Milly Dowler

[ohboob]

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. What her mum must be going through.

I just feel so sorry for the family, I cannot imagine the horror they have been through. What a truly evil man.

He makes my skin crawl, I hope he has hell in prison.

Did I hear that the police are now looking at the murders of Lin & Megan Russell to see if there are similarities?

They are, and the e-fit picture and description Josie helped put together looks a lot like him at that age and not really very much like Michael Stone.

Oh my god. Shocking. What a truly evil man :(

HerBex

He was convicted of other murders and then charged with Milly Dowler's murder. So they charged him after he was convicted.

I think he is one of the very few prisoners in the UK who has a whole life tariff.

Surrey police have a lot to answer for. After Milly's disappearance in 2002 they visited Bellfield's flat, they say 11 times, and claim he was out every time. When they finally got in contact with the new tenant they didn't attempt to find out where Bellfield had gone.

He was able to destroy forensic evidence in the flat and also in his girlfriend's car quite possibly because of their delays.

They concentrated on the theory that Milly's dad had done it to the detriment of other avenues of investigation. I strongly suspect they briefed reporters that Milly's dad was involved or not a nice man because of his porn stash. Police briefing is also the only explanation for the reports at the time that Milly had run away from home and had a difficult relationship with her family with the suggestion that she was a handful or that something wasn't quite right at home.

The defence put the family through a disgusting ordeal but at least you could say the barrister was only doing his job. I think the papers who are complaining about him should look at their own conduct. As should the police.

At the trial the police revealed that the porn was 'extreme'. Maybe it was but it wasn't germane to the investigation once it was established that Milly's dad had an alibi. It does however, provide a handy excuse for the failures of the investigation.

Bellfield was known to be violent towards young women. Six cases of rape against him were referred to the CPS more than two years before he was jailed for the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange in 2008.

They were rejected on the quality of evidence - probably because the victims and been drinking and weren't the kind of girls who would impress a jury fed rape myths in popular culture. But you'd think the police, who ought to know better, would keep tabs on him.

Maybe Milly wouldn't have been saved but Marsha and Amelie probably would have been.

The McDonnells have called for a review. I hope they get it.

Bellfield evaded capture for so long because he murdered random strangers. That kind of crime - where there is no link between the murderer and victim and there are no witnesses - is always difficult to investigate because there is no obvious place to start. The police have to cast the net extremely widely, look at 'all the usual suspects' (such as those with a history of violence or sex offences) and go through a lengthy process of elimination. Often they'll interview the killer but won't realise it because the evidence to connect them isn't there. Or they'll focus too much on the wrong suspect and let the real person slip through the net. Happened in the Rachel Nickell case, if you remember, & the same was true for the Night Stalker attacks and the Yorkshire Ripper. The investigation staggers on for years getting nowhere and only progresses after a lucky break. I don't think this necessarily means the police are doing a bad job.

Few of us would find the kind of scrutiny that the Dowlers were put through comfortable and it's unpalatable to think that Bellfield might have been deriving some kind of satisfaction from prolonging their ordeal but there are more important principles involved than just protecting victims and their families from unpleasant cross-examination (and the other associated stuff) or preventing criminals from manipulating events. It is surely the job of defence barrister to "test the evidence" and to ensure that the jury get to hear about evidence that might introduce enough doubt in their minds that they can't convict. It's truly unfortunate that the Dowlers had to go through what they did in court but I'm wary of a rush to change the law over it.

I agree- it is a delicate balancing act.

At least now, after that horrendous ordeal there is a conviction. I read that bellfield has numerous children by several women, so thats another awful aspect of the case- thinking that there are innocent children out there, fathered by this repulsive killer. Imagine the psychological scarring knowing you are fathered by that thing . No doubt the rest of his life will be made Horrendous in prison - but thats little comfort to the horror his victims and their families have had to endure

But you know, he had a string of DV accusations against him apparently.

And no one picked that up as being remotely a cause of concern.

If someone had a string of accusations about attacking black people or Jews, or Muslims, the police would have him on their radar as someone who was pretty dangerous to that group of people. Whereas when men beat up women all the time, that's never seen as what it is - a sign of a really dangerous man, who is dangerous to women, who needs to be kept an eye on.

It's like Ian Huntley and the string of rape allegations against him, none of which were taken seriously. If it were any other group, there would be questions about how we as a society deal with the fact that there are people out there who hate this group of people so much, that they are prepared to attack and murder them. When it's men murdering women or female children, it's just accepted that it's part of life, something we all have to live with. Of course everyone's horrified and the offender gets banged up, but no one seems to be asking how we root out this level of hatred to make it less common and less dangerous for women and girls.

Completely agree HerBex. 2 women a week still murdered at the hands of their partners/ex partners - can anyone imagine that would be allowed to happen if it was another group in society?

RIP Milly. How hideous for the family, I hope this verdict brings them some peace, althought I doubt it.

Herbex - spot on, I absolutely agree.

Janey68 - I saw a documentary a while ago with some of Levi Bellfield's daughters. Very articulate, switched on girls. In one of the scenes their mother (from what little I saw she seemed like a great mother, and a decent human being who had been to hell and back) was in a supermarket and had to leave to avoid a scene with some other people who were there. As far as I could tell, she removed herself from the situation because the other party were angry with her for testiging AGAINST Bellfield, and maintained his innocence. What kind of a world do we live in?

I hope all of these families find some strength from somewhere, how one person can have such a catastrophic effect on so many people is just unbelievable.

Oh I heard his daughter on the radio yesterday.

It must be horrific to have a man like this as your father.

And the other person who has undergone a degree of horror, is the young woman whom he attempted to abduct the day before he abducted Millie - it must be a peculiar kind of horror to know what you've escaped, and to have had the trial buggered up by media revelations so that the judge had to dismiss it in case the verdict was unsafe.

Very good point, Herb. (Are you HerBeatitude btw?)

I thought he's be found NG because the evidence was all circumstantial.

The media fucking up the kidnap case makes me so angry; the same nearly happened in the Baby P case iirc. Surely court journos know what they're doing?

Hi QS yes I am... I thought on the radio today I head that a judge dismissed it because there was enough doubt that he would get a fair trial...

I think what should be changed after this is that judges have much stronger rreporting restrictions in place.

The defence barrister was doing his job (how he sleeps at night is a mystery) but did the general public need to know about her Dad's porno stash or Milly's letters? No.

Basically the defence lawyer allowed his client to gloat and get an obscene thrill from putting Milly's family through more hell.

Seriously, did he sign in blood when he made his pact with the devil? I don't know how people like him, despite the fact he has to defend his client to the fullest, can live with themselves afterwards. Destroying a family already wounded by years of grieving.

Maybe the girl who won't get her day in court should be thankful. God knows what the lawyer would have done to her. There is doing your job and then there is only being one step above of the depraved individual you are representing.

I was wondering why a QC, who didn't need the prestige or the money would take on the defence of someone who had already murdered young women and then proceed to be so cruel to her family for reasons hard to understand, so I went on his chambers' website
www.stjohnsbuildings.com/barrister/Jeffrey_Samuels_QC/128/22.aspx

There's an almighty list of people there he is proud of successfully defending or reducing conviction.

For example
R v Hargreaves (2010). Defendant who deliberately started a fire in the bedroom during a drunken fight with his wife, killing three of his children, convicted of manslaughter rather than murder

R v Cooper (2009). Defendant convicted of manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility after severing his ex-partner's head with a kitchen knife in front of their children. A complex sentencing exercise involving the little used s.45A of the Mental Health Act?s hybrid order (hospital and prison)

R v Nichol-Andrews (2009). In addition to the above, Jeffrey was instructed to defend a social worker/foster carer charged with the systematic torture of children in her care. After his cross-examination of the complainants the Crown were forced to abandon the prosecution

I can only echo the other posters who ask how he sleeps at night.....?

There has to be a line somewhere between a defence lawyer testing the case against their client and putting a grieving family through even more hell. The reports sounded as if it was her family on trial, not Bellfield.

As for police failures, it's a bit rich to use Rachel Nickell case as an excuse - it's an example of appalling, incompetent policing that left her killer free to attack again and ruined the life of an innocent man into the bargain. The police admitted that, in the end, and promised 'lessons will be learned'. Only they never are.

Good grief, eurostar. I usually take all the 'how does he sleep at night' with a bucketload of salt, given a proper defence is necessary for a fair trial, but to actually boast about stopping the investigation into a sadistic child abuser? And the rest?

In reply to the "how do they sleep at night?" question, barrister operate on what's called "cab-rank rule". That means that (if you are a barrister and you practice the relevant area of law) you can't refuse to take the case.

This rule means everyone gets properly represented, whatever they are alleged to have done.

edam, I agree. The barrister's conduct might be questionable but I think it would be a mistake to rush to changing the law over this.

I don't think there's any prospect of changing the law at all - everyone is entitled to a proper defence (although Ken Clark would like to stop all that nonsense - one of his legal aid 'reforms' is abolishing the right to a duty solicitor if you are arrested).

Something very wrong about a system where it's the victim (or the victim's family) that is put on trial, instead of the accused, however. Oddly seems only to happen to women. Although I suppose that could be publication bias - just happens to be the stories about women that hit the headlines. Can't think of a case involving a male victim where the man's character has been traduced but there may well be some.

Jesus eurostar, that is a depressing link. He has a job to do, a job he has to perform to the best of his abilities but he does appear to be one of those who steers towards the more sensationalist cases.

Never mind how he sleeps, his conscience must be on permanent vacation!