Bellfield Denies Admitting Milly Dowler Murder

Levi Bellfield has denied confessing to the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, his solicitor has confirmed to Sky News.

Julie Cooper said Bellfield has made a legal complaint to Surrey Police over the matter, challenging the force to prove he admitted killing Milly.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "According to his solicitor, he was formally interviewed in prison about other murders that police suspect him of.

"At which point, at the end of that interview, the tape recorder was turned off and the solicitor claims he was then informally asked about Milly Dowler.

"This apparently is the point where he is said to have confessed.

"He is arguing through his solicitor that the police secretly recorded this informal questioning about Milly - and on that basis he's saying he has the right to challenge them and ask for any secret recordings they made."

Surrey Police said it would not be responding to the development, and told Sky News it stands by its original statement.

The force said: "During this investigation police have also spoken to Levi Bellfield and he has admitted his responsibility for the abduction, rape and murder of Milly Dowler.

"Despite his conviction, this is the first time Bellfield has made such admissions to police."

Milly, 13, was abducted while walking from school to her home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002.

Her body was found 25 miles away in Yateley Heath, Hampshire, and experts were unable to say how she died.

Bellfield was convicted of her murder in 2011 and given a whole-life prison sentence.

Colin Sutton, a former Metropolitan Police detective who sat in on interviews with Bellfield, told Sky News Tonight the complaint was "despicable".

He said: "I've said many times I'll never be surprised by anything he does, but he may have achieved it this time.

"This is just beyond anything I could consider that he would do.

"I know he's wicked, I know he's cruel, but to toy with the families in this way, the Dowlers in particular, is just beyond belief."

Earlier this week, Milly's family spoke of their "torment and pain" in the wake of what police said was Bellfield's confession.

Police said he had given them a harrowing account of the final hours of Milly's life: how he had kidnapped her, assaulted her at his flat near Walton station and then driven her to his mother's house where he raped her.

He had told how he raped and tortured her at another location for a number of hours before strangling her to death.

Bellfield lived 50 metres from where Milly went missing but he did not become a suspect until he was arrested by police in London for the other crimes in 2004.

When Bellfield went on trial seven years later, he was already in jail for the murders of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy.