[dramatic music]
- Serial killers
are not uniquely American.
In the UK,
one of the most notorious
is Levi Bellfield.
- He's the most dangerous
individual
I've ever investigated.
- He's one of those very rare,
random killers,
and that makes him
a category one monster.
- He preyed on
young blonde women
and subjected them
to abduction,
assault, rape, and murder.
But his ex-girlfriend knew
all too well
of his violent hatred
of women.
- I found a woman's magazine,
and all the blondes' faces
had been stabbed or slashed.
He raped me. He beat me up.
- But there was no way out.
- You don't go to the police.
You don't tell anyone,
because you are scared.
You cannot reason with crazy.
- What Johanna Collings
didn't know
was that she was living
with a serial killer.
* *
[dramatic music]
* *
[foreboding music]
4:00 p.m., March 21, 2002,
13-year-old Milly Dowler
vanishes from a bus stop
on her way home from school
in Walton-On-Thames,
South West London.
* *
- She left school
that afternoon
just before
10 to 4:00 that day.
And she would normally
catch the train home.
- She stops in the cafe
in the railway station
with a girl
who's at school with her
and some boys.
She borrows a mobile phone
to ring her father to say
she'll be home soon.
- She left the station
to walk home.
A friend of hers
was at the bus stop
opposite the railway station
and saw her and waved.
And as her school friend
got on the bus
and went down Station Avenue,
she looked around for Milly,
and she had gone,
disappeared
in the blink of an eye.
* *
- After a frantic search
and no response
from Milly's cell phone,
which had run out of battery,
her desperate father contacts
law enforcement.
- Milly had been missing
for about three hours
when around 7:00 that evening,
Mr. Dowler,
her father,
reported his daughter missing.
* *
- This quiet
affluent neighborhood
is considered one
of the safest parts of London.
- A 13-year-old schoolgirl,
just vanishing off the street,
and things like that
just don't happen.
* *
- A massive search begins.
The fear is Milly
has been abducted.
- Everyone here in Walton
wants to play their part
in solving this mystery.
But every day that passes
without answers
makes them increasingly fearful
that Milly
may have been harmed.
- If Milly was abducted,
who and where
is the perpetrator?
Local residents are shocked.
- Everyone's heartbroken.
And everyone's,
like, really tearful.
And everyone's so upset
that she's gone missing.
* *
- When Milly disappeared,
many journalists, including me,
went down to the location
where it happened.
We really struggled
to understand
how she could have been
abducted in broad daylight.
- Let the police know
any information.
However small or insignificant
it may seem,
must be vital in this.
We just desperately
need your help.
* *
[soft music]
- One concerned local mother
is Johanna Collings
with two young children
of her own.
She recalls watching the news
about the missing teen.
* *
- A friend of mine,
her daughter
actually went to school
with Milly
and I remember speaking to her
and saying, you know,
God keep an eye on her
and make sure she's okay.
Because, I mean, at the time,
we didn't know
what was happening.
- There'd been a massive
police investigation
into the whereabouts of her.
There'd been a huge
house-to-house inquiry,
knocking on every door
in the area,
speaking to every resident,
taking statements
from all her school friends,
all her family.
Nothing.
Nothing had given
any indication
why she might have run away.
- The search for Milly
continues for six months.
Then on September 18, 2002,
a discovery is made 25 miles
from where she vanished.
- Almost six months
to the day,
there was a couple.
They were mushroom picking
in Yateley in Hampshire,
and they found
the remains of a human skull
and some human bones.
- The news that we have now
found the body of Amanda Dowler
is very distressing
to everyone involved
in this inquiry.
Our worst fears
have been confirmed.
And I can now tell you
that the search for Milly
has changed from
a missing person inquiry
into a murder investigation.
- A forensic investigation
of the crime scene
and the autopsy
revealed nothing.
- We had no evidence.
We had the remains
of a 13-year-old schoolgirl
that was found in a very wet,
damp, wooded area.
We had no DNA.
We had no fingerprints.
We had no CCTV evidence.
We had no witnesses at all
to anything
or no forensic evidence
at this state.
- But who would kill this
teenage schoolgirl, and why?
A wave of national grief
swept through Britain.
* *
But there is one woman
whose past may hold the key
to solving
Milly Dowler's murder.
Johanna Collings has lived
in South West London
her whole life.
In the late 1980s,
she began dating
Levi Bellfield,
a relationship which would
alter her life forever.
[tense music]
Twickenham, South West London.
* *
- I haven't actually been
in this area
for probably about 10 years.
This place on the left here,
that used to be
Stella's nightclub
that we used to go to.
That's where we first
sort of really met Levi.
* *
I first met Levi
when I was 17 or 18,
towards the end of the'80s.
Loved going out at clubs,
partying,
having fun like you do.
* *
Levi was always laughing
and joking,
quite cocky.
Everyone knew him.
And you know, he always came
across as a really nice guy.
- Bellfield was a 6-foot,
280-pound body builder
who flexed his muscles
as a nightclub doorman.
* *
- I think the first move
was made by him.
I'd not long lost my dad,
and you're in a low place,
and I was upset.
He'd asked me out
for a drink a few times
and I wasn't really interested,
but I sort of gave in
and agreed to go for a drink.
* *
- When Joe began dating Levi,
she was living with her mother
in South West London.
- At the time, I lived in
Strawberry Hill with my mum.
So he moved in
with me and my mum.
My mum didn't like him
from day one.
She always said
there was something about him.
- Despite her mother's
concerns about Levi,
Joe was enamored.
- The first few months
with Levi was amazing,
absolutely wonderful.
He was a perfect boyfriend.
You know, he took you out.
He took you on holiday.
- Soon, Joe and Bellfield
conceived their first child.
- I think I fell pregnant
with my daughter
over the first or second time
that I'd slept with Levi.
- I think what first attracted
Bellfield to Joe
was the fact that she was
a bit younger than him.
She was in quite
a vulnerable situation.
She'd just lost her father.
So he saw somebody
who he could mold, essentially.
- These relationships often
start in a place of love,
care, excitement,
genuine sort of companionship,
but then something happens
when it gets distorted.
- Less than one year
into the relationship
and shortly after the birth
of their daughter,
Levi's behavior
began to change.
[ominous music]
- It was slow steps.
Like, if your mobile rung,
he'd pick the phone up
so he could see
who was calling.
Having a bath, he'd say,
"Oh, don't you shut the door?"
At the time, you don't think
about these things,
but when you added it all up
together, you think,
"Wow, how did it escalate
so quickly?"
- Bellfield's behavior
towards Joe
is textbook coercive control.
So when her phone rings,
he will see who's calling
and whether she's allowed
to talk to them.
This contributes to a chipping
away of someone's identity,
their sense of personhood,
their sense of self,
because then they're
much easier to control.
- The controlling became
as in what I was wearing,
what I would do,
who I would talk to.
Once, he actually convinced me
I'd had an affair.
He even named someone.
I can't even remember
the name.
And he was like, "Oh, I know
you're seeing him.
I know you're seeing him."
And you actually start
to question,
have I done something wrong?
Have I--I know
I haven't had an affair,
but he could convince you.
The more I said
nothing had happened
and I hadn't done anything,
the angrier he got.
And I think that was
one of the first nights
that he really exploded.
* *
- One in three women will
experience domestic violence,
which is actually
a really staggering statistic.
We know that this
is part of a cycle
where we see
paranoid accusations.
We see an escalation
in the violent behavior
and, in some cases,
much, much worse.
- He raped me. He beat me up.
He made me sit on a stool
in the bedroom
with no clothes on for hours.
He'd come over,
and where he'd hit you,
if you had bruises, he used
to poke you in the bruises.
And if you cried,
he'd hit you again.
* *
You don't know what to think,
because by then,
he's already started
training your mind to work
how his mind worked.
He is a complete control freak
and maniac.
* *
[dramatic music]
[tires squealing]
- I remember turning to them
and saying,
"This is where
you found Milly, isn't it?"
- This is huge.
This puts him
in these woods here.
- I knew it was
the right thing I had to do.
[dramatic music]
* *
- February 2003,
South West London,
less than one year
after the murder
of schoolgirl Milly Dowler...
* *
19-year-old Marsha McDonnell
has spent the evening
out with friends
and caught a late-night bus.
Her stop is a short walk
from home.
* *
- Marsha McDonald traveled
home on a 111 bus
to Percy Road, Hampton.
She can be seen on CCTV
on the bus,
getting off the bus.
* *
- She's about 60 yards
from her own front door
when suddenly, she's attacked
with a blunt object,
probably some kind of hammer.
She's hit over the head
three or four times
and left bleeding
and actually dying
in the street.
* *
- Sadly, Marsha died
a day or two later in hospital.
* *
- Local law enforcement
is shocked
that such a brutal attack
could take place
in their district.
* *
- From my perspective,
as someone who grew up
in that part of the world,
it was slightly
more personal to me.
I've been involved in many
major crime investigations
throughout most parts
of London,
but this is where I grew up.
This is where I went to school.
- There's always a will
on a murder team
to do a good job,
but I think it was even
more significant
'cause the majority of us
on that team
lived in South West London.
- Milly Dowler
and Marsha McDonnell
weren't the only victims.
Other local young women
were also attacked
by someone armed
with a blunt instrument.
- There was
an emerging picture
and an emerging situation
of other young women
being attacked.
Young women had been hit,
and they had survived,
but they had no recollection
of what happened.
- There were lone females
attacked from behind.
All of them were either
at bus stops
or recently got off buses.
It's the same MO,
modus operandi.
- She was walking home
along this road
when she suddenly felt
somebody grab her from behind.
He pinned her arms to her side,
and she tried to scream,
but a hand was placed
over her mouth.
[dramatic music]
- We were aware of
the very real possibility
that one person could be
responsible for them all.
[tense music]
- With the murders
of Milly Dowler
and Marsha McDonnell unsolved,
and now a series of vicious
attacks on other lone women,
the local community
was frightened.
* *
- When people
are being attacked
and you don't know who it is
or what's happening
and, you know,
who could potentially be next,
people don't wanna go out.
They don't wanna be
on their own.
It scares people.
- These attacks
really sent ripples
throughout the community.
There's a real communication
that women are not safe.
And I think
within that backdrop
that really does trigger
a range of emotions,
from fear, from anxiety,
from feeling quite confused.
- The kind of person
who would carry out
these sorts of attacks
is someone who is a predator.
Somebody who enjoys preying
on people who are vulnerable.
- As the community remain
on high alert,
Joe's own relationship
with Bellfield
is also increasingly strained.
He was using his position
as a nightclub doorman
to sleep around
and then cruelly boast
about it to Joe.
- He liked very young girls
who were always queuing up
outside nightclubs
he was doorman at,
and he could have his pick.
I mean, he used to have
one particular nightclub.
He had a room upstairs
he used to take them to.
* *
- He loved to brag about
all the different women
he'd slept with.
All the ones that he'd,
as he put it,
(BLEEP) in the car park
or in the toilets.
And sometimes you think,
"Well, at least
if he's had it tonight,
I haven't gotta do it."
But then other times,
obviously,
it gave him the taste for it,
and he would want more.
* *
[soft music]
- One of Joe's passions
is horse riding.
She would often visit
a local stable to escape Levi.
* *
- They're very therapeutic
animals, very therapeutic.
When I was going through
all the trouble with Levi,
I'd go to the stables,
and that was my getaway
and my sanctuary.
And I could just be with them,
and I didn't have any worries.
Any hassle.
- The horse offers
a different connection,
because they can
love unconditionally.
They can be reliable.
They can offer opportunities
to process trauma.
And so with Joe finding
the horses or the stables
a sanctuary
is a really important element,
because her own home
wasn't a sanctuary.
It was a source
of fear and anxiety.
- Joe often took part in
the nearby Yateley horse show,
but even with horse riding,
Levi wanted control.
- When we went to shows
and we did well, he loved it.
Obviously, it was something
else to show off about.
Levi tried to take the horses
away from me regularly.
And that was the one thing
I would never ever,
ever have given up.
- May 2004, just over a year
after the brutal murder
of Marsha McDonnell,
South West London is beginning
to return to normality.
Then a chilling call
is made to emergency services.
- Is this
an attempted homicide?
If so, is there a connection
with the murders
of Milly Dowler
and Marsha McDonnell?
[dramatic music]
* *
- There's a killer stalking
the streets
of South West London,
targeting young blonde women
near bus stops
and savagely attacking them.
The police are no closer
to finding the perpetrator
when a terrifying call
is picked up
by emergency services.
- Kate Sheedy,
18-year-old girl,
had got off a bus,
was making her way home.
She's crossing the road.
She's aware of a white car
with its lights off,
but its engine running
not far from where she is.
She crosses the road,
at which point,
the car engine revs,
the lights go on,
and the vehicle
drives directly at her
and knocks her down
and runs her over.
[dramatic music]
- My children were
primary school age at the time,
and their head teacher
was Kate's mum.
That attack was even closer
to home, if you like.
- Fortunately, Kate survives.
She has extensive injuries
to her back, her lungs,
but she survives.
* *
She gives
really significant information
about the vehicle involved.
The weapon, effectively.
She describes a white van
with dark blacked-out windows.
These are vital pieces
of information
that make that vehicle unique.
- She got on a bus
at Twickenham.
And when you look at the time
of night, young blonde girl,
the circumstances
of the attack,
if you substitute the car
for the blunt instrument,
then everything else
is exactly the same.
- When we look at what
happened to Kate Sheedy,
this is something straight out
of a horror movie.
This really does play
on our fears
of predators stalking
the streets.
[tense music]
- The press were very clearly
linking this at the time
and saying,
"Is there a serial killer
on the loose
in South West London?"
- In general terms, Britain
is not a violent country.
And certainly,
in terms of serial killers,
they are quite rare.
- But the facts stood
for themselves.
Two murders
and multiple assaults
on young women
close to bus stops,
all within the same area
of London.
- So he's in my area.
He's killing young women.
He's abducting young girls.
We just simply had to get him.
- While police worked
tirelessly
to find the attacker,
Joe Collings
was becoming
increasingly isolated
in a violent relationship
with Levi Bellfield.
- I think people knew
that it was a bit
of a tricky relationship.
My best friend used to say
to me, "It's not right.
What's going on?"
And I'd say, "Nothing.
Nothing, it's all right."
And he'd say, "Come on.
I know something's not right."
And, "No, no, no, it's fine."
You feel embarrassed
because you're allowing
someone to control you
like that.
- Bellfield taps into
these feelings of shame
that victims of domestic abuse
often have.
They don't wanna be seen
as people
that allow this kind of thing
to happen to them.
So that increases
the humiliation
that's felt by the victim,
which makes them
even less likely to report
their abuse to somebody.
- And now Joe was about
to make a sinister discovery.
[ominous music]
- Sometime in '96,
I was in my garage,
and I found a bin liner
that had a jacket in it,
a balaclava, and a knife,
and a woman's magazine.
And when I'd flick through it,
all the blonde faces
had been stabbed or slashed.
* *
- The slashing of the women's
faces in the magazine
is very significant for me
because our faces
are our identity.
They are our personhood,
and Bellfield
is somebody
who is constantly trying
to remove women's identities
and personhoods
and basically take away their
liberty and their autonomy.
- Despite this
disturbing discovery,
like many victims
of domestic violence,
Joe doesn't turn
to the police.
- You don't go to the police.
You don't tell anyone.
With someone like Levi,
you wouldn't--
you just wouldn't do it
because you're too scared to.
* *
- Three months since
the attack on Kate Sheedy,
22-year-old French student
Amélie Delagrange
gets off a bus
at Twickenham Green,
South West London.
* *
- Twickenham Green
is a triangle-shaped
piece of land
in between
busy suburban streets.
* *
- Amélie misses
her regular stop,
but it's a warm
summer's evening,
and she decides to take
a shortcut across the Green.
[dramatic music]
- Out of the blue,
she's hit over the head
a number of times
and left like a rag doll
lying on the edge
of the cricket square.
* *
- This crime had
an international dimension.
- The white van became
very much the focus.
- I knew Levi was driving
a white van.
- Johanna Collings walked
into the incident room.
- I'm not scared of you.
You're not doing this anymore.
[dramatic music]
* *
- 22-year-old French student
Amélie Delagrange
has been viciously attacked.
She is left bleeding to death
on Twickenham Green,
South West London.
* *
- As a result of the injuries
that she received,
which was a blunt force trauma
to her head,
she sadly died
in the early hours
of the 19th,
into the 20th of August.
* *
Amélie Delagrange
was a French girl,
a French national.
The media attention
is now really stepping up.
- Suddenly, this crime had
an international dimension.
French media descended
on London.
Amélie's parents came over
and visited,
and their grief
was plain to see.
* *
- The murder
of Amélie Delagrange
fits the profile
of the previous incidents.
The victim is young,
female, blonde,
and attacked
close to a bus stop.
The heat is on
to find the killer.
* *
[suspenseful music]
- A murder team
would generally
be made up of 25 to 30
officers in total.
With this inquiry,
our murder team doubled
overnight.
We had officers drafted in
from all over the Met
to help us at that stage,
because we were very aware,
at that time,
of the other crimes
that had happened.
- By 1997, constant violence
finally forces Joe
to leave Bellfield.
- When it came to an end
with me and Levi,
I was actually pregnant
with my son.
So he came round,
and we had a blazing row
on my doorstep
'cause I wouldn't let him
in the house.
I got quite a few kicks
and punches and digs.
I'm a lioness,
and they're my cubs,
and to beat me up when I
was pregnant with his son,
that's not happening.
And it was at that point
that I thought,
"That's enough now."
And I stopped
being scared of him.
[dramatic music]
- August 29, 2004,
10 days since Amélie's murder,
and detectives have been
struggling to find clues.
Now they finally get a break.
* *
- We knew Amélie had
had a handbag with her
in her possessions
when she was out that night,
but they weren't with her.
- Detectives contacted
Amélie's cell phone provider.
* *
- We were able to speak
to her phone company,
who told us that her phone
had what they call
an "explicit disconnection."
An explicit disconnection
means that either the battery
was ripped out
or it was submerged in water.
And we knew what time
that had happened.
Seven or eight minutes after
we knew the time
Amélie was attacked.
- The explicit disconnection
reveals the time
the phone went dead,
and crucially, its location:
Walton-on-Thames,
where Milly Dowler vanished
in March 2002.
[tense music]
- We knew there had been
some significant
police activity
down by a bridge
just South
of Twickenham Green.
And I remember we went down
there to get some shots of it.
And we saw police divers
in the water.
- Within hours, police divers
find something.
* *
- And that's when we found
Amélie's keys,
and her mobile phone
was recovered from the scene.
- The cell data reveals
the whereabouts of the killer
at two precise times:
Twickenham Green
at 10:06 p.m.,
when Amélie was murdered,
and 10:22 p.m.,
the time her cell phone
was thrown into the river
at Walton-on-Thames.
* *
- So at that point, we knew
the person responsible
must have been in a vehicle,
because it would've
been impossible
to get to Walton Bridge
at the time
of the disconnection
unless you were using
a vehicle.
[dramatic music]
- Police review
hundreds of hours
of CCTV footage,
hunting
for the killer's vehicle.
Finally, they spot something.
- About two minutes
before we know
Amélie would've walked
across Twickenham Green,
there's this little white van
that hadn't been there
when the last bus passed.
You look at the next bus,
and it was there.
And then the next bus
that comes past,
after we know Amélie
has been attacked,
it's no longer there.
- But there is a snag
identifying
the suspicious white van.
- The problem we had
was whilst they describe
the CCTV view as being useful,
it wasn't good enough
to get a registration number.
And that was frustrating.
- The search is on
for a small white van,
but there is a big problem.
White vans are one of the most
common vehicles
on London's streets.
Thousands of delivery drivers
use them every day.
Londoners even have a nickname
for them: "white van man."
Joe Collings catches
the evening news
and hears
about the violent attack
on student Amélie Delagrange.
A lone blonde female.
A white van.
South West London.
Joe connects the dots.
- With Amélie Delagrange,
I don't know why.
I don't know if it's 'cause
it was closer to my home,
but for some reason,
I just had a gut feeling.
* *
I knew he was driving
a white van.
* *
It was like a switch
had been flicked in me.
- For Joe,
this is the last straw.
She can't ignore her fears
any longer.
She decides to report Levi
to the police.
- I knew it was
the right thing I had to do.
[dramatic music]
* *
- The London Met Police
are desperately searching
for what they fear
is a serial killer
stalking South West London.
* *
The latest victim
is 22-year-old
Amélie Delagrange.
Joe Collings has finally
summoned the courage
to report
her violent ex-boyfriend,
Levi Bellfield, to the police.
- Johanna Collings had walked
into the incident room
and said,
"I think you should be looking
at my ex-partner
Levi Bellfield."
- Joe Collings
had given us a statement
about her ex-partner
Levi Bellfield
that gave us some crucial
pieces of information.
- I just said to them,
"I think it's my ex-boyfriend.
"He's violent and abusive,
"he hates blondes,
"he drives a white van,
"and he knows the area,
and I think it's him."
* *
- She described
her relationship with him
and the type of character
he was,
which raised alarm bells
in his violence,
in his tendency of violence.
But she also told us
that he owned a white van
and that he hated blonde women.
- It was then that the final
piece that a jigsaw
about one--Joe Collings,
violent boyfriend, white van.
- But how to connect Bellfield
to one of thousands
of white vans
in South West London?
Detective Mark Leach
painstakingly searches
a database
of locally owned white vans.
- Now, in the incident room,
I had a number
of pieces of information
and a number of dockets
that were linked to white vans
that had not been eliminated.
- One particular vehicle
not eliminated from the search
catches Detective Leach's eye.
- The person
who bought this van
had not registered it
properly.
It was registered to a company
that didn't exist.
* *
We went to the car dealers
and asked them who they'd
sold that vehicle to,
and they told us
they had sold it
to none other
than Levi Bellfield.
[dramatic music]
- The net was closing in
on Bellfield.
With Joe's statement,
the police are confident
they now have their man.
- From that point on,
Levi Bellfield
was gonna be our target.
- We were confident
Bellfield was our man,
but what we had was
all circumstantial evidence
with linking his vehicles
to the scenes
and being in the area.
- We've got, really,
a circumstantial case
against him
possibly being
at Twickenham Green
at the right time.
That doesn't put a weapon
in his hand
in the middle of the Green.
- The detectives don't have
enough hard evidence
to arrest Bellfield
for murder.
To ensure Bellfield
cannot be released on bail,
police turn to Joe Collings
for a second statement.
She details years of abuse,
rape, and battery.
* *
- Joe Collings
had given us a statement,
which was extremely brave,
regarding the assault
and the type of things
that Levi Bellfield
had done to her.
That crucial statement meant
we could charge him
with a really serious offense.
It means Levi Bellfield
is in prison,
in custody whilst we build
this circumstantial case
for murder.
In November 2004,
we made the arrest
for serious assault
on Joe Collings.
- November 22, 2004,
police surveillance
pinpoints Bellfield
to an address
in South West London.
Detectives prepare themselves
for the raid.
- We were sure
he was gonna be in there,
but we went through the door,
and there was no sign of him.
So what's gone wrong here?
Has something failed
with the surveillance,
or what's happened?
We went up into the loft,
and Bellfield was hiding naked
under the loft insulation.
- At last,
Levi Bellfield is in custody.
- The nightclub bouncer
is currently being held
at a West London
police station.
- He is held on suspicion
of the murders
of Amélie Delagrange,
Marsha McDonnell,
and the attempted murder
of Kate Sheedy.
But the work
of proving his guilt
to a jury was just beginning.
Detective Gary Cunningham
is tasked
with interrogating Bellfield.
- Bellfield was remanded
in custody,
charged with rapes in relation
to Johanna Collings.
We then continued building
our case against him
for the murders
and the attempted murder
of Kate.
This was an old-fashioned
police investigation
that we had
circumstantial evidence.
Now, circumstantial evidence
is good evidence
if you have enough of it.
So we had
a massive jigsaw puzzle.
- And law enforcement
still has no evidence
linking Bellfield
to Milly Dowler's murder,
but under questioning,
would Bellfield reveal clues
connecting him
to the schoolgirl's killing?
- He spoke on some things,
but with the murders,
he wouldn't speak.
I had three pictures,
of Marsha, of Kate,
and Amélie,
but he's so arrogant.
He just looked at me,
picked them up,
and turned them over.
I could see the cogs
going round in his brain.
He was thinking,
as I put stuff to him,
"How am I gonna
get over this one?"
His character is so arrogant
that he thought--
even then, he thought he could
twist this and beat this.
- But Bellfield's silence
doesn't help him.
Painstaking CCTV analysis
confirms Bellfield
in the white van
in Twickenham.
- That vehicle, not only
was it unique to being owned
and sold to Levi Bellfield,
it was the vehicle
at Twickenham Green
at the right time.
Once you have
the registration number,
a whole host of work kicks in
about what that vehicle's
been up to.
This shows camera offenses
on Twickenham bridge,
of all places.
Who's in that photograph?
Levi Bellfield.
* *
These are big stepping stones
towards building that case
against Levi Bellfield.
- Furthermore,
an investigation
into Levi's cell phone records
reveals something
more damning:
his cell phone location
matches
the location
of the murders perfectly.
- His phone was in the area
at the time.
There's a lot of phone work
as well,
because we can put an
individual's phone in the area
even if they're
not using that.
- With CCTV footage of the van
and cell phone data
connecting Bellfield
to the crime scenes,
the detectives had him.
* *
- In springtime in 2006,
he was charged
with the murder of Amélie,
the attempted murder of Kate,
and the murder of Marsha.
- He'd been charged
with the other murders,
but they didn't deem
there was enough evidence
for Milly Dowler.
[dramatic music]
- After a three-year
murderous crime spree,
Levi Bellfield
has finally been caught.
A trial date is set, but will
circumstantial evidence
be enough to convince a jury
of his horrific crimes?
[dramatic music]
- October 2007,
Levi Bellfield
has been charged
with the murder
of Marsha McDonnell,
Amélie Delagrange,
and the attempted murder
of Kate Sheedy.
There is insufficient evidence
to prosecute him
for the murder
of Milly Dowler.
* *
He is brought
to the Old Bailey,
England's oldest trial house.
- Everyone was gathered
in court.
All the barristers,
the journalists,
the families of the victims.
The Delagrange family
were there.
The McDonald family
were there.
And the Sheedy family
were there.
Everyone had come
to finally see justice done.
- Joe Collings attends
to give evidence
about her
harrowing experiences
as Levi's former girlfriend.
[tense music]
- I remember
our barrister said to us,
"Whatever you do,
don't look at him."
* *
But I remember
just glancing up,
and we caught eyes,
and for that split second,
I went back to that woman
who was scared stiff
of her partner.
And then suddenly, I thought,
"Actually,
I'm not scared of you.
"You're not doing this anymore.
You're not doing it
to anyone else, either."
- Joe gave evidence,
which was an incredibly
brave thing to do,
to stand up there
in the same courtroom
as the man that had done
those things to her.
[dramatic music]
- Eyes are such
an important form
of our communication
processes.
They communicate so much,
so you can see how,
in that moment,
Joe may have felt
quite trapped.
However, the courtroom
may have been a sanctuary.
It's a symbol of justice.
It may have actually helped
give her the strength
to actually look her abuser
in the eye
and actually decide
to continue to go forward
withholding him to account
for his wrongdoings.
* *
- February 25, 2008,
evidence linking Bellfield
to the white van,
the cell phone location data,
and Joe's testimony
is enough
to convince the jury.
Bellfield is found guilty
of the murders
of McDonald and Delagrange
and the attempted murder
of Sheedy.
He is sentenced
to life imprisonment
with a recommendation
that he should never
be released.
- Bellfield is in court,
and he's going to absolutely
detest this,
because he's the one
who tells the story.
He's the one
who drives the narrative,
and he has to sit there
and listen.
He can't use any violence.
- When the verdicts
finally came in
and he was found guilty
of all three,
it was just huge relief.
- It was an immensely
personally proud moment
in my career,
in my detective career.
- Bellfield was behind bars
for two murders,
but what about the 2002
killing of Milly Dowler?
Was he also responsible
for the schoolgirl's homicide?
If so,
a third murder conviction
would confirm his status
as a serial killer.
After further investigation,
there is a breakthrough.
- At the time of the
disappearance of Milly Dowler,
Levi Bellfield was living
at Collingwood Place.
Collingwood Place
is down a side alley
off a road that leads
to the Walton train station
where Milly Dowler disappeared
in 2002.
- The evidence, again,
is circumstantial.
There is nothing connecting
Bellfield to Yateley Woods,
the location
where Milly Dowler's body
was discovered.
Or is there?
- I was looking for something.
I can't even remember
what it was,
but I found just
a clean plain white envelope.
I picked it up, looked inside,
and there were two photographs
of myself, Levi,
and my horse
at the Yateley horse show.
[dramatic music]
- Joe contacts the police
to inform them
of her discovery.
Could her photographs
give detectives
the hard evidence
they have been looking for?
* *
The police take Joe
to Yateley Woods.
- Joe would go down
horse riding every weekend,
quite often down
at Yateley horse show.
Levi would quite often
come down with her.
So I said to Joe,
"Put your boots on.
We're gonna go for a walk."
* *
- As I was walking
with the police
across the common,
they asked me if I was sure
where I was going.
And I'd said to them, "Yeah,
I know where we're going.
This is the way we used to go."
I clocked the way they looked
at each other a few times,
and I remember turning
to them and saying,
"This is where you found
Milly, isn't it?"
- It wasn't very far away.
We're talking 400 yards
away from where Milly
had been found.
Myself and my partner
looked at each other
and gave each other
a knowing look,
as in, like, this is huge.
This puts him
in these woods here.
* *
- With Joe's new evidence
directly linking Bellfield
to where Milly's body
was found,
Levi was charged
with the schoolgirl's murder
and brought back
to the Old Bailey.
- Again, Levi Bellfield
was in court.
This time, he was already
serving a life sentence.
- Arriving at the Old Bailey
this morning,
the van carrying the man
believed to have killed
Milly Dowler.
- Emotions were running high.
Milly's family were there.
Journalists like me who had
covered all these crimes
right from when Milly
first disappeared were there.
- June 23, 2011,
Bellfield is found guilty
of the abduction,
rape, and murder
of 13-year-old Milly Dowler.
He receives a second
full life sentence.
- I hope,
whilst he is in prison,
he is treated
with the same brutality
he dealt out to his victims
and that his life
is a living hell.
- He is the most evil,
dangerous,
and cruel individual
I ever dealt with.
- To be part of a team
that put him away
the rest of his life,
I look back on that and think,
"Well, as good as it gets
as a detective."
* *
- For years,
I've blamed myself,
thinking that if I'd said
something sooner,
would he have been stopped
sooner?
But I've moved on from the fact
that I don't constantly blame
myself for what happened.
* *
What happened to me
will always be there.
It will never, ever go.
It will always be there.
He took my sanity,
my friends,
my self-respect.
He took everything.
It's still hard,
but I've moved on,
and I'm in the best place
I've ever been.
And it's lovely.
To find out the father
of your children,
a man you've slept with,
turns out to be
a serial killer,
it's a very hard thing
to explain.
You really don't want
to believe
that someone could be so evil.
* *