As has been suspected for a long time now, it would seem that it was Levi Bellfield who murdered Lin and Megan Russell.
Levi Bellfield has admitted to murdering mother and daughter Lin and Megan Russell in 1996, it was reported last night.
In a harrowing four-page statement, the serial killer has formally confessed to the murders, providing chilling details of the attack.
Lin, 45, her two daughters, six-year-old Megan and nine-year-old Josie, as well as their dog Lucy, were tied up and savagely beaten with a hammer in the brutal attack. Only Josie survived, sustaining horrific injuries.
The deaths in the picturesque village of Chillenden, Kent 26 years ago shocked the nation.
So, for 26 years an innocent man has been languishing behind bars for a murder he did not commit. So much for our justice system. Someone, somewhere needs to pay for this rank incompetence. Someone needs to go to jail for it, for this is the only way we will see an end to this kind of injustice – make those responsible serve the same amount of time as their victim.
This is why I will never be persuaded to support reintroduction of capital punishment. The state is so incompetent it cannot be trusted to get it right.
I’ve always felt this one to be a miscarriage of justice on the scale of Barry George and Colin Stagg. Also Jeremy Bamber.
Wrote a post on it for the week ahead. A notable feature is the mishandling of (and lying about) a crucial piece of evidence on the part of the cops…
The shoelace? That got ‘lost.’
Yes. Then was found. But was tested to destruction. And might now have been found again!
Given chain of evidence is so utterly crucial, it’s suspicious beyond imagining.
It was cases like this that changed my mind about the death penalty a long time ago.
I also agree that we should take those responsible out of retirement, as they usually are and put them inside.
Problem is it’s never just one person, it is a team. So not sure how we can handle it.
It was the Birmingham bombing case that made the case for me. The police corruption led to innocent people being jailed and they stayed inside even when the real perp admitted to it. One of them died in prion. This was unforgivable.
None of the Birmingham Six died in prison. You might be thinking of Guiseppe Conlon, father of Gerard Conlon of the Guildford Four.
Yeah, you are right. That said, the point made still stands.
“Stone was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in 1981 for attacking a man with a hammer during a robbery.[9] He then received a four-and-a-half year sentence for stabbing a friend while he slept in 1983, an attack that penetrated the friend’s lung and nearly killed him, and he tried to wound a police officer in the eye after this arrest…”
“He was then sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for two armed robberies in Maidstone and Brighton respectively during the same week in 1986…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stone_(criminal)
If it was a miscarriage of justice it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.
Except that the real killer went free?
That’s all rather irrelevant. If he did time for those crimes he did commit, then that is that. To imprison him for one he didn’t commit isn’t justice and as Julia points out, the real killer then remains at large – although in this case, got caught for another offence.
Just like the ‘Free George Davis’ campaign in the ’70’s. Plod knew he was a villian but couldn’t get him ‘bang to rights’ as it were, so fitted him up with the Ilford Electricity Board job. Big campaign to get him ‘justice – Slogan all over the place, Headingley cricket pitch dug up,Roger Daltrey wearing a “Free George Davis” T shirt etc. Soon after being released on appeal he was nicked for robbing the Bank of Cyprus in Seven Sisters Road.
This has changed my mid about executing filth. Mind you the guy who was wrongly convicted was no angel. The cops who at that time were fitting him up need to be investigated and charged.
Let’s keep our powder dry on this one. Bellfield is an arch-manipulator. He will never be released and he knows that the police and media will jump to his every whim.
I have personal knowledge of this case, my niece (in-law) was one of his victims and thankfully she survived with horrible injuries. I’m also friends with the Chief Super who investigated the Milly Dowler case.
I’m not saying he’s innocent in the Russell case but let’s not rush to judgement.
My view of the death penalty was also changed by cases like this – to execute one innocent person is one too many.
I would suggest more whole-of-life sentences for such murders, but with the opportunity for the convicted person to opt for euthanasia at any time – that way, the State’s not killing them and an innocent could continue to fight the imperfect system for some belated justice.
Coppers rarely fit up the genuinely innocent since it’s hard to get a jury to buy their line of bullshit at the best of times. Hence, find some scrote they’ve got a hard on for and fit him up. Job done, case closed and the only one harmed (in the eyes of the coppers) is some scrote that was a nuisance to them anyway and “deserved it”.
As is getting a con to cough for a bunch of other crimes that he didn’t do in order to clear up the crime statistics as long as the judge is told that his “cooperation” should be taken into consideration during sentencing – i.e. only give him a light sentence for the actual offence committed with the others “taken into consideration” or “to run concurrently” and a nice letter when recommending parole.
Typical copper mentality. Anything for an easy life instead of chasing the actual scallywags committing the crime. Even if they do get caught, coppers often get the opportunity to retire before any inquiry catches up to them, so why should they care.
Nope. Until we start locking coppers up and taking their unearned pensions for this kind of shit, nothing will change.
Talking of failed justice, Keir Starmer, CPS and DPP
One Mr Starmer, as DPP, sent “Do not investigate” orders to Chief Constables [iirc Brown & Jaqui Smith did same]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z26jgBpfwK0
Is this why Munira Mirza, Johnson’s aide and chief policy advisor for 14 years resigned in support of Starmer?
We’re still waiting for Savage Jabbit’s report…