UK - Lin, 45, & Megan Russell, 6, Chillenden, Kent, 9 July 1996

[CoverMeCagney]

On 9 July 1996, in a country lane in Chillenden, Kent, England, Lin Russell, aged 45, her two daughters, six-year-old Megan and nine-year-old Josie and their dog Lucy, were tied up and savagely beaten with a hammer in a robbery attempt. Lin, Megan and their dog Lucy were killed but, despite appalling head injuries, Josie survived and went on to make an excellent recovery.

Michael Stone was convicted a year later despite shaky evidence, and now, 21 years later, his legal team apparently have new evidence linking known murderer Levi Bellfield to the crime

Breaking news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42144445

Summary: http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/lin-and-megan-russell-murder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stone_(English_murderer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Bellfield

 

[mizzyshader]

Wow crazy. I know that there was speculation that he might be responsible for an unsolved murder in my home town of Melanie Hall as apparently he used to buy his drugs from the city and travel here quite often though I don't know what came of it. I feel sorry for the wrongly accused if that is the case.

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[CoverMeCagney]

Shamelessly cutting and pasting from Wiki:

Yusuf Rahim (born Levi Rabetts; 17 May 1968), formerly known as Levi Bellfield, is an English serial killer. He was convicted on 25 February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

On 23 June 2011, Bellfield was found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler. On both occasions, the judge recommended that he should never be released. He converted to Islam whilst in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Melanie_Hall

 

[Ironside]

Never knew much about this case. First reaction is was Stone actually convicted based on one persons word? That is shaky if so.

These murders really do sound a lot more like LB's MO.


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[mizzyshader]

Never knew much about this case. First reaction is was Stone actually convicted based on one persons word? That is shaky if so.

These murders really do sound a lot more like LB's MO.


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Me neither but yes I find it remarkable that he was convicted by hearsay. It says on wiki that he confessed to a number of unsolved murders but they don't know whether it's just to cause anguish to the families. This is the link regarding the local murder but I am guessing they didn't have enough evidence as I can't find anything else about it. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/levi-bellfield-could-questioned-over-7274166

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[CoverMeCagney]

Never knew much about this case. First reaction is was Stone actually convicted based on one persons word? That is shaky if so.

These murders really do sound a lot more like LB's MO.

Yes, apparently he confessed to a fellow inmate, but from what I caught on the news this morning there was no physical evidence he did it.

Bellfield is a psycho and I would not be surprised if he were guilty of other murders.

 

[mizzyshader]

Yes, apparently he confessed to a fellow inmate, but from what I caught on the news this morning there was no physical evidence he did it.

Bellfield is a psycho and I would not be surprised if he were guilty of other murders.

His ex wife said LB had an alibi for that day in Chilenden so I wonder if she made it up or if something new has come to light. I don't understand why it's come back up again.

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[CoverMeCagney]

Daily Mail (soz)

Stone was convicted on the evidence of Damien Daley, who admitted in the witness box that he had lied about his drug-taking exploits at the first trial in 1998. Daley said Stone confessed to the hammer murders through a heating pipe into the next cell at Canterbury Prison. There was no forensic evidence against Stone, who pleaded not guilty, and maintained throughout that his cellmate was lying about his confession.

www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/articl...ll-hammer-murders--lawyers.html#ixzz4zoWeQMYw

 

[CoverMeCagney]

His ex wife said LB had an alibi for that day in Chilenden so I wonder if she made it up or if something new has come to light. I don't understand why it's come back up again.

Might just be desperation trying to get Stone off the hook. They have "unknown DNA" from the crime scene which is not Stones, but surely they have checked it against Bellfield and other serial killers.

 

[mizzyshader]

Yes exactly. I imagine it would be easy to find out and rule in or out rather than scanning a whole database hoping for a match.

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[CoverMeCagney]

The jurors were told they had to be sure Stone had confessed before they could convict, so they visited Canterbury prison and took turns to lie on a mattress in Daley's cell while extracts from a Harry Potter novel were read out from Stone's cell. The jurors could hear every word spoken through the hole...

Yikes!!

More here about Josie's description of the killer and comparisons to LB:

http://michaelstone.co.uk/

 

[mizzyshader]

The jurors were told they had to be sure Stone had confessed before they could convict, so they visited Canterbury prison and took turns to lie on a mattress in Daley's cell while extracts from a Harry Potter novel were read out from Stone's cell. The jurors could hear every word spoken through the hole...

Yikes!!

More here about Josie's description of the killer and comparisons to LB:

http://michaelstone.co.uk/

Interesting read. Thanks. It says that MS was arrested when a psychologist called the police and said he recognised the efit. I have to say that the efit looks like a cross between LB and MS. It's very hard to say. I know that they have lost the shoelace but perhaps the finger print found could yield the answer. I guess time will tell!

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[CoverMeCagney]

Interesting read. Thanks. It says that MS was arrested when a psychologist called the police and said he recognised the efit. I have to say that the efit looks like a cross between LB and MS. It's very hard to say. I know that they have lost the shoelace but perhaps the finger print found could yield the answer. I guess time will tell!

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I'm sceptical about it being Bellfield, the case was last reviewed in 2010 and and I am certain any DNA would have been rechecked then, and probably since.

The shoelace was lost but male DNA was found on the ripped up swimming towel used to tie them up. It's not Stones and presumably not Shaun Russells. Now, I take my kids to swimming lessons regularly, all the stuff is in a bag, we use the women's changing rooms, and there would be no reason whatsoever for male DNA (except my husbands) to be on the kids swimming towels. So surely this unknown male DNA is likely to belong to the killer?

 

[Cherwell]

I've always felt very uneasy about Michael Stone's conviction. This was a shocking murder and the police were under a great deal of pressure to 'get' somebody for it.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Interesting article about possible links from 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...evi-Bellfield-Did-kill-Lin-Megan-Russell.html

 

[lizziginne]

There was a BBC/iPlayer documentary on the last 6 months or so, which was interesting and actually convinced me that Stones conviction is unsafe and Bellfield could be implicated


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[CoverMeCagney]

No1 story on the BBC news site:

At a press conference on Wednesday by Stone's legal team, solicitor Paul Bacon said: "We have seen a evidence of a full confession by Levi Bellfield that he has admitted the Russell murders and in the confession Bellfield describes how he came across Lin Russell and her two children. How he attacked them with a hammer and he explains his motivation for the killing. The confession is detailed and has a number of facts that are not in the public domain. We now have an independent witness who has seen Levi Bellfield close to the scene of the murders at about the time of they were committed and importantly we have identified forensic material from the scene of the murders which corroborates the confession made by Levi Bellfield. The Russell murders by Levi Bellfield fits perfectly with his modus operandi. He is a man known to attack and murder women. His weapon of choice is a hammer"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42144445

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Didn't realise Stone and Bellfield are in the same prison (Durham). Does anyone know whether Bellfield's mum has died yet? I have read a few articles suggesting he doesn't want to upset her by admitting to more deaths.

 

[Kasmeer]

There was a BBC/iPlayer documentary on the last 6 months or so, which was interesting and actually convinced me that Stones conviction is unsafe and Bellfield could be implicated

Yes, I watched that documentary; I'd been unaware of any questions over the conviction before that, and had just assumed Stone must be guilty, but the evidence (and lack of such) presented in the BBC investigation convinced me that it's unsafe at best. From what I could tell, the only evidence was the "confession", and I'd hope that that would not usually be considered sufficient evidence, especially as I recall it being presented that Stone was terrified of being stitched up in such a way, and had asked to go into solitary confinement to try and avoid any such claims of a confession. According to BBC article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42144445 :

In the absence of any forensic evidence, the jury believed the main thrust of the prosecution's case - three prison inmates who claimed Stone had confessed. One of the inmates admitted soon after the trial ended that they had lied and another was discredited.

The say-so of one convicted criminal (later imprisoned for murder himself: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/life-in-prison-for-murderer-28857/ ) seems very flimsy evidence to me, and most certainly not "beyond all reasonable doubt". Stone seems a fairly unpleasant person, a drug addict, who might well have gone on to worse things later, but I don't think he committed that murder, and think he just made a convenient scapegoat for a very high-profile crime which really needed to be "solved". As to Bellfield, well, if I dispute one reported confession, I would be a hypocrite to immediately trust another, however this quote from the BBC article suggests it might well be of more substance:

The confession is detailed and has a number of facts that are not in the public domain. We now have an independent witness who has seen Levi Bellfield close to the scene of the murders at about the time they were committed and importantly we have identified forensic material from the scene of the murders which corroborates the confession made by Levi Bellfield

 

[OrlandoJames]

Yes, I watched that documentary; I'd been unaware of any questions over the conviction before that, and had just assumed Stone must be guilty, but the evidence (and lack of such) presented in the BBC investigation convinced me that it's unsafe at best. From what I could tell, the only evidence was the "confession", and I'd hope that that would not usually be considered sufficient evidence, especially as I recall it being presented that Stone was terrified of being stitched up in such a way, and had asked to go into solitary confinement to try and avoid any such claims of a confession. According to BBC article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42144445 : The say-so of one convicted criminal (later imprisoned for murder himself: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/life-in-prison-for-murderer-28857/ ) seems very flimsy evidence to me, and most certainly not "beyond all reasonable doubt". Stone seems a fairly unpleasant person, a drug addict, who might well have gone on to worse things later, but I don't think he committed that murder, and think he just made a convenient scapegoat for a very high-profile crime which really needed to be "solved". As to Bellfield, well, if I dispute one reported confession, I would be a hypocrite to immediately trust another, however this quote from the BBC article suggests it might well be of more substance:

That is apparently what occured. Stone felt that other prisoners were trying to trick him into a 'confession' to secure a guilty verdict and was worried that one of them would simply lie about it, so requested solitary confinement to extricate himself from the other prisoners. If this is true, his conviction rests on the belief that, having been granted his wish to be put in solitary confinement, he then chose to make a graphic and very detailed confession through the heating pipes of his cell to somebody he didn't know - somebody who the police themselves have admitted is a known liar.