Anguish as Bellfield convicted of Milly’s murder

It has taken nine years for the Dowlers to get justice for Milly, even though her murderer lived just 50 yards from where she vanished.

Yesterday a jury found Bellfield, 43, guilty of 13-year-old Milly’s abduction and murder in March 2002, following a one-month trial.

It will continue its deliberations today over charges that he attempted to abduct 11-year-old Rachel Cowles, a day before her disappearance.

Milly’s father Bob Dowler, 59, tried to hold back his emotions as he attempted to console his wife and daughter when they went to pieces at the Old Bailey.

Mother Sally Dowler, 51, began to shake and cry along with their daughter Gemma, 25, at the back of the court. Bellfield yawned as he was led from court and later refused to come back in.

During the trial it emerged that police had knocked on the door of Bellfield’s flat, off Station Avenue, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, 11 times but did not try to contact the letting agent to trace him.

Bellfield went on to kill at least twice before he was arrested by London police two years later. It was then he became a suspect in Milly’s murder.

His partner, Emma Mills, told detectives they had been living near Station Road and moved out suddenly.

His red Daewoo Nexia car, which was seen turning into Station Avenue 22 minutes after Milly was last seen, has never been found.

He moved his family out of Collingwood Place the day after killing Milly and dumping her body 25 miles away in Yateley Heath Wood, Hampshire.