Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Milly Dowler

74 replies

ohboob · 17/05/2011 19:47

I couldn't find a thread on this. I just wanted somewhere to write that I'm finding it all really distressing. My heart goes out to her and her family so much and it's horrible hearing details, even of the poems she wrote.
It's such a horrendous thing to have happened. Sad What her mum must be going through.

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 17/05/2011 20:09

I think if it is proven that Bellfield was her killer, and the case can be closed, then it will have been worth it - just. However, I strongly suspect that the man is sitting there knowing full well he killed the child, making her family relive the entire painful ordeal and baring all their private details in a public court... and is getting as much sadistic pleasure from the experience as he probably did committing the terrible crimes of which he has already been convicted. I find that thought particularly sickening.

expatinscotland · 17/05/2011 20:11

If the murderer is a serial killer, it's often enough a means to continue to control others, but not revealing what he knows about the murder or confessing to it.

thestringcheeseincident · 17/05/2011 20:13

I feel so sorry for the parents, having their daughters letters read out etc. It's awful awful.

TheCrackFox · 17/05/2011 20:15

The defence team are really treating her parents terribly. I know it is their job but I don't actually know how they can sleep at night.

pinkytheshrinky · 17/05/2011 20:16

Agreed that if he is guilty he must be getting a kick out of this - cannot believe her Father was a serious suspect because he had porno.... poor poor man hauled over the coals so publicly and having to divulge all the details of letters their child wrote in anger. I do really feel that sort of stuff whilst I am sure is material evidence in court should not be put out into the public domain - this is bad enough for her family. Not sure how Bellfield's defence lawyer sleeps at night

chipstick10 · 17/05/2011 21:59

I was so upset when i heard how her mum collapsed in court today. What that poor family have had to endure. Sad

saffy85 · 18/05/2011 06:38

I really feel for both Milly's parents. Why should any mother have to stand in court and swear on oath she didn't favour one of her children over the other? Even if she did favour Milly's sister over Milly herself, wtf does have to do with the monster accused of her murder? It's bullshit imo.

The notes Milly left made me cry. How many of us felt intensely miserable or alone even just once when we were that age? I know I did. Alot. I also wished I'd never been born. How any of these notes do anything positive for the defence is beyond me. Mr Dowler's porn collection is neither here nor there either. He isn't the one in the dock so why is he getting dragged over the coals?

DillyDaydreaming · 18/05/2011 06:49

Another one here who has really felt for the parents. Am not sure why the fact her Dad had pornographic magazines in the bedroom is relevant to the defence. Why is that relevant? Their daughter was murdered, are they suggesting her Dad did it?
Levi Bellfield is evil, and was in the right place at the time. Coupled with evidence that he destroyed the mattress from his bedroom, the car and other items, it makes me very suspicious.
The defence team know they have no real chance of proving him not responsible so are trying to throw ANYTHING in to create doubt.

greenlime · 18/05/2011 07:00

The way Milly's parents are being treated makes me ashamed of this country. The stuff in the papers is disgraceful - how can this sort of stuff be printed and yet adulterous footballers are protected by superinjunctions. I know all of the above is "legal" but it is peverse.

greenlime · 18/05/2011 07:01

perverse!

thederkinsdame · 18/05/2011 13:10

I agree with everything that's been said here today. I cannot believe that Milly Dowler's parents are being treated like criminals. Shame on the papers for reporting it too. It's bad enough they are bringing it up at all, but if the papers hadn't splashed it everywhere, most of us wouldn't know anything about it. It has absolutely no relevance to the case and I think the defence lawyers should be hauled over the coals for adding to Milly's parents distress. It makes me sick to the stomach that celebrities can hide behind gagging orders because revelations would harm their family, yet the Dowlers' private lives are allowed to be picked over in minute detail with no thought for their feelings, nor those of their surviving daughter.

The notes she wrote were pretty typical for a teenager. I can't see how they have anything to do with the case. Milly may have been down and had self-esteem issues, but I don't see how it led to her abduction. Hmm I hope that Milly's parents know that most of the public will support them. Who cares what they did behind closed doors? They had nothing to do with her abduction, and are not on trial.

GooseyLoosey · 18/05/2011 13:23

I remember as a teenager writing letters very similar to those written by Milly. I was by and large a happy child with no major traumas in my life and they were just a way of working though teenage angst. A way of expressing some of the impotent rage that being a teenager can bring. I hope her parents know this and that they have not been made to feel that these letters express their daughter's general view of life.

MarioandLuigi · 18/05/2011 13:55

I agree with Greenlime - its shameful the way her parents are being dragged through the mud.

ElfOnTheTopShelf · 18/05/2011 14:02

I don't understand why some of the questions the parents are having to answer in court are relevant. What does it matter if Milly wrote a few poems (which most of us do in teenage years?). I am quite shocked at what is being reported on in relation to this case; there seems to be a big focus on Milly's frame of mind, not that somebody kidnapped and killed her.

thestringcheeseincident · 18/05/2011 14:36

Yes Elf, I don't know either. I don't understand why they're bringing it all up.
It makes no sense.
I hope they can find some peace after all this horror is over.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 18/05/2011 14:48

It makes sense because the evidence against Bellfield is rather circumstantial from what I've read. The cause of death has not been establised either. Murder has to be proved 'beyond reasonable doubt' so, from a defence perspective, if reasonable alternative scenarios can be put up to cast doubt in the mind of a jury (and they appear to be plugging the 'problems at home, suicide' angle), the better the chance of acheiving a not guilty verdict.

bibbitybobbityhat · 18/05/2011 14:49

Excuse me ... suicide?

Was it not established that she was murdered?

CogitoErgoSometimes · 18/05/2011 15:19

The inquest was suspended a few weeks ago to allow Bellfield to stand trial. The working assumption,, and the crime Bellfield is charged with is that she was abducted and murdered, but the actual cause of death is still unknown. For the defence's purposes, in the absence of this key information, they are allowed to suggest that there may have been other credible ways she could have met her death in an attempt to create the 'reasonable doubt' test that I mentioned.

thestringcheeseincident · 18/05/2011 15:21

Oh, thanks for making sense of it Cogito.

DillyDaydreaming · 18/05/2011 15:26

Circumstantial being that:
Bellfield lived in the area
An attempted abduction took place the day before and Bellfield was identified by the girl
He left the property after the abduction and burnt the mattress which was there.
The car was destroyed and has never been found (something Bellfield apparently has a record of doing)
He allegedly confessed to co-workers that he'd done it (they thought it was a "sick joke")
His partner of the time cannot account for his whereabouts during the crucial hours when Milly went missing.

It IS circumstantial but there's alot of it and can see what you are saying Cogito but just wish the newspapers had not reported it all in such blazing detail.

If he DID do it then I hope they get a conviction.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 18/05/2011 15:36

I'm sure the investigators would have given their right arm for a scrap of DNA a fibre or a fingerprint to link him physically to the crime. If they had something like that, then the trial wouldn't be happening. Agree that there is a huge amount of circumstantial evidence but it's for the prosecution to prove he definitely did it and not for the defence to prove he didn't. It has to be reported, unfortunately, because we run a system of open justice.

donnie · 23/06/2011 17:20

He has been found guilty.

What a cunt. What a total, utter bastard cunt.

How the fuck did he get away with it for so long?

That poor child and her poor family. I feel for them.

HerBeX · 23/06/2011 22:44

Did I hear right on the news?

He was a murderer before he murdered Milly?

WTF was he doing walking around the streets if he was already a known murderer?

Or is it that he was convicted of other murders after her murder and is only now being tried for her's?

BoosMaw · 23/06/2011 23:21

He was convicted of later murders before this one. I think the police have spent a long time trying to build a solid case against him for this, as it is the evidence against him was only circumstantial.

I feel a lot safer now he's locked up forever. I have connections with the area, and school age daughters. What a low life piece of cowardly shit he is. How many lives he has wrecked.

Greythorne · 23/06/2011 23:37

I am so sad for the family. Been folowing this case and it is harrowing.

Donnie totally inappropriatebuse of the word "cunt". Sorry, off topic, but come on.