A new documentary series has been released, exploring the crimes of serial killer and sex offender Levi Bellfield. The Amazon series features DCI Colin Sutton, who led the team investigating Bellfield’s crimes.
In 2008, Bellfield was found guilty of the murders of Marsha McDonnell in 2003 and Amélie Delagrange in 2004, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy in 2004, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2011, Bellfield was further found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler in 2002. In both cases, the judges imposed a whole life order, meaning that Bellfield will serve the sentence without the possibility of parole. He is the first prisoner to receive two whole-life orders. Bellfield was also charged with three counts of rape, one of kidnapping, and one count of assault, and has confessed to the 1996 murders of Lin and Meghan Russell. He has been investigated in connection with countless other attacks and murders, but no charges have been filed.
As of 2020, Bellfield has been at HMP Frankland in County Durham, which houses some of the UK’s most dangerous criminals under maximum security.
Bellfield has frequently made false confessions to other unsolved crimes. It was revealed by police that he may have lied so he could inflict pain on the victims’ families.
The murderer made headlines after becoming engaged to a female pen-pal and visitor, who said she doesn’t judge him for his past and that he’s “not a monster”.
The murderer began corresponding with the middle-aged woman from his cell, exchanging gifts and poems before speaking over the phone.
The unnamed woman, in her 40s and describing herself as “very educated and intelligent”, visited him in prison, where they shared “kisses and cuddles,” and he proposed.
Although he had previously won the right to challenge a governor’s veto of a prison wedding, his application was ultimately thwarted by changes to the law.
Under the Victims and Prisoners Act, the Government officially banned prisoners serving whole-life orders from marrying or forming civil partnerships behind bars.
In 2020, he reportedly lost his privileges to watch television and wear his own clothes in prison after engaging in a brawl with two other inmates.
The former bouncer was said to have been placed on lockdown and allegedly boasted about beating the duo who had provoked him over his past crimes.
In 2018, reports emerged that Bellfield had taken up a job as a prison binman, sorting through recycling and rubbish.