Milly Dowler murder trial jury makes visit to abduction scene

A THIN blue line of police officers formed a human cordon as convicted killer Levi Bellfield was taken to the site where he is alleged to have abducted schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Bellfield, handcuffed to a prison officer, was only yards away from the Old Bailey judge and jury trying him for Milly’s murder.

He arrived yesterday in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in a prison van while the jurors and lawyers travelled by coach.

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They spent more than an hour retracing Milly’s final footsteps after the 13-year-old emerged from the station to make her 15-minute walk home.

But she vanished “in the blink of an eye” as she walked along Station Avenue on March 21, 2002.

Bellfield, 42, was convicted of killing two women in 2008, but denies abducting and murdering Milly, and attempting to abduct another girl the day before.

The court was reconvened on the site visit at the spot where Milly was last seen by a friend waiting at a bus stop.

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The human cordon followed the judge, Mr Justice Wilkie, dressed in a dark suit, as he led his mobile courtroom up and down the road.

Bellfield, flanked by prison officers, brought up the rear.

Dressed in jeans, trainers and a grey sweatshirt, he looked pale and at ease.

The tour continued with the cordon moving into Collingwood Place, yards from where Milly disappeared, where Bellfield had been living nine years ago.

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It went through a passageway to the rear of the flats where a woman washing her car suddenly found herself enclosed in the outside court scenario.

But after the briefest of glances, she continued with her work as a neighbour watched over his garden fence.

The visit ended when they went into an access road at Copenhagen Way where the prosecution says Bellfield’s red Daewoo Nexia car was seen driving away 22 minutes after Milly vanished.

Bellfield was convicted in 2008 of murdering Marsha McDonnell, 19, in February 2003 and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in August 2004, by striking them on the head with a blunt instrument.

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And he attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, in May 2004, by deliberately running her over in a car.

Former wheelclamper and bouncer Bellfield, formerly of West Drayton, west London, denies Milly’s kidnap and murder on March 21, 2002. He also denies the attempted kidnap of 11-year-old Rachel Cowles in Shepperton, Surrey, on March 20, 2002.

The Old Bailey trial is due to continue today.