The ex of Milly Dowler's killer Levi Bellfield said she thinks he did murder a mum and daughter following his "confession".
This week Bellfield has allegedly owned up to the murders of Lin and Megan Russell, a confession which could prove the innocence of heroin addict Michael Stone, 61, who claims he was wrongly jailed for the 1996 murders.
Bellfield's ex of six years told the Mirror she believed his claims, which were made in a letter to Stone’s solicitor Paul Bacon.
She told the Mirror: “Yes, I believe it. I knew he would say it after his mum died.”
They were together for six years in 1990s and broke up one year before the murders of Lin and Megan Russell.
She added after yesterday’s revelation: “It’s just unbelievable really. I think I’m lucky to be alive.”
Stone’s barrister Mark McDonald said he will be asking Scotland Yard to investigate the case - and will write to them this week.
Lin Russell, 45, daughters Megan, six, and Josie, nine, and their dog were tied up and bludgeoned with a hammer in a country lane in Chillenden, Kent.
Lin and Megan and the dog died but Josie survived.
Mr McDonald said: “It’s time for the Met to review this case and interview Bellfield, that’s what we want.
“We will be writing to the Met this week asking them to take a look at the case.”
Mr McDonald said of Kent Police, who carried out the original investigation: “This is not a police force that should be looking at this.”
He added: “Michael Stone is innocent and must be immediately released from prison.
“Stone has been in prison for 26 years despite plenty of evidence that this is a miscarriage of justice.”
In Bellfield’s statement to Mr Bacon, he says he was wearing a ‘pair of marigold washing up gloves’ and had the hammer in his right hand as he stopped the Russell family walking along a lane.
He claims his intention was ‘to just attack Lin’, but quickly changed his mind on hearing the screams, presumably of Megan and Josie Russell.
The 14-paragraph statement then goes into detail about how he led the Russells from a track before killing them, and then drove back to his Twickenham home before heading off to work.
He claims the following day he threw the hammer he used into the Thames near Walton, Surrey.
He ends the statement by saying it was the first time he had ‘committed a crime and another person has been arrested for it’, before apologising to Stone and the Russell family ‘for my heinous acts’.
There are major questions around Bellfield’s “confession” including evidence from his former wife that she was with him on the day of the murders.
A Met police investigation in 2008 received evidence from Jo Collings that they were together for her 25th birthday on the day of the killings in Kent.
Ms Collings, who gave evidence against Bellfield and is described as “the very last person” who would try to protect him, previously said: “He never left my side all day and all night, so there is absolutely no way he could have gone from Twickenham, where I lived, or Windsor, where I kept my horses, to Kent, done what they say he did and got back without me not knowing.
“I hate to say it but, hand on my heart, I can say he didn’t do it.”
Former bouncer and car clamper Bellfield is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 13, in 2002.
He has also been convicted of murdering Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and will never be considered for parole.
Mr McDonald admitted there is nothing in Bellfield’s statement which has not previously been in the public domain, raising the possibility he has fabricated it using known facts.
Colin Sutton, the former Met detective who caught Bellfield, said last year when the monster claimed he was in the area at the time of the murders:
“Knowing Bellfield as I do, this could be him playing mind games.”
The Met Police did not comment last night.
Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Fotheringham of Kent Police said: “Following two trials at which Stone was found guilty by a jury on both occasions, and an appeal to the High Court, Michael Stone remains convicted of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell, and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in 1996.
“Michael Stone made an application to apply for a Judicial Review in respect of his conviction in September 2012. The Honourable Mr Justice Blake ordered that permission for the application should be refused.
“The Criminal Case Review Commission commenced an extensive re-examination of the murder investigation in 2017 and has had access to all forensic evidence, documentation and exhibits from the original investigation, the review by Hampshire Police, details of the two Crown Court trials and appeals to the High Court."
