Police close file on West Sussex serial killer

A police investigation into allegations that serial killer Levi Bellfield, who is in prison for the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, was involved in '˜serious crimes' is being closed, Scotland Yard has said.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Nov 2016, 20:35 BST
Updated 16th Nov 2016, 16:40 BST
Levi Bellfield at the Chichester Gate complex where he worked as a car clamper in 2004Levi Bellfield at the Chichester Gate complex where he worked as a car clamper in 2004
Levi Bellfield at the Chichester Gate complex where he worked as a car clamper in 2004

In a statement, the force said: ‘The Metropolitan Police has been co-ordinating the national response, across 10 police forces, in relation to information passed to police in early 2015 regarding serious crimes, alleging the involvement of Levi Bellfield (who now calls himself Yusuf Rahim).

‘It has taken a considerable amount of time and police resources to conduct the investigation. All lines of enquiry have now been exhausted and the decision has been taken to close this investigation as there is no evidence to link the individual to any case for which he has not already been convicted.’

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Milly, 13, was snatched from the street while on her way from school to her home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002.

Serial killer Bellfield, who used to work as a car clamper across West Sussex, is serving a whole-life tariff after being found guilty of abducting and killing her following a trial at the Old Bailey. He was jailed in 2011.

He was already in jail for the murders of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, when he went on trial accused of killing Milly.

In 2008 he had been given a whole-life term for murdering Ms McDonnell, 19, in 2003, and murdering Ms Delagrange, 22, and attempting to murder Ms Sheedy, 18, in 2004.

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At the time of his conviction in June 2011, detectives said they believed Bellfield may have been responsible for around 20 attacks on women which were never solved.

These included the killing of Judith Gold, who was hit over the head in Hampstead, north London, in 1990, and Bellfield’s schoolfriend Patsy Morris, 14, who was strangled on Hounslow Heath, west London, in 1980.

Anna Maria Rennie identified Bellfield as the man who tried to force her in to a car in Whitton, west London, when she was just 17 in October 2001. But the jury at Bellfield’s 2008 trial for the murders of two other women could not agree and the charge was left on file.

The Met would not comment further on the decision.

The force added: ‘We have remained in close liaison with a number of families throughout the course of our inquiries, and have made them aware of this outcome.

‘This has understandably been a very difficult time for them and we would ask that the privacy of individuals’ is respected.’

Bellfield has been informed of the outcome, police said.