Jury told Dowler accused tried to get girl in car

Rachel Cowles was 11 when she was walking home from school in March 2002.

The prosecution at the Old Bailey alleges that Bellfield drove off when he saw a police car and went on to murder Milly Dowler, 13, the next day. Bellfield, 42, denies abducting and murdering Milly and attempting to kidnap Rachel.

Miss Cowles, now 21, recalled that she went home after the incident in Upper Halliford Road, Shepperton, Surrey, and her mother rang the police.

She said: “I felt scared as I suddenly realised the enormity of what just happened.”

She burst into tears as she spoke to a policeman on the phone.

Miss Cowles said a red car pulled up, adding: “I remember seeing magazines strewn across the floor of the front passenger seat, about 20 of them. There were two baby seats. They were like booster seats. One was green and blue fabric and one was pink fabric.”

The engine was running and the driver leaned over.

“I saw him from the side and then he turned his face round to me,” she added. “He was white. My impression was that he was in his 30s to 40s. He was skin-headed or bald.

“His head was rather chubby. He had a gold hoop earring in his left ear. I remember him saying ‘Hello. I have just moved in next door. Would you like a lift home?’

“I said ‘no thank you. It’s all right’.” A police car went by and the car drove off.

She agreed that she had told the police on the phone that she could not describe the man. Police had not taken a statement until three years later when her mother Diana wrote to the chief constable after watching a police appeal in 2005 on Milly’s murder.

The court was told that Miss Cowles failed to pick Bellfield out of a later identity parade.

Milly Dowler disappeared after leaving Walton-on-Thames station, Surrey, and walking home along Station Avenue.

The prosecution says Bellfield was living yards away and murdered Milly in his flat before dumping the body. Her remains were found six months later in woods 25 miles away.

The trial continues.