bellfield
received his sentence,
00:32:29
he was named
as the chief suspect
00:32:31
in a case that
had shocked the nation
00:32:34
and remained unsolved
for nine years...
00:32:37
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
00:32:38
...the murder of Milly Dowler.
00:32:41
There was a lot
of circumstantial evidence,
00:32:44
particularly the fact that
he had been living close by,
00:32:48
within a couple
of hundred yards,
00:32:50
of the place
where she disappeared.
00:32:53
It was established
that he had use of,
00:32:56
and had used, on that day,
his partner's red car,
00:32:59
which matched one that was found
in CCTV of the scene,
00:33:04
but then there was
the evidence of his partner,
00:33:06
who said that Levi Bellfield
00:33:09
had got up in the middle
of the night,
00:33:11
the night of Milly's
disappearance,
00:33:13
and had made an excuse
to go back to that flat
00:33:17
and, when she later went
to the flat,
00:33:19
she discovered that the bedding
had disappeared off their bed
00:33:22
and he said that the dog
had fouled the bedspread
00:33:27
and he'd had to burn it.
00:33:29
Now, that was quite compelling
evidence for the jury
00:33:33
and they were convinced
that he was the killer.
00:33:37
-On the 4th of March 2008,
00:33:40
an ex-colleague of Bellfield,
Kelly Fry,
00:33:43
told ITV News he confessed
to murdering Milly back in 2002.
00:33:49
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:33:51
-He pointed at a flat in Walton
00:33:53
and said that he used
to live there
00:33:55
and that he'd lost £900 in rent
00:33:56
that he'd already paid
because he had to move out
00:33:59
and he said, "Oh, yeah,
I also set fire to Emma's car."
00:34:02
And I said, "Why would set fire
to your girlfriend's car?"
00:34:04
And he said,
"'Cause I took the girl."
00:34:06
That was his exact words.
00:34:08
And, immediately, I just knew
that he was on about Milly.
00:34:11
If I, for one minute,
thought that it was true,
00:34:13
then I would've come forward
a long, long time ago.
00:34:16
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
-There was no forensic evidence.
00:34:18
There was no smoking gun
anywhere.
00:34:19
They had to build a case with
what people had been saying,
00:34:23
with little facts,
with phone evidence they had,
00:34:25
with what CCTV they had,
which wasn't particularly much.
00:34:28
The whole thing came back
to us knowing
00:34:33
what Levi Bellfield
had done on the night
00:34:36
that Milly Dowler was abducted.
00:34:38
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:34:39
-Bellfield had been questioned
about Milly Dowler
00:34:42
during the time he was on remand
for his other crimes
00:34:45
and had always replied,
"No comment."
00:34:49
But one person was certain
he'd murdered Milly:
00:34:51
his ex-partner Jo Collings.
00:34:55
-He said that he'd never
been to Yateley
00:34:57
and he had nothing,
no knowledge of the area.
00:35:01
Well, out of all
the photographs,
00:35:03
and I don't know why.
00:35:04
Everything I had I threw away
and I found an envelope.
00:35:07
It had two photographs in it
and it was two of me and him
00:35:10
at Yateley,
which is really bizarre.
00:35:12
And I'm a great believer
00:35:13
of "Everything happens
for a reason"
00:35:15
and I wasn't meant
to throw those pictures out
00:35:17
because they were needed
00:35:19
and, of course,
they showed him in Yateley,
00:35:21
so he knew
where Milly was found.
00:35:23
He knew exactly the lay
of the land
00:35:26
because we used to go there
all the time.
00:35:27
[ Ominous chord strikes ]
[ Shutter clicks ]
00:35:29
-On the 10th of May 2011,
00:35:32
Levi Bellfield, three years
after his first trial,
00:35:36
was once again in the dock
at the Old Bailey,
00:35:40
this time, charged with the
murder of Milly Dowler.
00:35:44
Bellfield pleaded not guilty
00:35:47
and refused to give evidence
in his defense.
00:35:52
-With Levi Bellfield,
00:35:53
it's a power-and-control
thing for him
00:35:56
'cause only he has knowledge
00:35:59
of the murders
that he's committed.
00:36:01
Only he knows exactly
who his victims were,
00:36:04
the full extent of the women
00:36:06
that he perpetrated
these crimes against,
00:36:08
and it gives him
a sense of power.
00:36:11
He's in prison now,
so, what he's got control over
00:36:14
is very limited,
but one thing that he still
00:36:17
can exercise power over
is that knowledge
00:36:19
and, as long as that's his,
then he's in control.
00:36:23
-Geoffrey Wansell was
in the courtroom
00:36:25
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
during the trial.
00:36:27
-What's striking about Bellfield
is that he wanted to put
00:36:31
every witness
through a real ordeal
00:36:36
because he never once
pleaded guilty.
00:36:39
He wanted them all to suffer
00:36:40
and he<i> particularly</i> wanted
the Dowler family to suffer.
00:36:44
It was as though he was
smirking to himself,
00:36:47
"Look what I'm
putting you through."
00:36:49
He sat there, absolutely silent,
00:36:52
throughout this fierce
cross-examination.
00:36:54
Utterly justified. I'm not
criticizing at all, in fact.
00:36:57
It was perfectly justified.
00:36:58
Bellfield made it happen.
00:37:00
He made it happen
by not pleading guilty
00:37:02
and he made it happen
by instructing
00:37:04
his own defense silk,
his own barrister,
00:37:07
to pursue the Dowlers to the
full extent he was possible of
00:37:11
and it's very difficult
to forgive Bellfield for that
00:37:13
and it underlines
just what a malicious,
00:37:15
malign, evil man he is.
00:37:18
[ Sinister music plays ]
00:37:19
-On June 23, 2011,
00:37:22
the jury found
Levi Bellfield guilty.
00:37:26
Judge Mr. Justice Wilkie
00:37:28
sentenced him to a further
whole-life tariff,
00:37:30
on top of the one
he was already serving.
00:37:34
-The fact that he is,
as far as I know,
00:37:37
the only convicted killer
00:37:39
who's been given two whole-life
tariffs does make him unique.
00:37:45
A judge in each case,
the two judges,
00:37:48
both felt that his crimes
were so awful
00:37:51
that he should be<i> never</i> given
the chance of parole,
00:37:55
that life will mean life
for him.
00:37:58
To be given two sentences
like that is extraordinary.
00:38:03
I suppose, in practical terms,
it doesn't make any difference.
00:38:07
Again, I suppose,
if he ever felt
00:38:09
that he might try
and challenge that,
00:38:13
he's got to do it twice
and the chances
00:38:15
of him ever being
released are nil.
00:38:17
-I think Levi Bellfield will be
enjoying the notoriety
00:38:21
that comes along with being
a double-life-sentenced prisoner
00:38:25
'cause I think there is
a certain hierarchy in prison,
00:38:29
in terms of the nature
of the offenses
00:38:31
that you've committed, the type
of sentence that you have,
00:38:34
and he will
very much see himself
00:38:36
as the upper echelons
of the prison population.
00:38:40
-In 2016,
00:38:42
it was reported
that Bellfield had confessed
00:38:45
to the murder of Milly Dowler,
00:38:47
giving gruesome details of how
he'd abused and killed her.
00:38:51
Then, shortly after,
he retracted the admission,
00:38:55
causing the Dowler family
untold grief.
00:38:58
He loves to manipulate
00:39:00
and he<i> loved</i> to manipulate
the Dowler family
00:39:02
and they were his victims,
every bit as much as Milly was.
00:39:06
-Well, basically what's going on
00:39:08
when offenders like
Levi Bellfield admit to things
00:39:11
or don't admit to things
or retract things
00:39:14
is that they are eliciting
quite a lot of attention.
00:39:18
They are keeping people
interested in them.
00:39:21
They are playing with people
00:39:23
'cause people
like Levi Bellfield,
00:39:25
they are the puppet masters.
00:39:26
They like pulling
other peoples' strings.
00:39:28
They like pushing their buttons
and seeing what happens.
00:39:32
-Levi Bellfield is now serving
time at Frankland Prison.
00:39:36
He has converted to Islam
and calls himself Yusuf Rahim.
00:39:41
-Nothing will ever surprise me
with Levi Bellfield.
00:39:45
I don't know what he's done.
00:39:46
Only he knows what he's done.
00:39:48
He would do anything,
if he thought
00:39:50
there was an angle
that made it the best thing
00:39:52
for Levi Bellfield to do
for Levi Bellfield.
00:39:55
And he was ruthless;
he was violent.
00:39:57
He was sociopathic, I'm sure.
00:40:00
So who knows what else
he might've done?
00:40:02
-He sees himself, and still
sees himself, to this day,
00:40:06
as a powerful, charismatic,
famous, now notorious, figure
00:40:12
whose place is guaranteed
in the record books.
00:40:14
It feeds his arrogance.
00:40:16
It feeds his ego
and there's nothing
00:40:18
that Bellfield likes more
than feeding his ego.
00:40:22
-In letters written
by Bellfield from his cell
00:40:25
to the makers
of this program,
00:40:27
he claims that he has never
confessed to<i> any</i> of his crimes
00:40:31
and still maintains
he is not guilty, saying,
00:40:35
"I'm innocent
of all my convictions...
00:40:38
I have witnessed and done
things I truly regret,
00:40:41
but I'm no killer.
00:40:43
My lifestyle led
to my wrongful convictions...
00:40:46
I blame no one but me.
00:40:49
The real victims are the victims
and families of these crimes.
00:40:54
I am sincerely sad for their
loss but I am not a victim...
00:40:58
My lifestyle put me here,
my choice, my fault."
00:41:04
But some of the people who know
him better than others
00:41:07
refuse to believe
Bellfield's protestations.
00:41:11
-Levi, evil,
all blends into one.
00:41:15
I've always said it before.
00:41:17
I<i> hate</i> it when people refer
to him as an animal
00:41:19
because animals
don't behave like that.
00:41:21
They kill to survive,
not for fun and pleasure.
00:41:24
He was born evil.
00:41:26
He is pure, pure evil.
00:41:29
-Bellfield is a psychopath.
00:41:31
He deserves utterly to be in
jail for the rest of his life.
00:41:35
He's a preening, vain,
manipulative,
00:41:41
smart, deathly man
00:41:45
and, if anyone deserves
to be called evil,
00:41:48
it's certainly Levi Bellfield.
00:41:51
-Despite Levi Bellfield's
claims of innocence,
00:41:54
he has been convicted
of three murders
00:41:56
and one attempted murder.
00:41:59
We may never know if there are
other victims out there, or not,
00:42:03
but what we do know is
that Bellfield
00:42:05
bludgeoned two women
to death with a hammer,
00:42:09
ran another over
repeatedly in his car,
00:42:12
and killed a 13-year-old girl
00:42:14
who had her whole life
in front of her.
00:42:17
Yet, Bellfield has never
offered any reason
00:42:20
or remorse for his actions.
00:42:23
He is, without doubt,
00:42:24
one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:42:27
♪♪
00:42:37
♪♪
00:42:41
[ Suspenseful music climbs ]
00:42:45
♪♪
00:42:53
♪♪
