Two violent criminals are imprisoned in the same prison. One of them — probably — is guilty of perhaps the most savage multiple murder in modern British criminal history.
Which inmate was convicted? Michael Stone (now 61), was sentenced two decades ago for the horrific crime. Levi Bellfield is the serial killer, who now claims these more killings are his.
A chilling twist has been added to the tragic story of Lin Russell’s six-year old daughter Megan, who was killed by a hammer in her murder, as well as the attempted murder of Megan, nine-year-old, at a Kent country lane, in 1996. There are many unanswered questions.
Levi Bellfield, the serial killer convicted of Lin and Megan Russell murders, has given a four-page confession. It contains chilling details about the attack.
Bellfield was a bouncer convicted in the deaths of three female victims, including Milly Dowler from Surrey. He has now revealed a four-page confession.
He claims that he is responsible for Stone’s attack on Russell Family, Stone being first sentenced to life for this crime in 1998.
Bellfield, 53 years old, concluded his statement on the Russell shootings saying, “Something similar to this never happened to me in the sense that I have committed a criminal offense and another person was arrested for it.” Stone and my Russell family are deeply sorry for the heinous actions I have committed.
Bellfield now seems to be admitting guilt. Are his motives motivated by regret that Bellfield was wrongfully convicted of crimes he committed?
After being twice convicted in the Russell murders, Michael Stone is currently behind bars. Bellfield said that Stone had admitted his innocence. This could be interpreted as a statement that Stone is innocent.
Oder is this a lie that Bellfield concocted to draw attention to himself and raise his profile?
He claims the murders and promotes himself to be the ‘top’ of Britain’s serial killers while playing power games with the criminal justice systems that have kept him from ever returning. Similar claims have been made about Russell in the past, but he later retracts them.
By any measure Michael Stone is — or was — a dangerous man. He was known for his psychotic cruelty and violence, and it is this that made him a suspect in the Russell murders. It will not be forgotten that Stone has been kept from the streets for many years.
There was no supporting forensic evidence. His loyal sister Barbara, as well as a long-standing legal team, have supported him in his protest of innocence.
Bellfield’s first murder, more than 30 years earlier, would not have happened if Bellfield was stopped, which he claims he did. At least five other women today could still live if Bellfield wasn’t caught. Lin Russell (with Megan Russell and Josie),
They are held for the rest of their lives in the exact same prison, HM Frankland.
He did not even attack Russell’s family on that particular day. This is a stunning miscarriage.
Worse still, Bellfield, who was allegedly their murderer, had his failures to be caught by police or the justice system. This allowed him to continue on the run and commit at least three more killings.
Bellfield’s first murder, more than 30 years earlier, would not have happened – at least five women today, according to his claims. Many others, who were able to survive his subsequent attacks, would still be alive today.
Criminal Cases Review Commission, (CCRC), has stated that they will ‘thoroughly analyze’ Bellfield’s confession of guilt and promise to conduct ‘any appropriate inquires’ to confirm the truth.
Stone’s legal team is requesting that the latest DNA testing be used on a 99cm bootlace discovered at Russell murder scene. This had been used for at least one victim.
Amelie Delarange, 22, whose body, with severe head injuries, was found on Twickenham Green in south West London, Thursday August 19, 2004.
Bellfield’s new confession reads: “In my car, I had a screwdriver and a lock knife. Yellow Marigold gloves were also included. And a long, black bootlace.”
Stone had been suspected of using the lace as a tourniquet when injecting heroin. Prosecutors speculated that he had used it before and pulled it tightly between his teeth. It should contain traces of Stone’s DNA, if that is the case.
This was however not the case. Stone’s attorneys want the three knots in the lacing to be undone to determine if the evidence of the murderer is there.
Police confirmed that the lace was found after it had been reported missing from an evidence shop.
Bellfield committed the terrorist attacks that resulted in his conviction. His bloody life began in Hampstead in North-West London, a few miles from where he was convicted.
It is here that Judith Gold (a widowed mother with three children) was discovered by a newspaperboy on October 20th 1990.
Levi Bellfield currently serves life in prison after being convicted of the murders schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Mrs Gold, 51 years of age, was located just yards above the Midland Bank, High Street. An unidentified gun had beaten her to death.
The case was not linked to robbery, or sexual assault. It remained unsolved, and it faded away from my memory. The Russell murders were not so fortunate. The Russell murders occurred on July 9, 1996 when Dr Russell (a geologist), her daughters, and Lucy, their canine companion, were returning from a swimming gala. The couple walked through a quiet country lane in Chillenden.
The men walked by a car parked nearby, where a man appeared with a clawhammer in his hand and demanded money. Megan, 45 and Dr Russell were tied up by the assailant. It was also shot to death.
Josie was bound with strips of her swim towel and tied to the tree. First responders assumed she had died. Her body was not discovered for eight hours.
A young, defenseless family was attacked by a criminal. Michael Stone, a violent, unstable, and addicted heroin user from Gillingham was the answer.
A terrible childhood saw him suffer physical and sexual abuse. His relatives claim that his stepfather Peter Stone beat him with a stick.
Michael Stone was a young boy that tortured animals. He also forced a girl to take his knife in a school playground. At the tender age of 11, he stole from a bank to purchase drugs. His first conviction was for criminal conduct. Next came serious violent offenders.
He was sentenced in 1981 to 2 years imprisonment after he attacked a man using a hammer as part of a robbery.
He was then sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for an additional assault in which he had stabbed his former school friend in her chest, while she slept. In his next arrest, he then wentuged the eye a policeman. For two armed robberies, he was given ten year imprisonment in 1987.
Lin (45), her daughters Megan, nine-year old, and Josie, nine-years-old, and their dog Lucy were all tied up in a brutal beating with a hammer. Only Josie survived. Nation shocked by 1996’s shocking deaths at Chillenden in Kent.
In the Russell case, the BBC’s Crimewatch program conducted a reconstruction to commemorate the anniversary of the initial attack.
Stone was a popular name among viewers. These were doctors who dealt with Stone’s mental issues in the days before the Russell attack.
He was described as a maniac who fantasized about killing and torturing children and committing rages. According to psychiatrists, his behavior was so disturbing that he worried about his safety and the safety of others.
Stone couldn’t account for Stone’s whereabouts the day before. He had also tried to have himself admitted to a hospital mental wing that day. His clothes were burned.
There was also no forensic evidence linking him to the site of this frenzied, prolonged attack.
Josie Russell was able to make a complete recovery. However, her assistance was limited. Stone’s conversations with other inmates during his remand were the basis of much of the police investigation. Damien Daley was a prisoner who claimed that Stone confessed the crimes.
Stone was convicted by majority verdict of his attacks in October 1998. But days later one of the prisoners who had provided a witness statement — not Daley, who would later also be jailed for life for a separate murder — admitted he had lied.
Stone won an appeal and his convictions were overturned. There was also a second trial. Stone was again convicted in 2001, with a majority verdict. He was denied another appeal in 2005. It was then that the appeal was denied in 2005. Until Levi Bellfield intervened unexpectedly.
Bellfield is known for being a serial killer. Bellfield’s case raises the question, “Was he??” He asked, “How many?”‘.
Lin Russell, 45. Her two daughters Megan (6 years) and Josie (9 years), were tied up, beaten brutally with hammers in the 1996 attack.
In 2001, he began a series of attacks known to or likely against young South-West London women. Anna Maria Rennie was 17 years old when she identified Bellfield as her abductor and placed her in prison that October at Richmond.
Milly Dowler was 13 years old when she disappeared from Walton-on-Thames on March 13, 2013. In September, her body was discovered in Hampshire. Marsha McDonnell (aged 19) died in February 2003 after being beaten to death at the neck.
Irma dragoshi also suffered a beating that December while waiting for a bus to West London. She was able to survive. Kate Sheedy (age 18), was intentionally run over in May after she was approached in West London by a male in a car. It was also a miracle that she survived with many injuries.
Amelie delagrange was a French student of 22 years, who died after she was found in Twickenham with severe head injuries.
Bellfield was convicted of McDonnell’s and Delagrange’s murders, along with the attempted murder of Sheedy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a tariff for the whole of his life. In the Rennie-Dragoshi case, however, jury verdicts were not reached.
The police stated that Bellfield was being investigated by the authorities for other offences against women.
In 2011, he was convicted of murder and abduction of Milly Dowler. His possible involvement in other crimes drew more attention. And one in particular — the Russell killings.
Stone’s legal team claimed that Bellfield confessed to guilt to another inmate. This speculation culminated in 2017. They claimed that some of the details Bellfield gave were only known to the killer.
In a BBC documentary broadcast that year Bellfield’s former partner and mother of his two children, Jo Collings — who had no doubt that he was a killer — said he could not have been involved in the Chillenden deaths. Whatever he might claim, he had an inexplicable alibi.
She said, “That was my birthday,” to the documentary. ‘He [Bellfield]He never left me side. All day, every night. . . Kent did what they said, got back to me without me knowing that he was there. It hurts to admit it but I have to tell you, it wasn’t what he did.
Bellfield was later interviewed by journalists and admitted to the murder of the Russells. He also denied that he had confessed.
Stone claimed that he sent him three letters and that he tried to force Stone to accept responsibility. Stone offered to pay him part of any settlement money for his wrong conviction.
Both men had been inmates at HMP Frankland in County Durham by that time. They remain there today. Both men have never met and are now kept apart in separate wings.
Bellfield — who now calls himself Yusuf Rahim — has made a number of conflicting claims concerning the Russell murders. Now, it appears that he has made a formal confession.
Paul Bacon Stone’s lawyer told the Mail last night, that Bellfield sent him a statement from jail. Bellfield had also sent him another statement, in September. He refuted Stone’s alibi and did not admit to the murder.
Bacon stated that he would now give the confession to both the CCRC, and the Metropolitan Police.
Mister Bacon answered the question, “Levi Bellfield tried to commit suicide in November.” He was seriously injured and was admitted to hospital. They spent many hours attempting to revive him.
“I feel that there was a time of reflection.” Bellfield is not what we remember. He truly regrets his actions.
But how can one explain the apparent inactivity of Russell and Gold deaths over the years, along with the five year hiatus that preceded the attacks that led to his last arrest?
David Wilson is an Emeritus professor at Birmingham City University. He founded the Centre for Applied Criminology. A former prison governor, he helped create and operate the HMP Woodhill units in Milton Keynes. These two units housed Britain’s 12 most violent prisoners.
He told Mail last night that he was skeptical about Bellfield’s confession.
According to him, ‘If Levi Bellfield provides information that only the killer could know and can independently verify it, then he should be re-interviewed again by police regarding these historical crimes. Levi Bellfield, however, is a crook. Since he was young, he has been lying.
“His mode of operation was to target blonde young women or girls in London, and Megan Russell’s murders do not reflect that behavior.
‘It is possible for a serial killer to take a break in his offending either when he is in prison for other offences or has met a partner who satisfies his psychological needs for the time being — but it is very unusual.
“Levi Bellfield” is an enormous narcissist, and no one has been talking about him. So what better way than to do a stunt such as this to get your name out there?
“We should treat his words with care until we can determine for sure if he’s telling the truth.”