An ex-partner of killer Levi Bellfield said she believes he did murder a mother and daughter following news that he has allegedly admitted to the crimes.
Reports emerged on Saturday night that Bellfield has admitted the murders of Lin and Megan Russell in a confession. The man convicted for the crimes, Michael Stone, 61, has always claimed he was wrongly jailed for the 1996 murders.
An ex-partner of Bellfield, Rebecca Wilkinson, told the Mirror she believes his claims, which were reportedly made in a letter to Stone's solicitor, Paul Bacon. Ms Wilkinson, who is mum to Bellfield’s four daughters, said: “Yes, I believe it. I knew he would say it after his mum died.”
The pair were together for six years in the 1990s and broke up one year before the murders of Lin and Megan Russell. She said: “It’s just unbelievable really. I think I’m lucky to be alive.”
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. Josie, who was just nine at the time, survived after emergency workers at the scene found a faint pulse when they checked her.
Josie and her father Shaun moved to Gwynedd in the aftermath of the murders. And Josie went on to find happiness and love in her new life in Wales where she still lives today with husband Iwan working as an artist.
Stone was convicted for the double murder of Lin and Megan. Sentenced to three life sentences, Stone, a heroin addict, was told he would spend at least 25 years in prison. In 2017 a panel of experts, including detectives, lawyers and forensic scientists, agreed to re-examine evidence, while Stone said he'd "rather starve to death than confess to Lin and Megan Russell murders". Meanwhile, his lawyers argued there was "compelling evidence" linking Levi Bellfield to the Russell killings.
Stone’s barrister Mark McDonald said he will be asking Scotland Yard to investigate the case - and will write to them this week. 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 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. Mr McDonald acknowledged 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.
Former bouncer and car clamper Bellfield is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of schoolgirl Millie 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.
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.
