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I drove red car seen on the day Milly vanished, admits killer
Kiran Randhawa and Justin Davenport22 Apr 2009
DETECTIVES are today examining an admission by convicted killer Levi Bellfield linking him to the abduction and murder of Milly Dowler.
The 40-year-old, who is the prime suspect in the crime, says he was behind the wheel of a red Daewoo caught on CCTV 25 minutes before the schoolgirl vanished while walking home from school in Walton-on-Thames.
Police are investigating the claims, which could prove a breakthrough in the investigation into the murder of the 13-year-old who disappeared on 21March 2002. One source said: "We will be looking at this with great interest. This puts him at the scene."
Six months after she went missing, Milly's skeletal remains were found 30 miles away by mushroom pickers on Yateley Heath, Hampshire.
Bellfield lived 70 yards from the spot where Milly was last seen alive. Less than half an hour later the red Daewoo Nexia was captured on CCTV driving past the spot.
The former bouncer and wheel-clamper is serving life for the murders of students Amélie Delagrange, 22, in 2004, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, in 2003. He bludgeoned them to death with hammers after they got off buses in south-west London. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18. He was jailed in February last year.
Before his convictions, Bellfield was arrested and questioned over Milly's murder but refused to account for his movements on the day she disappeared.
But in an interview given to the Daily Mirror from Wakefield Prison, Bellfield admitted he was driving the vehicle.
His then girlfriend Emma Mills owned a car of the same colour and model, which was reported stolen a few days after Milly vanished and never traced.
When asked directly if he was behind the wheel that day, Bellfield said: "It doesn't take a lot to work out does it?
"Coming down a road where you live, it's hardly breaking the law.
"There's not many red Daewoos floating about in Walton-on-Thames, so we've got to be realistic about it. But then I've got to be careful about how I answer these questions. I did use the Daewoo once and I was stopped by the police once in it for speeding."
He said he had been using his girlfriend's car because a friend had borrowed his white van.
Forensic science experts believed the rear of the car appeared to be lower than normal, suggesting it was carrying a heavy load.
Bellfield said the suspension appeared low because he was using it to transport tools and building equipment, adding that a "human body" would not have been heavy enough to make the vehicle sit that close to the ground.
He added: "If you look at that imagery of that vehicle pulling out it's very low to the ground isn't it? It's practically on the floor. Now I say it's on the floor because it's loaded up with tiles I was buying in Shepperton at the time, yeah? They were to tile the kitchen. I also believe if it's possible it (the CCTV image) should be enhanced and you'll see the back seats are actually down. Are you with me? Well any human being wouldn't put it that low."
A red car also features in another line of inquiry sparked by what may have been an attempted abduction the previous day. The family of a 12-year-old girl told police a man in a red car offered her a lift home in Shepperton, less than three miles from Walton-on-Thames.
The last confirmed sighting of Milly was at 4.08pm when a school friend waiting for a bus saw her walking home along Station Avenue. An hour earlier, after her final lesson, Milly left Heathside School in Weybridge and caught a train to Walton with friends.
Surrey detectives plan to interview Bellfield over the new claims.
