Serial killer Levi Bellfield was yesterday linked to one of London’s most notorious unsolved murders after his shock confession to the killing of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Homicide detectives are examining a series of admissions by him to “a number” of other crimes in the capital and across the UK.
These are believed to include the killing of Hampstead housewife Judith Silver, 51, found battered to death in a mews in 1990. The ex-bouncer, who ran a car clamping firm, is serving a whole-life jail term for murdering 13-year-old Milly, following his conviction in June 2011.
Bellfield was already in jail for the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, plus the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, when he went on trial accused of killing Milly as she walked home from school.
Police refuse to reveal details of other crimes to which Bellfield, 47, has confessed but he is suspected of involvement in up to 20 serious attacks including rape and murder dating back to 1980.
These also include the murder of 14-year-old Patsy Morris, who was strangled on Hounslow Heath, west London, in 1980, when Bellfield was 12. He is said to have confessed to murdering her but detectives doubt he is the killer.
Other killings which are set to be assessed by the homicide detectives include the murders of Lin Russell, 45, and her daughter Megan, six, who were ambushed as they walked their dog Lucy in fields near their home at Chillenden, Kent, in 1996.
Silver, a financial adviser, was beaten to death a short distance from her home in Hampstead and her body was found by a newspaper boy on October 20, 1990. Her belongings, including a bag with her money, were untouched by her side but a neck chain was stolen. No one was arrested for the murder.
The admission by Bellfield — who gained sadistic pleasure from extreme violence against women rejecting his advances — that he raped and killed Milly finally came during an investigation into whether he had an accomplice, Surrey Police announced yesterday.
Milly was snatched from the street near her home in Walton- on-Thames on March 21, 2002. Her body was found months later in a wood at Yateley Heath, Hampshire, 25 miles away.
Bellfield, who now calls himself Yusuf Rahim, lived 50 yards from where she vanished but did not become a suspect till he was arrested by police in London in 2004 for the other crimes.
Later it emerged that detectives investigating Milly’s murder knocked on his door but got no answer so they did not pursue the inquiry.
Yesterday Colin Sutton, the detective who led the investigation which convicted Bellfield, warned about believing his admissions.
He told the Standard: “He is manipulative and calculating. I’d be really surprised if this was someone who was intent on making a new start. There is always an angle with Levi, always something that he is trying to manipulate. I don’t know whether he is thinking down the line if there is a challenge to the whole-life tariff, whether he might be able to apply for parole. I think he could be that calculating.
“He is up there in the lexicon of serial killers. If not in quantity, he is as bad and as evil as anyone.”
The Met said it was looking at new information relating to criminal investigations but refused to give details.
A spokesman said: “We are liaising with a number of other UK police forces in relation to information passed on to us regarding a number of criminal inquiries. That information remains subject to assessment and for that reason we will not be discussing the matter in further detail at this time.”
Other cases linked to Bellfield include Anna Maria Rennie who identified him as the man who tried to force her into a car in Whitton, west of London, when she was 17 in 2001. The jury at his 2008 trial for the two murders could not agree and the charge was left on file.
At least four other women reported being attacked in circumstances that matched Bellfield’s modus operandi before he was caught.