:00:02. > :00:09.This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find
:00:09. > :00:13.This is 13-year-old Amanda Dowler, Milly to her friends and family. In
:00:13. > :00:16.March 2002, while on her way home from school, she vanished. I don't
:00:16. > :00:20.know whether it was just sisterly instinct but I definitely knew that
:00:20. > :00:25.I was never going to see her again. The mystery of what happened to
:00:25. > :00:29.Milly that day dominated the Just so desperately worried, and
:00:29. > :00:32.just want to have Milly back home with us so much. But six months
:00:32. > :00:42.later, her remains were found over 20 miles away. She had been
:00:42. > :00:51.
:00:51. > :00:58.This man, Levi Bellfield, was found He's a convicted serial killer,
:00:58. > :01:04.believed to be responsible for He's domineering, overpowering,
:01:04. > :01:10.controlling and possessive, topped off with massive violence. The man
:01:10. > :01:14.Tonight, in a Crimewatch special, we speak exclusively to Gemma
:01:14. > :01:17.Dowler about the agony of losing her sister. It's like you're in a
:01:17. > :01:24.constant nightmare, just waking up, waiting to be woken up and saying,
:01:24. > :01:31.And seeing her parents take the stand at the Old Bailey to defend
:01:31. > :01:34.their family's reputation. I can actually say that the first two
:01:34. > :01:37.days, when my mum and dad were questioned by the defence and
:01:37. > :01:40.prosecution, was probably worse than the day she went missing.
:01:40. > :01:44.we'll reveal how a chance call to detectives would provide the
:01:44. > :01:47.crucial breakthrough on a case that shocked the nation. The senior
:01:47. > :01:50.investigating officer at the time who took the call said that the
:01:50. > :02:00.hairs on the back of his neck stood up as they were talking about the
:02:00. > :02:21.
:02:21. > :02:28.person, and the team believed they Tell me about your sister, what was
:02:28. > :02:31.she like? She was very friendly, very approachable. She always had a
:02:31. > :02:39.twinkle in her eyes and she just was an infectious person that
:02:39. > :02:48.Once you met her for the first time, you automatically wanted to be her
:02:48. > :02:58.She was the best sister anyone could ever ask for, I'm lucky to
:02:58. > :03:09.
:03:09. > :03:19.On the afternoon of 21st March 2002, 13-year-old Milly Dowler caught the
:03:19. > :03:27.
:03:27. > :03:36.But minutes after leaving Walton- I'm going to ask you to go back to
:03:36. > :03:39.2002, and that day for you. Well, it just starts like any other day,
:03:39. > :03:42.does it? Yeah, it started like a normal day. At school we didn't
:03:42. > :03:45.really see each other very much, cos we were in different years,
:03:45. > :03:50.different lessons, we might have seen each other once or twice in
:03:50. > :03:55.the playground. I got in at about I think it was, like, 5:00. Dad was
:03:55. > :03:59.in the office, working, and I was like, "Where's Milly?" And then he
:03:59. > :04:03.was like, "Oh, she was supposed to be home by now. I thought you would
:04:03. > :04:07.have picked her up." And as soon as I heard Dad say, "She's not home,"
:04:07. > :04:11.I was just like, "Oh, God." I knew as soon as... I don't know whether
:04:11. > :04:15.it was just sisterly instinct, but I definitely knew that I was never
:04:15. > :04:18.going to see her again. Did you express that to your mum and dad,
:04:18. > :04:24.did you say to them that's what...? Yeah, Mum and Dad felt exactly the
:04:24. > :04:33.same way. Did they? Yeah. I think it was 7:00 we called the police,
:04:33. > :04:34.and I was just like, "That's it." I That call would spark one of
:04:34. > :04:44.Britain's biggest-ever murder inquiries, involving over 100
:04:44. > :04:47.
:04:47. > :04:50.Maria, what do you remember of 21st Well, that day I was actually
:04:50. > :04:56.working at Guilford police station, because in those days the major
:04:56. > :05:00.crime team was split into three different sections. We were aware
:05:00. > :05:03.that they had a missing girl over at the Staines branch of the major
:05:03. > :05:08.crime team, we knew that she was 13 years old, and the circumstances in
:05:08. > :05:12.which she'd gone missing. And in those early hours, how concerned
:05:12. > :05:16.were you? Milly wasn't the sort of girl who presented as a runaway,
:05:16. > :05:19.somebody that would have gone missing. She came from a happy
:05:19. > :05:25.family, a family that seemed to love to have fun, that raised the
:05:25. > :05:28.alarm very quickly that she'd gone missing. So there was nothing to
:05:28. > :05:31.indicate that Milly had chosen to leave home and not tell anyone
:05:31. > :05:38.about it. So we knew very, very quickly, on the 21st we knew that
:05:38. > :05:43.we were dealing with something Milly Dowler was born on 25th June,
:05:43. > :05:50.1988 in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. She lived with her parents, Bob and
:05:50. > :05:52.Sally, and older sister Gemma, and So, you were sisters obviously, but
:05:52. > :05:57.it sort of sounds like you were really good friends, proper
:05:57. > :06:00.friends? Yeah, we were. Before she went missing, we were actually
:06:00. > :06:06.sharing the same room, even though we had two rooms, because we just
:06:06. > :06:09.got really, really close. We slept in the same room so we could stay
:06:09. > :06:19.up late and gossip and probably have midnight feasts or sweets that
:06:19. > :06:21.
:06:22. > :06:25.But yeah, I would consider her as Sweet, kind, generous. If you were
:06:25. > :06:29.down, you've always got that friend that you know you can call or meet
:06:29. > :06:38.up with them. She would just brighten up your days completely,
:06:38. > :06:41.She was beautiful, I don't think anyone can deny that, a fantastic
:06:41. > :06:44.musician, a real people person, she would always feel She seemed to
:06:44. > :06:54.light a room up when she walked into it, just with her silliness
:06:54. > :06:58.
:06:58. > :07:01.And tell me what home life was like. It was really, really nice. Our
:07:01. > :07:05.family is one of those families that is so laid back that if anyone
:07:05. > :07:08.came round, they'd just come to the house and feel so relaxed, and it
:07:08. > :07:13.was just My mum and dad were the nicest people you could ever meet,
:07:13. > :07:21.basically, and I'm so lucky that I have them as parents. I wouldn't
:07:21. > :07:30.have got through any of this On Thursday 21st March 2002, Milly
:07:30. > :07:34.left Heathside School in Weybridge as normal, at 3:05pm. She then
:07:34. > :07:39.walked to the train station with her friend Danielle. CCTV shows the
:07:39. > :07:44.schoolgirls entering the station and on the platform. This is the
:07:44. > :07:48.last time Milly is seen on camera. We had spoken about the fact we
:07:48. > :07:58.hadn't had a catch-up in a little while, and that it was well overdue,
:07:58. > :08:00.
:08:00. > :08:03.so we decided that we'd walk to the train station together. She was in
:08:03. > :08:06.a really good, playful mood, the two of us were bouncing off each
:08:06. > :08:10.other as usual. We got off at Walton, that's not normally the
:08:10. > :08:16.stop that she'd get off at, I said to her, would she like to come off
:08:16. > :08:26.and get some chips from the cafe? And after a bit of banter between
:08:26. > :08:29.
:08:29. > :08:33.the two of us, she agreed that So we went into the cafe, there
:08:33. > :08:36.were a couple of other boys there from our school, but the two of us
:08:36. > :08:46.sat together and again discussed more about boys and various other
:08:46. > :08:53.
:08:53. > :09:01.She never had credit, we borrowed one of the boys' that was in the
:09:01. > :09:04.Hey, Dad, it's Milly. She made a phone call to her dad to tell him
:09:04. > :09:14.she'd be home late, it's something that we would always do, so that
:09:14. > :09:17.they didn't worry. Are you ready? Come on. My sister arrived and
:09:17. > :09:21.didn't want to wait around in the cafe, so she ushered us out quite
:09:21. > :09:25.quickly. I'll see you tomorrow. said to her, will you be all right
:09:25. > :09:28.walking home? We all looked after each other, but we live in a nice
:09:28. > :09:31.area, it was broad daylight, she was walking along a main road.
:09:31. > :09:34.Obviously I double checked with her, and the question itself seemed
:09:35. > :09:41.silly. She laughed and just said, "Don't be ridiculous, I'll be
:09:41. > :09:49.absolutely fine." There was no And that was the last time I saw
:09:49. > :09:57.Milly left the station just after 4pm, setting off alone down Station
:09:57. > :10:06.At eight minutes past, a friend of Gemma's, waiting at a bus stop,
:10:06. > :10:09.I was just waiting for my bus and I saw Milly walking on the other side
:10:09. > :10:19.of the road, and it must have been within 30 seconds, maybe up to a
:10:19. > :10:22.
:10:22. > :10:26.minute, that my bus came round to I jumped on the bus and looked out
:10:26. > :10:29.for her and I didn't see her. I thought that was quite strange. At
:10:29. > :10:32.the time, obviously didn't think too much about it, thought it was a
:10:32. > :10:36.bit strange, thought that I would have seen her walking if her
:10:36. > :10:39.intention was to go home, but at that time you don't really think
:10:39. > :10:49.too much into it. So that's what happened, and I just carried on and
:10:49. > :10:50.
:10:50. > :10:54.That was the last time anyone had After 4:08pm, she vanished into
:10:54. > :10:57.thin air. At that time, there isn't that many people walking down the
:10:58. > :11:04.road. Also, it'd been a few minutes since the train arrived, so the
:11:04. > :11:06.rush had already gone. So it wasn't busy, but there were always cars
:11:06. > :11:16.driving by, so you would have thought that something might have
:11:16. > :11:22.
:11:22. > :11:26.been heard or seen. But as it turns As it stood, at 4:08pm on that day,
:11:26. > :11:30.the trail runs cold. Absolutely. That's all the definite information
:11:30. > :11:33.you had. Yes, yes. What do you do with that situation at that point?
:11:33. > :11:36.It was that afternoon that the appeal started to go out for Milly,
:11:36. > :11:38.and, "Have you seen her?" We know the benefits of attracting media
:11:38. > :11:42.attention very, very quickly because we need people's memories
:11:42. > :11:45.on that day, because as you go through life, the next day soon
:11:45. > :11:48.merges into the day before, so we need people to think very, very
:11:48. > :11:50.quickly about whether they'd seen her. Police in Surrey say they are
:11:50. > :11:53.growing increasingly concerned about the safety of a 13-year-old
:11:53. > :11:56.girl who hasn't been seen since Thursday afternoon. Over the next
:11:56. > :11:59.days and weeks, news of Milly's disappearance was rarely off our
:11:59. > :12:03.screens and newspapers. Seeing it happen here, in your own area, it's
:12:03. > :12:05.very close to reality, it's very scary. Within the last hour, the
:12:05. > :12:10.parents of the missing 13-year-old schoolgirl Amanda Dowler have made
:12:10. > :12:13.a public appeal for help in finding her. Unbelievable. We're devastated,
:12:13. > :12:21.we're just so desperately worried and just want to have Milly back
:12:21. > :12:26.For days on end, it was on the front page of every newspaper. Was
:12:26. > :12:30.that something you could take in, this was the person...? No. It was
:12:30. > :12:33.surreal, it really, really was. It was just like our private life was
:12:33. > :12:37.no longer private, the family life that we had was just completely
:12:37. > :12:41.turned upside-down. I can remember seeing one of the papers and we
:12:41. > :12:44.were on the front page, a family photo of us, and I was just like,
:12:44. > :12:48."This is so serious now." It's like you're in a constant nightmare,
:12:48. > :12:58.just waiting to be woken up and saying, "Don't worry, it was just a
:12:58. > :12:58.
:12:58. > :13:03.Why do you think it was that Milly Dowler going missing so captured
:13:03. > :13:07.the attention of the nation? Well, she was a lovely, happy teenage
:13:07. > :13:10.girl just on, you know, the start of her life. I mean, she is a
:13:10. > :13:18.beautiful little girl, and her face sort of captured the hearts of many
:13:18. > :13:20.Just seven days after she'd disappeared, Milly's last known
:13:20. > :13:22.movements were reconstructed on Crimewatch, and her parents made
:13:22. > :13:29.another heartbreaking appeal for information about their lost
:13:29. > :13:36.I'd say if someone has taken Milly and is holding her, then please,
:13:36. > :13:38.please give her back to us. You can't believe the enormous grief
:13:38. > :13:48.it's caused the family and her friends and everybody that knows
:13:48. > :13:51.her. It's just been absolutely awful, we're absolutely devastated.
:13:51. > :13:55.It was just a matter of days later that the reconstruction was run on
:13:55. > :13:58.Crimewatch. What impact do you think that had on the case and the
:13:58. > :14:03.investigation? It's something we always do because we always want to
:14:03. > :14:05.keep Milly live in the memories and thoughts of the general public. So
:14:05. > :14:10.we have to keep pumping that message out, that anything, however
:14:10. > :14:15.small, please tell us. In the first two weeks of the investigation,
:14:15. > :14:21.police received over 4,000 calls from the public. We had at least 73
:14:21. > :14:25.areas of the UK where she was sighted on more than one occasion.
:14:25. > :14:28.We had a sighting of her in Fiji. We had a sighting of her on the
:14:29. > :14:33.Isle of Wight ferry. We had numerous sightings of somebody they
:14:33. > :14:36.thought looked like Milly. So from all that information, we have to
:14:36. > :14:46.sift through, and it takes an enormous amount of staff resources
:14:46. > :14:51.
:14:51. > :14:54.One of the first things detectives did was to look at CCTV of Milly's
:14:54. > :14:59.route home to see if they could find any trace of her, after she
:14:59. > :15:03.was seen on Station Avenue. What due find? The CCTV on Station
:15:03. > :15:08.Avenue was owned by Birds Eye. On either side of the corners of the
:15:08. > :15:13.front of that building are two revolving cameras. Now they go the
:15:13. > :15:17.full way round. At times they're at the back of the building. They
:15:17. > :15:22.swing round and capture virtually the whole of Station Avenue. What
:15:22. > :15:25.due see? She was never picked up. When you look at CCTV and it points
:15:25. > :15:28.onto a road where we knew that Milly had been, you don't expect
:15:28. > :15:33.not to see her, which was one of the first problems that presented
:15:33. > :15:37.itself to us. And on that day, it was very sunny and it had been
:15:37. > :15:41.raining, so there's water on the lens and at points in the
:15:41. > :15:45.revolutions of the cameras, the view is obliterated bit sunlight.
:15:45. > :15:50.You have to do further work to look through that sunlight to make sure
:15:50. > :15:54.she wasn't captured. Detectives began researching what could be
:15:54. > :15:59.done to improve the footage. The answer was found over 3,000 miles
:15:59. > :16:03.away. We went to anybody we could think of who had worked with CCTV.
:16:03. > :16:08.We didn't limit ourselves to the experts in our country. We wanted
:16:08. > :16:12.to make sure that we could answer our question - where was Milly? Why
:16:12. > :16:17.didn't she appear on the CCTV? That's why we farmed it out to the
:16:17. > :16:24.FBI. After working on the footage for
:16:24. > :16:27.six long months, the experts at the FBI spotted something. It was a
:16:28. > :16:32.sports car that was on Station Avenue, that was driving towards
:16:32. > :16:34.the railway station. You could see a figure standing next to the
:16:34. > :16:38.passenger window. They appear to be talking to the people that were
:16:38. > :16:42.satin side the car. We actually thought at that point this could
:16:42. > :16:48.have been Milly. This blury image was sent to vehicle specialists who
:16:48. > :16:53.were able to determine the exact make and model. It was a rare Mazda
:16:53. > :16:56.MX-6 sports car. Only around 5,000 of them had been sold in the UK. At
:16:56. > :17:01.that moment, for you and the rest of the team, did it feel lick a
:17:01. > :17:05.breakthrough? Absolutely, yeah, it did. We obviously put the appeal
:17:05. > :17:09.out in the media for that person to come forward. They actually phoned
:17:09. > :17:14.up that day and identified themselves. It actually turned out
:17:14. > :17:17.to be a mum and son innocently in Station Avenue. They were going to
:17:17. > :17:26.an agents about a property. Very quickly it wasn't Milly and it
:17:26. > :17:30.wasn't what we were looking for. Then in September, Milly's family
:17:30. > :17:34.received the news that they had been dreading. Police,
:17:34. > :17:38.investigating the disappearance of Amanda Dowler have visited woodland
:17:38. > :17:42.in Hampshire where human remains were found on Wednesday. Two people
:17:42. > :17:46.walking find the remains of a body. How do you hear about that? They
:17:46. > :17:50.were a couple that would go mushroom picking. They'd gone in
:17:50. > :17:54.there because it was a perfect area for the growing of rare mushrooms.
:17:54. > :17:57.They would collect them and sell them. They'd gone into Walton
:17:57. > :18:02.police station to report that they'd found what they believed to
:18:02. > :18:06.be Milly Dowler. Did you go to the site? Yes, I did. Yeah, that night.
:18:06. > :18:14.When you walked to the site, did you have a feeling? Yes, I D I
:18:14. > :18:18.thought that it was Milly. 24 hours later, police confirmed that the
:18:18. > :18:22.remains were those of the missing schoolgirl. She compared the
:18:23. > :18:26.remains found in Yateley Heath Wood yesterday with the dental records
:18:26. > :18:30.of Amanda Dowler. We can now confirm the results of the
:18:30. > :18:36.examination was almost certainly those of the missing Amanda. I was
:18:36. > :18:40.in the house and my mum was in the garden. And then my mum just
:18:40. > :18:45.collapsed. I was just like, oh, my goodness, that was the worst
:18:45. > :18:49.feeling because there's absolutely nothing that you can do. I can't
:18:49. > :18:57.console her. My dad couldn't console her. All she wanted was
:18:57. > :19:06.Milly back. We couldn't do anything to help that. Well, we all did.
:19:06. > :19:11.investigation was now a murder inquiry. Did the postmortem tell
:19:11. > :19:16.you anything about how Milly had died? It didn't tell us how she
:19:16. > :19:21.died. But we knew that she didn't have any of her clothing and that
:19:21. > :19:25.she had been lain on top of the ground. She hadn't been buried. We
:19:25. > :19:29.knew it wasn't a natural death. the area that you found the body in,
:19:29. > :19:33.what could you learn from that? soon as we found Milly we got
:19:33. > :19:37.certain experts in to look at the wooded area she had been found in.
:19:37. > :19:40.We used pollen experts and also experts that would be able to tell
:19:41. > :19:44.us about the foliage that had grown around Milly. They were able to
:19:44. > :19:54.tell us that Milly had been left there in the actual week that she'd
:19:54. > :19:55.
:19:55. > :19:59.gone missing. So we were able to track back to the week of the 21st.
:19:59. > :20:07.Exactly a year after she had first disappeared, Milly's family could
:20:07. > :20:12.finally lay her to rest. Just unbelievable. Just
:20:12. > :20:19.unbelievable amount of sadness, but a sense of relief that no-one could
:20:19. > :20:23.hurt her any more. She was safe and we could say goodbye properly. Now
:20:23. > :20:27.she's safe with the angels and they're looking after her and I
:20:27. > :20:34.know that she will be watching down on us and that gives me strength,
:20:34. > :20:40.when I'm having a really bad day. But for Surrey Police, the
:20:40. > :20:45.investigation was far from over. Inevitably of course, in the way
:20:45. > :20:48.the media works, it stops being front-page news. It would be easy
:20:48. > :20:54.for people to get the impression that what happens then is that the
:20:54. > :20:57.investigation is winding down. How was it from the inside? We never
:20:57. > :21:02.stopped. There was always a core team working on the investigation.
:21:02. > :21:08.I don't think we ever had less than 50 officers at any one time working
:21:08. > :21:13.through those years. We never gave up hope, never. And their faith was
:21:13. > :21:16.finally rewarded, when 20 months later, the team received a chance
:21:16. > :21:20.phone call. The information provided would radically change the
:21:20. > :21:25.direction of the investigation and provide the crucial breakthrough
:21:25. > :21:29.they had been so desperate for. The information actually came from
:21:29. > :21:34.the Metropolitan Police and it was an officer that used to work with
:21:34. > :21:40.Surrey Police and he'd transferred to the Metropolitan Police. Now DCI
:21:40. > :21:46.Sutton was investigating a string of offences within the London area
:21:46. > :21:52.of murders of young girls and when he was looking through the profile
:21:52. > :21:55.of the person they were looking out for their jobs, Colin Sutton
:21:56. > :22:01.noticed that one of this man's previous addresses was 24
:22:01. > :22:08.Collingwood Place. This is the entrance to that address. It's less
:22:08. > :22:12.than 100 yards away from where Milly was last seen. The senior
:22:12. > :22:16.investigating officer at the time, who took the call, said that the
:22:16. > :22:21.hairs on the back of his neck stood up, as they were talking about the
:22:21. > :22:25.person where this person had lived, how close he'd been to the last
:22:25. > :22:31.sighting of Milly and the team believed that they had their first
:22:31. > :22:38.real breakthrough. That person was Levi Bellfield.
:22:38. > :22:43.Bellfield was born on the 17th May, 1968, in Isleworth south-west
:22:43. > :22:47.London. He lived with his parents and was the youngest of four. When
:22:47. > :22:51.he was just ten years old his father died from a heart attack.
:22:51. > :22:56.Just three years later, he committed his first offences -
:22:56. > :23:04.burglary and theft. It's not something that starts off as a
:23:04. > :23:10.determination to go out and kill. It starts off with learning that
:23:11. > :23:15.some sort of feeling of achievement or self-worth or power is generated
:23:15. > :23:20.by physical aggression. The roots of that are bound to be quite
:23:20. > :23:24.involved and complicated. They must have their basis in part in the
:23:24. > :23:28.family, inevitably, it always comes back to his relationship with his
:23:28. > :23:32.parents. Bellfield left school at the age of 16 and followed in his
:23:32. > :23:37.father's footsteps by training as a mechanic. He later moved into the
:23:37. > :23:40.security industry, working as a doorman and setting up his own car
:23:40. > :23:45.clamping business, often operating illegally. What you have is an
:23:45. > :23:50.individual in a state where they will draw on violence to achieve
:23:50. > :23:53.certain objectives in their life, possibly to begin with, this is in
:23:53. > :23:59.almost semi-legitimate situations, like in Bellfield's case where he
:23:59. > :24:02.was a bouncer and involved in clamping cars and so on, where he
:24:02. > :24:08.needed his physical presence to actually get away with what he was
:24:08. > :24:11.doing. Bit time he reached his 30s, Bellfield had added drugs offences,
:24:11. > :24:16.possession of weapons, violent assaults and making threats to kill
:24:16. > :24:20.to his convictions. His previous partners knew only too well of his
:24:21. > :24:26.violent temper. One minute charming and sweet, like someone had flicked
:24:26. > :24:31.a switch, he would go psychotic on you. He'd punch you, bite you, kick
:24:31. > :24:40.you, burn you with cigarettes. He would push you down the stairs.
:24:40. > :24:44.sees women as objects that need to be controlled and he is willing to
:24:44. > :24:49.use extreme violence in order to get them to behave the way he wants.
:24:49. > :24:53.You couldn't leave him. He wouldn't allow you to leave him. He ruled my
:24:53. > :24:58.life. You weren't allowed to answer a phone, the door, open your post
:24:58. > :25:03.or anything without him there. years after Milly was taken, the
:25:03. > :25:08.investigation at last h, a potential suspect. But a crucial
:25:08. > :25:14.opportunity was missed. The area of Collingwood Place and particularly
:25:14. > :25:19.the door marked number 24, had that come up in your investigations?
:25:19. > :25:22.it would have been involved in the house-to-house that we conducted at
:25:22. > :25:26.the beginning of the investigation. The door would have been knocked
:25:26. > :25:30.on? Yes, that door was knocked on 11 times by our officers, but the
:25:30. > :25:34.door was never answered. The officers didn't follow up with the
:25:34. > :25:38.letting agency as to who was living in the flat at that time. When you
:25:38. > :25:42.look back on that now, what do you think? Hindsight's a wonderful
:25:42. > :25:47.thing and things could have been very, very different if we actually
:25:47. > :25:50.spoke to him, but also he could have lied to us and covered his
:25:50. > :25:56.tracks. So our position may have been no different than we are in
:25:56. > :26:00.today. By the time Bellfield came onto Surrey Police's radar, he was
:26:00. > :26:04.already the prime suspect for two murders in south-west London and a
:26:04. > :26:09.possible further 30 assaults on women in the area. The Metropolitan
:26:09. > :26:14.Police investigation into the attacks was called Operation
:26:14. > :26:20.Yeaddiss. It started as the investigation into the murder of
:26:20. > :26:24.Amelie Delagrange on 19th August, 2004 in Twickenham. 22-year-old
:26:24. > :26:29.French student Amelie Delagrange had moved to the UK in 2002. She
:26:29. > :26:35.lived in a bedsit close to Twickenham green and worked at a
:26:35. > :26:42.cafe in Richmond. She had been out with friends that night in
:26:42. > :26:45.Twickenham. She'd got the bus home, a short distance to Twickenham
:26:45. > :26:52.Green. In actual fact she missed her stop and didn't get off the bus
:26:52. > :26:58.until it reached Fulwell. So she walked back down the road, the same
:26:58. > :27:08.road the bus had come along and will have taken the short cut
:27:08. > :27:09.
:27:09. > :27:15.across Twickenham green. Of course, she only reached halfway before she
:27:15. > :27:19.was murdered. She was hit around the back of the
:27:19. > :27:28.head with a blunt weapon, possibly a hammer. She was found unconscious
:27:28. > :27:33.and later died in hospital. A temporary police station was set up
:27:33. > :27:39.on Twickenham Green to appeal to the public for help. We received a
:27:39. > :27:45.lot of information about males with a penchant for domestic violence.
:27:45. > :27:53.We were passed over 100 names from members of the public and one of
:27:53. > :27:59.those was Levi Bellfield. When you first meet him, you're immediate
:27:59. > :28:04.impression would be that he's a jovial, wants to be your friend,
:28:04. > :28:08.but that belies the fact that he is an extremely violent individual,
:28:08. > :28:14.particularly towards women. He's domineering, overpowering,
:28:14. > :28:17.controlling and possessive, topped off with massive violence.
:28:17. > :28:22.Bellfield confessed to one of his partners that he hated women and
:28:22. > :28:25.that he had been going out at night looking for them. At the back of my
:28:25. > :28:29.old house, there used to be an alleyway that ran alongside the
:28:29. > :28:32.train tracks. Once you got into the alley you couldn't get out until
:28:32. > :28:35.you got to the other end. He told me he used to go down there and
:28:35. > :28:40.wait for people, like try and get a girl on their own. There was
:28:40. > :28:45.obviously people coming off trains, there would be too many people and
:28:45. > :28:49.he wouldn't be able to get one on his own. It used to infuriate him.
:28:50. > :28:53.As part of the investigation into Amelie Delagrange's murder,
:28:53. > :29:00.detectives looked at other unsolved attacks in the area, to see if any
:29:00. > :29:05.had the same profile. On the 4th February, 2003, 19-year-old Marsha
:29:05. > :29:09.McDonnell was killed on her way home in Hampton, south-west London.
:29:09. > :29:12.Like Amelie Delagrange she received a fatal blow to the back of her
:29:12. > :29:16.head, inflicted with a hammer-like weapon. That wasn't the only
:29:16. > :29:19.connection between the attacks. There were clear similarities
:29:19. > :29:22.between the attacks on Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell.
:29:22. > :29:28.They're of a similar description. They were late at night. They were
:29:28. > :29:31.both alone. They'd both got off of a bus. The fact that they both
:29:31. > :29:36.received such severe injuries to the head. You have to say, well, it
:29:36. > :29:39.could be the work of one man. Another attack just a few miles
:29:39. > :29:45.away in Isleworth, seemed to demonstrate the extreme violence
:29:45. > :29:50.this man was capable of. It was my last day of school. We had a big
:29:51. > :29:55.celebration during the day, with a party afterwards. At the end of the
:29:55. > :29:59.night me and a couple of friends left the pub. I got on one bus and
:29:59. > :30:06.they got on a different bus going the other direction. At the stop I
:30:06. > :30:10.got off, I was the only person to I started to walk home on the same
:30:10. > :30:13.side of the road as the bus. As I continued to walk down the road, I
:30:13. > :30:17.saw a vehicle parked up on the other side of the road. The first
:30:17. > :30:20.thing that brought my attention to it was the car engine running, but
:30:20. > :30:24.I couldn't see any lights on, which I thought was a little bit strange.
:30:24. > :30:28.I don't know, I just got a very bad feeling from it, so I crossed the
:30:28. > :30:31.road and the car kind of flashed its lights and turned its engine on.
:30:31. > :30:38.I do remember feeling the impact and feeling completely winded when
:30:38. > :30:41.it first hit me. I don't even know if I made a sound. It then sort of
:30:41. > :30:45.reversed straight back over the same area, and so it was completely
:30:45. > :30:55.over my body. I just felt completely crushed, like I was in a
:30:55. > :31:13.
:31:13. > :31:16.vice, except it was the car and the Amazingly, Kate made a full
:31:16. > :31:24.recovery, and was able to describe, in some detail, the vehicle which
:31:24. > :31:30.It was a white people carrier with blacked-out windows, and the
:31:30. > :31:38.passenger-side wing mirror was We found that the CCTV that was
:31:38. > :31:46.available showed a white people We also see from the CCTV after
:31:46. > :31:49.Kate's attack that the white people The CCTV footage was sent to
:31:49. > :31:54.imagery experts, who were able to identify the vehicles as a Toyota
:31:54. > :32:02.Previa. Bellfield owned this at the time of Kate's attack. It matched
:32:02. > :32:11.her description even down to the And when detectives viewed CCTV of
:32:11. > :32:21.Amelie and Marsha's journeys home, In both cases, vehicles could be
:32:21. > :32:31.
:32:31. > :32:35.And those vehicles could be linked By 2005, the Metropolitan Police
:32:35. > :32:40.had compelling evidence against Bellfield and the way he operated.
:32:41. > :32:49.But detectives in Surrey were only just beginning to build their case.
:32:49. > :32:56.On 6th July, he was interviewed for He's physically quite a large
:32:56. > :33:01.individual, but he was quietly spoken, he was polite. By and large,
:33:02. > :33:05.you know, he would refer to me as Sir. I think it's very important
:33:05. > :33:15.not to be intimidated in any way, but yes, always in your mind you
:33:15. > :33:15.
:33:15. > :33:25.know you're interviewing a very Part of our strategy is to ask the
:33:25. > :33:35.
:33:35. > :33:38.question that everyone wants to ask We gave him many opportunities to
:33:38. > :33:48.stand up and say, "Look, I'm an innocent man, I'm not responsible
:33:48. > :34:03.
:34:03. > :34:06.I think if he was a truly innocent man, he would have probably been
:34:06. > :34:09.able to give us some explanation for where he was and what he was
:34:09. > :34:12.doing that particular day, but he never took that opportunity. At the
:34:12. > :34:22.conclusive interview when we put everything we had to him, it was
:34:22. > :34:31.extremely compelling to watch Levi I can remember quite clearly at one
:34:31. > :34:34.stage during that interview he He then took off his sweater, and
:34:34. > :34:37.while he was sitting quite squarely on the seat he had initially, and
:34:37. > :34:40.as Sarah continued asking the questions, he started to sort of
:34:40. > :34:50.rock back in the chair to the point where he was actually leaning on
:34:50. > :34:58.the wall behind him, so he actually His behaviour indicated to me that
:34:58. > :35:02.he was exceptionally uncomfortable When I came out of that interview,
:35:02. > :35:08.I was convinced as I could be that he was the right man and he was
:35:08. > :35:15.Unfortunately, back in 2005, we weren't in the position to charge
:35:15. > :35:19.him. But I knew the inquiry wouldn't stop just because we'd
:35:19. > :35:23.interviewed him. It wasn't the end of the inquiry, it wasn't the last
:35:23. > :35:26.roll of the dice, and we knew that we would keep plugging away, and
:35:26. > :35:29.that's what we did. With Bellfield refusing to talk, detectives began
:35:29. > :35:34.questioning the people that knew him best. A key witness was Emma
:35:34. > :35:38.Mills, Bellfield's long-term girlfriend in 2002. He'd been
:35:38. > :35:43.living in her flat at the time of Milly's abduction. Emma Mills, tell
:35:43. > :35:46.me she was what able to tell you. She was obviously able to confirm
:35:46. > :35:48.that they had been living at 24 Collingwood Place, but at the time
:35:48. > :35:51.Milly went missing, she, the children and Levi were actually
:35:51. > :36:01.house-sitting away from Collingwood Place, so she was able to tell us
:36:01. > :36:04.that the apartment was empty over those few days. She was able to
:36:04. > :36:07.tell us that on the Thursday that Milly went missing, she didn't know
:36:07. > :36:13.where Levi Belfield was, and in her mind that was unusual. She believed
:36:13. > :36:17.that for that day he'd disappeared. Those were exact words. It wasn't
:36:17. > :36:20.until later that night that Bellfield finally showed up.
:36:20. > :36:23.said he came home at about 10, 11:00, and she believed that he'd
:36:23. > :36:32.changed his clothes from the clothes he'd gone out in earlier
:36:33. > :36:36.that day. Now, they went to bed and she said that he got up between 3
:36:36. > :36:40.and 4:00 that morning and said that he wanted to go back to Collingwood
:36:40. > :36:43.Place for a lie-in, so he then got up out of their bed and got dressed,
:36:43. > :36:50.took their little dog and, according to him, was going back to
:36:50. > :36:53.The following day, Bellfield moved the family out of Collingwood Place,
:36:53. > :37:02.despite there still being two months left on the tenancy
:37:03. > :37:06.The actual home that he wanted Emma to go back to, she describes as a
:37:06. > :37:10.squat. It didn't have any kitchen cupboards. It didn't have any
:37:10. > :37:14.kitchen floors. It was a mess. You would not take young children back
:37:14. > :37:18.to live in a place like that. But he was determined. I mean, it was
:37:18. > :37:21.so bad, there was nothing there for Emma or the children, and she had
:37:21. > :37:23.to sleep on sofa cushions. During the move, Emma noticed some items
:37:24. > :37:27.were missing. She'd asked Bellfield, "What had you done with our
:37:27. > :37:30.sheets?," and he said, "Well, the dog messed on the bed." Now, Emma
:37:30. > :37:33.knew her dog. She knew that dog. And she knew that dog didn't mess
:37:34. > :37:37.on the bed. So again, she was questioning what he had been doing,
:37:37. > :37:41.and she wasn't happy or she didn't believe what he was saying. But she
:37:41. > :37:45.was asking again, "What were you doing on the 21st?" And Bellfield's
:37:45. > :37:50.response to her was, "What, do you think I've done Milly?" And Emma
:37:50. > :37:55.Mills describes her reaction to that as complete and utter disgust.
:37:55. > :37:58.Why would you joke about something like that? And I don't think even
:37:58. > :38:02.at that point when she was asking him she was expecting him to come
:38:02. > :38:08.back with that response. She thought he'd had another woman in
:38:08. > :38:12.the flat. Not that he'd killed Milly Dowler. They could now link
:38:12. > :38:15.Bellfield to where Milly was last seen and, through Emma, knew he was
:38:15. > :38:20.acting strangely around the time of her abduction. Speaking to another
:38:20. > :38:25.ex-partner gave them their next clue. I've been involved with
:38:26. > :38:32.horses all my life, and as a child my dad used to take us to shows.
:38:32. > :38:35.When I got older, I started doing show jumping. One of the events
:38:35. > :38:40.Johanna would regularly compete in was the Yately Horse Show in
:38:40. > :38:45.Hampshire. Levi knew about the woods from coming to Yately Show
:38:45. > :38:48.with me and my horses. He came probably five or six times with me,
:38:48. > :38:57.and then we'd walk our dogs probably about the same amount of
:38:57. > :39:04.times, five or six times, around Detectives asked Johanna to show
:39:04. > :39:14.Without realising, she led them to the area where Milly's remains had
:39:14. > :39:20.You can't understand his mentality, because his pleasure is other
:39:20. > :39:28.people's pain. That is how he works. But why would you do that sort of
:39:28. > :39:31.The evidence against Bellfield was mounting up. But they still needed
:39:31. > :39:38.to prove that he'd been on Station Avenue at the time of Milly's
:39:38. > :39:41.abduction. Again, Emma Mills was able to help. We obviously spoke to
:39:41. > :39:46.Emma Mills at great length, and we basically started to unpick their
:39:46. > :39:50.lives. We wanted to know everything about them. And from our
:39:50. > :39:56.conversations with Emma, she told us that at that time they had a red
:39:56. > :40:01.Daewoo Nexia which Levi had possession of on 21st March 2002.
:40:01. > :40:05.What did you do next? We went back to the Birdseye CCTV and we looked
:40:05. > :40:11.to see if we could see that vehicle in Station Avenue at the time when
:40:11. > :40:17.Milly went missing. And they found this. It's a red Daewoo Nexia
:40:17. > :40:27.turning off the street leading to The time is 4:33pm, just 25 minutes
:40:27. > :40:34.
:40:34. > :40:37.You must have felt almost like you'd won the lottery? Yeah, as we
:40:37. > :40:40.saw that we knew that we were starting to build the case and we
:40:40. > :40:42.still needed answers, and we desperately wanted to get that
:40:42. > :40:49.vehicle. But Bellfield had reported the car stolen just eight days
:40:49. > :40:55.after Milly's abduction. How did you feel when you found out that
:40:55. > :40:58.Bellfield had reported that that car was missing, possibly stolen?
:40:58. > :41:01.We were absolutely gutted that we couldn't get that car and have a
:41:01. > :41:04.look at it, because forensically, for us that could give us some
:41:04. > :41:13.evidence that could link Bellfield to Milly Dowler. Did you believe
:41:13. > :41:23.it? No. No, we didn't believe it Despite exhaustive searches, the
:41:23. > :41:24.
:41:24. > :41:33.But appeals for information about its whereabouts uncovered a
:41:33. > :41:35.On 20th March 2002, the day before Milly vanished, 11-year-old Rachel
:41:35. > :41:45.Cowles was walking home after school in Upper Halliford, just
:41:45. > :41:47.
:41:47. > :41:54.three miles away from Walton-on- I'd finished school about 3:15pm.
:41:54. > :41:58.The roads weren't that busy, school traffic. A car drove up to the side
:41:58. > :42:05.and stopped me walking home, and the guy lent over and said to me,
:42:05. > :42:08."I've just moved in next door - would you like a lift home?" I know
:42:08. > :42:12.all the neighbours quite well, so it meant I would have known if
:42:12. > :42:16.someone had moved in or moved out, and something clicked in my head
:42:16. > :42:21.that I shouldn't get in the car. The incident was reported to Surrey
:42:21. > :42:24.Police that day. Rachel described the driver as 30 to 40 years old
:42:24. > :42:31.with a round face, and was also able to give specific details of
:42:31. > :42:35.the car. It was a red hatchback, and there were two child car seats
:42:35. > :42:45.in the back. Emma Mills was able to confirm that in 2002 her Daewoo
:42:45. > :42:46.
:42:46. > :42:49.Why had it not been picked up in the investigation before, given
:42:49. > :42:53.that it happened just a day before the disappearance of Milly? Yeah,
:42:53. > :42:55.even though it had been reported to Surrey Police as a whole the day it
:42:55. > :42:59.had actually happened, it hadn't been filtered through to the
:42:59. > :43:02.incident room on the 21st. significant part of this is that it
:43:02. > :43:09.puts the car and the person who owned the car out driving through
:43:09. > :43:12.local streets, looking to pick up a young girl. Yes, absolutely, but
:43:12. > :43:15.the significance of the red car wasn't known until we'd spoken to
:43:15. > :43:21.Emma Mills, it made the attempt to abduct Rachel the day before hugely
:43:21. > :43:31.Meanwhile, detectives in London had gathered enough evidence for their
:43:31. > :43:33.
:43:33. > :43:35.cases. And by May 2006, Levi Bellfield was charged with the
:43:35. > :43:39.murders of Amelie Delagrange, Marsha McDonnell and the attempted
:43:39. > :43:41.murder of Kate Sheedy. He denied any involvement. Too many
:43:41. > :43:51.similarities, Levi - too many similarities for the question not
:43:51. > :43:52.
:43:52. > :43:55.No comment. Because you can't say anything, can you? But the Crown
:43:55. > :43:59.Prosecution Service asked that further work be carried out before
:43:59. > :44:02.deciding if Bellfield could be charged with Milly's murder. This
:44:02. > :44:05.case has always been a circumstantial case. We've never
:44:05. > :44:08.had any direct forensic evidence to show that Bellfield killed Milly
:44:08. > :44:16.Dowler, so we had to work very hard to prove that he was the only
:44:16. > :44:19.person that could have killed her. So we had to rule out every other
:44:19. > :44:24.possibility. It's painstaking work, and it is good, old-fashioned
:44:24. > :44:27.detective work. I look at it as a jigsaw puzzle. And you never really
:44:27. > :44:32.know at what point you put that final piece in until it slots into
:44:32. > :44:37.place. At this point, how certain are you that Levi Belfield is the
:44:37. > :44:47.man? I was probably 98% sure that we were looking at the person that
:44:47. > :44:51.
:44:52. > :44:56.On the 25th February, 2008, Bellfield was found guilty of the
:44:56. > :45:01.murders of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell and the attempted
:45:01. > :45:07.murder of Kate Sheedy. He was given three whole life terms, meaning he
:45:07. > :45:12.will never be released. There was elation in the court upon his
:45:12. > :45:18.conviction. We were obviously pleased with the sentence that he
:45:18. > :45:23.was handed down, but I think you have to say there's the side of
:45:23. > :45:28.Levi Bellfield that is clearly a coward. He could not, would not
:45:28. > :45:33.leave the cells and come and receive his sentence. After nearly
:45:33. > :45:38.five months of having to endure the cowardly charade of innocence put
:45:38. > :45:46.forward by the defence, we at last, get to see Levi Bellfield for what
:45:46. > :45:51.he truly is. He showed no remorse at all. He's never given any
:45:51. > :45:55.explanation for what he did. In some ways there's a little bit of
:45:55. > :46:04.closure there that's not there for families and victims. But it's just
:46:04. > :46:09.a mark of the man. The man is a monster. Surrey Police were now
:46:09. > :46:14.able to up the ant E.On their investigation and as with the
:46:14. > :46:19.attacks in London, it would be the CCTV that would prove crucial.
:46:19. > :46:23.were working with the CCTV for many, many years. That CCTV should have
:46:23. > :46:28.caught Milly walking down Station Avenue on her route home. You have
:46:28. > :46:37.to analyse it to explain why she's not on it and why she didn't pass
:46:37. > :46:41.those cameras. Images were sent to Andy Laws a forensic imagery expert.
:46:41. > :46:45.What did he tell you? That she hadn't managed to walk down Station
:46:46. > :46:49.Avenue. I asked him to tell me how he could be so certain that she
:46:50. > :46:53.didn't walk across the road and didn't walk across the other side.
:46:53. > :46:58.When you look at the side where the cameras were, they would have
:46:58. > :47:03.looked across the road. There were vehicles passing. There were trees.
:47:03. > :47:08.Could they have obliterated the view of Milly as the CCTV camera
:47:08. > :47:12.rotated. Andy explained it to me, that if that had managed to happen,
:47:12. > :47:16.Milly would have had to have been imitating Road Runner. She would
:47:16. > :47:20.have run from one tree to another, as a vehicle high sided past, she
:47:20. > :47:23.would have had to duck behind it. She would have to know where the
:47:23. > :47:28.cameras were on rotation to know when she had to hide and when she
:47:28. > :47:31.had to run. Although somebody could say to you is it not possible, you
:47:31. > :47:35.would say well anything's possible, but in this case, that most
:47:35. > :47:42.definitely did not happen. Andy was also able to narrow down the exact
:47:42. > :47:45.area that she was abducted from using the last sighting of her by
:47:45. > :47:50.Katherine Laynes and where the camera should have picked her up on
:47:50. > :47:55.its first rotation. He was able to narrow down for us that she was
:47:55. > :47:59.abducted from Station Avenue. The only residential areas you have in
:47:59. > :48:01.that area of Station Avenue are Collingwood Place. At last, they
:48:01. > :48:07.could prove that Milly had been taken just yards from Bellfield's
:48:07. > :48:11.flat. That was it. That was the final piece.
:48:11. > :48:17.After years of investigation, detectives were now confident they
:48:17. > :48:27.could show what happened to Milly after 4.08pm and prove that
:48:27. > :48:32.
:48:32. > :48:36.We believe that she was seen by Katherine Laynes as she left the
:48:36. > :48:43.railway station and something caused her to cross the road. We
:48:43. > :48:47.don't know why Milly crossed the road. But Bellfield was waiting,
:48:47. > :48:54.hidden in the hedges, between Station Avenue and Collingwood
:48:54. > :48:59.Place and he saw Milly walking alone. The actual flat area is
:48:59. > :49:03.surrounded by really high hedges and there's a little pathway, walk
:49:03. > :49:08.through that leads to Station Avenue. I've stood there myself and
:49:08. > :49:13.you are completely shrouded by the bush fencing. People can't actually
:49:13. > :49:23.see you standing there. You get a perfect view of Walton Railway
:49:23. > :49:30.
:49:30. > :49:35.Station and the people coming and I believe that Levi snatched Milly
:49:35. > :49:39.from the pavement and took her into 24 Collingwood Place. There's only
:49:39. > :49:49.one person that knows what happened in that flat, but I believe that
:49:49. > :49:51.
:49:51. > :49:59.Milly was killed in that flat. 25 minutes later, at 4.33pm,
:49:59. > :50:03.Bellfield leaved Walton-on-Thames in the Daewoo. Phone records show
:50:03. > :50:09.that he headed in the direction of west Drayton, where Emma was
:50:10. > :50:13.housesitting. But he didn't arrive there until 11pm, for the rest of
:50:13. > :50:23.the day, he disappeared. He's never said where he was during those
:50:23. > :50:26.
:50:26. > :50:30.missing hours. At around 5am, Bellfield returned to cooling wood
:50:30. > :50:40.place. A witness out searching for Milly reported seeing a man with a
:50:40. > :50:40.
:50:40. > :50:44.dog, matching Bellfield's description, outside the flats.
:50:44. > :50:54.believe he went back to Collingwood Place, under the cover of darkness,
:50:54. > :50:54.
:50:54. > :50:58.to take Milly's body from Collingwood Place. He had to take
:50:58. > :51:08.Milly's body out of that flat that night, because Emma was due to go
:51:08. > :51:13.home on Friday. He couldn't leave her there. So he had to do it.
:51:13. > :51:18.Bellfield then drove the 24 miles to Yateley Heath Wood in Hampshire.
:51:18. > :51:28.It was an area he knew well and felt safe in. It was where he
:51:28. > :51:57.
:51:57. > :52:04.Over the next week, he covered his tracks, destroying any evidence
:52:04. > :52:10.that could African sickically link him to Milly.
:52:10. > :52:14.Forensically link him to Milly. The evidence was again sent to the
:52:14. > :52:19.Crown Prosecution Service and on the 31st of March last year, they
:52:19. > :52:22.announced their decision. After careful review of all the evidence
:52:22. > :52:27.in this case, I have now reached the decision that there is
:52:27. > :52:32.sufficient evidence and that it is in the public interest to charge
:52:32. > :52:34.Levi Bellfield. How did you and your team feel when the Crown
:52:35. > :52:39.Prosecution Service came back and said yes, we believe that you have
:52:39. > :52:45.enough of a case to charge Levi Bellfield? Well, I didn't actually
:52:45. > :52:49.know it was their decision until I heard the words come out of Nigel
:52:49. > :52:53.Pilkington's mouth, that day, we were standing at the CPS in front
:52:53. > :52:58.of the TV cameras. Tell me about that moment then, what did you
:52:58. > :53:01.think? I was just so nervous. I don't know if you've ever had it,
:53:02. > :53:06.I'm sure you have, where you can feel and hear your heart in your
:53:06. > :53:16.throat. I just never thought I'd hear those words, after all those
:53:16. > :53:19.
:53:19. > :53:25.Eight weeks ago, the trial began at Old Bailey. Bellfield refused to
:53:25. > :53:30.take the stand. Instead turning attention towards Milly's parents.
:53:30. > :53:36.The last thing they expected was to feel that they were on trial.
:53:36. > :53:39.first two days, when my mum and dad were questioned, by the defence and
:53:39. > :53:45.the prosecution, was probably worse than the day that she went missing.
:53:45. > :53:49.It was that extreme. It really was. It was so hard, because we weren't
:53:49. > :53:58.allowed to be together and I wanted to support my dad and my mum and I
:53:58. > :54:01.couldn't because we were all witnesses. You just can't explain
:54:01. > :54:07.how horrific it is in that courtroom until you are actually in
:54:07. > :54:14.there. It's so stressful. How are your mum and dad now? My mum and
:54:14. > :54:20.dad are really, really strong people, so they've struggled,
:54:20. > :54:25.especially my dad. The hardest thing is I can't make it better and
:54:25. > :54:30.I can't help them. I know they feel exactly the same way about me.
:54:30. > :54:34.During the trial, Bellfield tried to deflect blame by suggesting that
:54:34. > :54:39.Milly had been an unhappy teenager who had run away from home. How
:54:39. > :54:43.difficult has that been during the court case? To hear somebody
:54:43. > :54:47.described, at times, and you say, I don't even recognise that person
:54:47. > :54:50.they're talking about? Screamly, extremely difficult. That was --
:54:50. > :54:55.extremely, extremely difficult. That was one of the hardest things.
:54:55. > :54:58.They did just drag her name through the mud, but because I know what
:54:58. > :55:03.our family is like and what her friends were like, no-one believed
:55:03. > :55:09.it. No-one did. And everyone thought exactly the same thing,
:55:09. > :55:12.like, she was a teenager. Teenagers write stupid things. I'm sure there
:55:12. > :55:18.would have been letters like that from me when they searched the
:55:18. > :55:24.house as well. But they didn't bring those up. And I knew Milly.
:55:24. > :55:30.She loved everyone. She wanted to be liked. No-one wants to be
:55:30. > :55:36.disliked and she was so happy. She was just such a lovely person. I
:55:36. > :55:41.feel like my heart's been torn out. Especially over the trial, I feel
:55:41. > :55:45.like it's just been trampled on. I just have to keep remembering that
:55:45. > :55:48.the Milly that I know wasn't how everyone has portrayed her in the
:55:48. > :55:52.media. She was the best sister anyone
:55:52. > :55:57.could ever ask for. Last week, Bellfield was found
:55:57. > :56:03.guilty of abducting and murdering Milly. The verdict was unanimous.
:56:03. > :56:10.However, the jury was discharged without decide figure he had also
:56:10. > :56:13.attempted to kidnap Rachel Cowles. The trial has been truly horrifying
:56:13. > :56:17.ordeal for my family. We've had to relive all the emotions and
:56:17. > :56:21.thoughts of nine years ago, when Milly first went missing and was
:56:21. > :56:26.then found murdered. During our questioning, my wife and I both
:56:26. > :56:30.felt as if we were on trial. We've had to lose our right to privacy
:56:30. > :56:36.and sit through day after Harrowing day of of the trial in order to get
:56:36. > :56:41.a man convicted of this brutal murder. For a mother to bury her
:56:41. > :56:47.child in any circumstances is truly agonising, but to bury your child
:56:47. > :56:51.when you know she died in such an appallingly awful way, is sairbl. A
:56:51. > :56:56.day does not pass when we do not think of her and the life that she
:56:56. > :57:06.might have led. What has it meant to you to see Levi Bellfield
:57:06. > :57:09.convicted of this crime? Justice. I knew that he would never come out
:57:09. > :57:13.of prison, but I have always believed that he killed Milly
:57:13. > :57:18.Dowler. And I wanted everybody else to know that's what that man had
:57:18. > :57:23.done. There's not a day that goes by
:57:23. > :57:28.where I don't miss her. I don't want to let what this man has done
:57:28. > :57:33.to Milly ruin my life and my mum and dad's, so he's not going to do
:57:33. > :57:39.that. We're going to carry on. Our whole family unit has really,
:57:39. > :57:44.really suffered, definitely, but we have to piece back our lives,
:57:44. > :57:51.otherwise she would be upset. She would want us to carry on. It's