End of 10-year nightmare for Milly’s parents

A jury at the Old Bailey found the 43-year-old former bouncer guilty of the 13-year-old schoolgirl’s abduction and murder yesterday.

But the guilty verdict came at a price for the Dowler family who found their own lives being examined during Bellfield’s trial.

After years of anguish and heartache, they went to court to seek justice, only to face claims that Milly’s death could have been their fault. They each broke down in the witness box in the face of suggestions that Milly might have run away or committed suicide because she was unhappy.

For Milly’s father Bob Dowler, a 59-year-old IT management consultant, there was the added humiliation of having to admit he had an interest in bondage sex, and that police found a ball gag at the family home in Walton Park.

Milly had found a porn magazine with contact numbers for women providing kinky sex nine months before her death, and felt let down by Mr Dowler, the court heard. This led to detectives considering him as a suspect – he being the first of 54 checked out by Surrey Police over the years.

Bellfield went undetected until his arrest in November 2004 for the murder of Frenchwoman Amelie Delagrange.

After murdering Milly, Bellfield, a former wheelclamper and bouncer, killed Marsha McDonnell, 19, in 2003 and murdered Ms Delagrange, 22, and attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, in 2004. All the attacks took place near bus stops on the borders of London and Surrey and there were no apparent motives except a hatred of women.

Bellfield was jailed for life for those crimes in February 2008 and told he would never be released. He is now set to receive another life term in Wakefield prison, where he spends most of the day locked in his cell.

Ms Sheedy was in court to hear the verdicts yesterday along with the parents of Ms Delagrange.

Milly’s sister Gemma and her mother Sally collapsed in hysterics after hearing the verdict. Gemma began screaming and calling out “Guilty” and Mrs Dowler was picked up and taken away in the care of the court matron as her daughter lost control. The women’s screams could be heard for several minutes as people within the courtroom remained seated in shocked silence.

The jury was sent home until today to consider a verdict on a count of attempted abduction of 11-year-old Rachel Cowles, the day before Milly disappeared.

The court had been told how Milly disappeared “in the blink of an eye” on March 21, 2002 when she walked within yards of where Bellfield was living. Her remains were found six months later in September 2002 in woods in Yateley, Hampshire, 25 miles away. Her body had decomposed and it was not possible to say how she died, said Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting.

But the evidence against Bellfield was compelling, he said. Having spent time with her friends in Walton-on-Thames, Milly began to walk to her home about a mile away along Station Avenue where 22 minutes later, Bellfield’s car was seen on CCTV driving towards his flat, just 50 yards from where she was last seen alive.

Eight days later he told his girlfriend the red Daewoo Nexia car had been stolen. Police have never been able to trace it.

His former partner was to tell the court how she thought he had been with another woman the night after he murdered Milly because he destroyed his bed sheets.

Emma Mills said after the schoolgirl disappeared, Bellfield got up in the middle of the night and left the friend’s house where the couple were staying to return to his flat in Collingwood Place.

She found that Bellfield had destroyed the bedclothes after he told her they had to move out.

“I automatically thought that, you know, he had been here with a woman because of his past history,” she said.

She also revealed he had joked about killing the schoolgirl when she asked him why she could not contact him by phone on the day the schoolgirl had disappeared.

The 33-year-old told the court: “He said ‘Oh, why do you keep going on? What, do you think I’ve done Milly?

“I didn’t ask him. It’s just so awful. I was so used to him making horrible remarks and jokes about things. I just thought, it’s disgusting, not even funny.”