Searching relative ‘may have seen Milly murderer’

Jurors were told that the accused, Levi Bellfield, had returned to his home to dispose of the 13-year-old’s body in the middle of the night as her uncle Brian Gilbertson searched for her by torchlight.

Mr Gilbertson said he saw a man of Bellfield’s description with a dog walking towards a bin shed at the block of flats near where Milly was last seen and where Bellfield lived.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said Mr Gilbertson had become concerned about his missing niece and began his own search in the early hours of the morning after she vanished in Station Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on March 21, 2002.

After searching the railway station with a torch, Mr Gilbertson found himself at flats in Collingwood Place, off Station Avenue, where he saw a man with a dog walking “with an air of confidence” towards him.

Mr Altman told the jury: “You can conclude that the man Mr Gilbertson saw in the early hours was the defendant who had returned with the dog.

“If the prosecution is right that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler, then he had to dispose of her body and clean up.”

Bellfield’s phone had allegedly been silent for nine-and-a-half hours overnight – ample time to drive Milly’s body to the woods where it was found six months later.

Bellfield went on to murder two students, Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange, and attempt to murder a third, Kate Sheedy, during the next two years.

Former wheelclamper and bouncer Bellfield, 42, denies Milly’s kidnap and murder.

He also denies the attempted kidnap of 11-year-old Rachel Cowles in Shepperton, Surrey, the previous day.

Bellfield’s partner, Emma Mills, said he had been out of contact on the day Milly vanished. She and their two children were staying at a friend’s house when Bellfield later turned up, said Mr Altman.

They went to bed but between 3am and 4am, Bellfield got up and left with his Staffordshire bull terrier.

Mr Altman said: “She awoke to find him suddenly getting dressed. She asked him what he was doing. He answered, ‘I am going to go back to the flat cause I am going to have a lie-in.’”

Later that day, Bellfield had asked a young friend called Malcolm Ward to help him move something from a bedroom of the flat.

“The room was messy with clothes and videos lying around and Ward saw the defendant put some clothes into two carrier bags,” said Mr Altman.

“The defendant got him to help carry out a king-size mattress. This had been on the bed and it had no covers on it.”

The following day, Saturday March 23, 2002, Miss Mills said she went to the flat because Bellfield told her they had to move out.

Mr Altman continued: “When she entered the bedroom she saw that the sheets were off the bed. There was no duvet cover, sheet or pillowcases. Only the duvet was left in the middle of the bed.

“She rang the defendant on his mobile phone and she asked him about what she had seen.

“His response was to say that the dog had had an accident and he had ‘chucked it all’. He told her he had put the soiled linen in the rubbish.”

The trial was adjourned until today when the judge and jury will be taken to Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton to view the scenes of the alleged crimes.

Bellfield will also go but is not expected to view the areas at the same time.