Levi Bellfield had denied murdering schoolgirl Milly Dowler who vanished from Surrey in 2002 Former nightclub doorman Levi Bellfield has been found guilty of murdering 13-year-old Milly Dowler.
Milly vanished in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, as she walked home from school on 21 March 2002. Her remains were found in Hampshire six months later.
An Old Bailey jury found Bellfield, 43, guilty of abducting and murdering her after she walked past his home.
In 2008 he was convicted of murdering two young women in west London and attempting to murder a third.
Bellfield was also accused of attempting to abduct 11-year-old Rachel Cowles the day before in March 2002.
No verdict has been reached on that charge.
Milly Dowler was last seen near Bellfield’s flat in Collingwood Place, off Station Avenue.
Police knocked on his door on 11 occasions, the last of which was on 28 May 2004, but officers never tried to contact the letting agent in an effort to trace him.
Rachel Cowles’ mother Diana rang police when a man in a red car offered her daughter a lift but it was three years before officers interviewed her.
Milly’s mother and her sister Gemma, 25, collapsed after hearing the verdict.
They had each broken down in the witness box after it was suggested that Milly had run away or committed suicide because she was unhappy.
At one stage Milly’s father became a suspect after it emerged he had an interest in bondage sex.
During his trial, Bellfield refused to give evidence in his defence.
His red Daewoo Nexi car, which was seen turning into Station Road 22 minutes after Milly was last seen, has never been found.
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