EVI Bellfield has finally made a formal confession to the hammer murders of mum and daughter Lin and Megan Russell — and revealed chilling details of the killings.
For the first time, the monster — serving life for the murder of schoolgirl Millie Dowler — has told how he killed Lin and daughter Megan, six, and tried to kill Josie Russell, nine, in 1996.
Their brutal deaths in the picturesque Kent countryside on a sunny day shocked the nation.
The document means Michael Stone — convicted of the Russell murders in 1998 — could have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
In a four-page statement made last month and lodged with a solicitor, Bellfield discloses in matter-of-fact detail how he carried out the murderous attack.
He even reveals that he took a hair scrunchie as a macabre souvenir — and that he killed the family dog after it bit him.
The statement says: “I was wearing bright yellow marigold washing up gloves and holding a hammer in my right hand.
“In my car I had a screwdriver, a lock knife, a hammer, yellow marigold gloves and a very long black bootlace.
“My first intention was to just attack Lin, but I quickly changed my mind due to the screams and was worried she would fight back given the children were with her.
“I approached Lin and held her right arm tight.
“She asked me not to harm her children. She was calm.
“Had she screamed I would have attacked her and left not harming the children.
“The situation just got out of control and the more she complied it just gave me more confidence.
“I walked all three of them off the track. I forced Lin to sit down.”
The statement goes on to detail how he killed Lin and Megan and left Josie for dead with appalling injuries.
He also states that he killed the family dog, saying: “I grabbed the dog by the collar and it bit my wrist. I hit the dog and killed it.
“There was blood everywhere and all up my legs, arms and shorts.”
The confession means that Bellfield is responsible for at least six murders — making him one of Britains’ worst serial killers.
The 53-year-old is already serving life for the deaths of Millie, 13, Amelie Delagrange, 22, and 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell.
He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.
As well as admitting killing Josie and Lin in the 14-paragraph statement, Bellfield also admits the murder of a woman called Judith Gold in North London in 1990.
He has previously admitted being in the Chillenden area of Kent at the time of Lin and daughter Megan’s killings.
But his new statement provides new details — and discloses how after the murders he stopped at services on the M25 in Surrey to wash off blood before going on to work his shift as a nightclub bouncer.
He said: “On my return I stopped at Clacket Lane Services and cleaned up.
“I used my T-shirt to clean myself and wipe my shorts. I used bottled water. It was warm and I drove the rest of the journey with no top on. I didn’t look out of place.”
On his return to his home in Twickenham, South West London, Bellfield says he got changed and went to work.
He claims that the following day he threw the hammer he used to carry out the attacks into the Thames near Walton, Surrey.
He then fled on holiday to Turkey with his then-girlfriend — but returned after just a few days to have the beige Ford Sierra he was driving the day he says he killed the Russells cleaned because it was “full of their DNA”.
He added: “It had blood stains on the seat.”
Bellfield made the 14-paragraph statement to solicitor Paul Bacon, who represents Michael Stone — the man currently serving life after being convicted of the killings.
Bellfield is now known as Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam.
The confession document will now be sent to watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission — which has the power to order re-trials and is considering an appeal by Stone, 61.
Stone has always denied responsibility for the killings.
He was found guilty of the Russell murders in 1998 but these convictions were later quashed.
He was subsequently found guilty at a retrial in 2001.
Bellfield ends his statement, saying: “Something like this has never happened to me, in the sense I’ve committed a crime and another person has been arrested for it.
“I apologise to Stone and the Russell family for my heinous acts.”
Bellfield was jailed for life in 2008 for the hammer killings of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy in South West London.
Three years later, he was finally convicted of the 2002 murder of Milly Dowler and handed a second life term.
Josie Russell was left with horrific brain injuries following the attack. Her condition was so appalling that medics who treated her at the scene initially assumed she was dead.
But she survived and had to learn to talk again. She later moved to Wales with her father Shaun, a doctor.
We told last May how Bellfield — who claims he has never met Stone — was being investigated over the Russell killings by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
A bootlace found at the scene and lost by police was rediscovered last year and sent for lab tests.
Bellfield previously told pals he was worried about his DNA being found on a lace.
The Russell family did not wish to comment on Bellfield’s claims.
Confession will be investigated
By Colin Sutton
THERE is a lot of detail in there that needs to be checked in this new legal statement.
I have no doubt that he carried out other attacks and I would say that with Bellfield anything is possible.
But the Criminal Cases Review Commission will not take this at face value — and have good investigators who will seek to corroborate or dismiss this statement.
Bellfield does describe a repetitive pattern of behaviour — in committing an awful crime, suffering, going on a holiday and getting rid of a vehicle.
That is exactly the evidence we relied on in our case.
But this could be him playing games — he likes to have the spotlight on himself and is a narcissist.
Russell murders
LIN and Megan Russell and their dog Lucy were killed as they walked home from a swimming gala on July 9, 1996.
Josie, then nine, survived the attack near Chillenden, Kent.
Petty criminal and ex-heroin addict Michael Stone was found guilty of the murders and attempted murder in 1998 despite a lack of forensic evidence.
He successfully appealed but was then found guilty at a second trial in 2001, based partly on a confession he is said to have made in prison.
Stone launched another appeal, which failed in 2004. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is now examining the case.
In 2017 Stone’s solicitors identified Bellfield as a suspect in the murders and claimed he had made his own prison confession.
Bellfield’s victims
LEVI Bellfield was finally convicted of two murders and one attempted murder in 2008.
He killed Marsha McDonnell, 19, in Hampton, South West London in 2003 and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in Twickenham in 2004.
Kate Sheedy, 18, survived when he ran her over near Isleworth the same year.
By then, he had already killed schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002 but was not convicted until 2011.
Bellfield has now confessed to killing Judith Gold, 51, in Hampstead in 1990.
He is also suspected of killing Elizabeth Chau, 19, in Ealing in 1999.
Other attack victims may include Dawn Brunton, 36, in Hatton Cross and Jessie Wilson, 17, in South West London, both in 2003, plus Sarah Spurrell, 23, in Hastings, East Sussex, in 2004.
