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

[sl77]

I think this is another one of those cases where people confuse ‘things that make someone an interesting suspect’ with ‘evidence that they did the crime’, isn’t it.

Stone’s conviction has never sat right with me. But I don’t think he’ll ever be released. The public just doesn’t seem to have the appetite for miscarriage of justice cases anymore. My theory is the MOJ movement back in the day was almost *too* successful - some of the men being freed were either probably actually guilty, or if innocent then not exactly individuals the public could warm to. Meanwhile the state grew tired of seeing police and the justice system being (often rightly) torn to shreds, and set about rigging the game in their favour again.

Unfortunately for Stone he just missed the bus.

I watched the BBC documentary on this case again last night - it’s available on iPlayer for anyone that hasn’t seen it - and it’s difficult for me to imagine the corporation making such a programme today. Which is a shame as it’s excellent.

Not sure I agree RE BBC:

The Wrong Man: 17 Years Behind Bars

Fighting to prove his innocence, Andrew Malkinson tells the shocking story of how he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a horrific crime he didn’t commit.

www.bbc.co.uk

That was made last year.

Stone's problem is he was arrested during a time when police stitched people up and we didn't have the cameras/phones etc to help provide alibis and evidence.

The CPS should not be allowed to prosecute for murder based solely on a "confession".

 

[rvlvr]

The difference there though is surely that Malkinson had been freed - in that documentary, the BBC are telling the story of his wrongful conviction.

I searched the BBC’s website and the earliest article I could find mentioning AM was from 2023. Probably because it’s a lot easier to talk about convictions that have been quashed than it is to suggest that someone has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice - particularly if, as in Stone’s case, that someone isn’t palatable and is doing time for child murder. JMO, I think the BBC is a much more timid organisation today than it was a decade ago.

That said, I hadn’t realised, when I previously posted, that the CCRC are still looking at Stone’s case. Ignoring that the CCRC clearly isn’t fit for purpose, perhaps he still has a glimmer of hope?

 

[Cardgame]

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/2153305/netflix-chilling-true-crime-documentary

New Netflix documentary on this case, haven't watched it yet but getting lots of press.

 

[tes1984]

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/2153305/netflix-chilling-true-crime-documentary

New Netflix documentary on this case, haven't watched it yet but getting lots of press.

I think that's the same documentary as the one shown on channel 5 three years ago.

 

[norfolkinchance]

Stone was a alleged heroin addict, so it fitted the prosecution case that the culprit asked for money.
From all accounts the family were compliant, and said they could get more money from the house.

I am guessing, once Lin obviously realised there was far more to this than mere robbery, she told Josie to run home to get help.

In my view, the culprit used robbery as a smokescreen. He was there to kill.

Exactly this. ‘He asked for money which fits with Stone’. Absolute nonsense.
He asked for money to appear less threatening and to get compliance. His intention was always to kill, without a shadow of a doubt.
Stone is 100% innocent. Bellfield torching the girlfriend’s car is a huge coincidence / red flag.
Statistically, how many females are murdered with hammers by strangers? Very, very few.
How many killers have the anger to kill a mum
In front of her kids. Very few but I feel Bellfield falls into that camp.

 

[Cardgame]

I think that's the same documentary as the one shown on channel 5 three years ago.

Ah yes sorry I was confused by the article.

I have now watched it, it doesn't really cover any new ground than the bbc documentary made in 2017.

Except Levi's girlfriend is interviewed and gives him what she reckons is an iron clad alibi for the day of the murder. She claims to remember the entire day in detail because it was her birthday and apparently he never left her side.

 

[sl77]

I think that's the same documentary as the one shown on channel 5 three years ago.

I got quite excited for half a second...

 

[sl77]

Ah yes sorry I was confused by the article.

I have now watched it, it doesn't really cover any new ground than the bbc documentary made in 2017.

Except Levi's girlfriend is interviewed and gives him what she reckons is an iron clad alibi for the day of the murder. She claims to remember the entire day in detail because it was her birthday and apparently he never left her side.

Did they/she explain how she remembered THAT birthday, rather than another year?

I can't remember if she said it was a special birthday (30th etc).

 

[tes1984]

Did they/she explain how she remembered THAT birthday, rather than another year?

I can't remember if she said it was a special birthday (30th etc).

AFAIK the girlfriend had collaborating witnesses at the stables where she kept her horse. Bellfield claimed he was acting as a taxi driver that day for a man who was heading to Kent.

 

[tes1984]

Does the killer really spend 15 minutes at the crime scene?

What is the sequence of events? I'm struggling to work out what happened and when.

 

[sl77]

AFAIK the girlfriend had collaborating witnesses at the stables where she kept her horse. Bellfield claimed he was acting as a taxi driver that day for a man who was heading to Kent.

Bellfield wasn't "known" until 2004. I doubt he was connected with Chillenden until 2008+?

So Johanna couldn't have been asked about Chillenden for at least 12 years after the fact?

So I'm highly suspicious her friends remember the 9th July 1996 (unless it was a special occasion).

 

[Cardgame]

Bellfield wasn't "known" until 2004. I doubt he was connected with Chillenden until 2008+?

So Johanna couldn't have been asked about Chillenden for at least 12 years after the fact?

So I'm highly suspicious her friends remember the 9th July 1996 (unless it was a special occasion).

It was her birthday. I remember roughly what I did on a special birthday approx 7 years ago. No other birthdays in between. And even on that special birthday I only remember specific moments. If my partner had left the house for a bit no way I would remember!

 

[rvlvr]

They covered this too in the BBC documentary didn’t they. I think she said she remembered her birthday because she’d had a child that year. She said they’d been for dinner then went to a club (possibly the one where he worked?), and it was on a Friday or a Saturday - but the murders took place on a Tuesday.

Could it be that they did go for dinner then to a club to celebrate her birthday but that this took place the weekend before or after?

 

[rvlvr]

Came across quite a lengthy article behind a paywall in the Times about this case today.

Almost 30 years on, an 18-page analysis of the case by Angela Gallop, a forensic scientist, highlights missed opportunities in the original investigation and promises the chance to find answers offered by advances in science.

The CCRC was sent Gallop’s report last year and has since appointed its own forensic investigator, at the laboratory Eurofins, who is understood to have begun work. Among the exhibits Gallop believes could offer clues are fingernail scrapings from Lin’s left hand, which she said the files showed were “apparently never tested”.

Who killed Lin and Megan Russell? DNA advances may end doubt

Michael Stone was twice convicted of the 1996 murders but maintains his innocence. Now methods which cleared Andrew Malkinson may be used to retest the evidence

www.thetimes.com

 

[sl77]

I would really like to read all of Bellfield's confession letter. I've never seen it in full. I recall snippets where he mentions the Beige car. I'm sure he mentions stopping at Clacket Lane services on the M25 etc.

 

[sl77]

They covered this too in the BBC documentary didn’t they. I think she said she remembered her birthday because she’d had a child that year. She said they’d been for dinner then went to a club (possibly the one where he worked?), and it was on a Friday or a Saturday - but the murders took place on a Tuesday.

Could it be that they did go for dinner then to a club to celebrate her birthday but that this took place the weekend before or after?

Yes you're correct. I think the fact she did get the day wrong is a serious issue though.

Statistically it's likely to be Bellfield. I think for me the beige car, if it was reported missing in July 1996 would be the clincher. Is it possible to verify when it was reported missing?

 

[Macn]

Yes you're correct. I think the fact she did get the day wrong is a serious issue though.

Statistically it's likely to be Bellfield. I think for me the beige car, if it was reported missing in July 1996 would be the clincher. Is it possible to verify when it was reported missing?

I just watched this and I think she contradicted herself. She said he never left her side but she also said he left to put balloons up.

 

[TWK]

Colin Sutton was on the True Criminals podcast this week with Martin Brunt (veteran ex Sky crime correspondent) and Helen Fospero (veteran ITV/ bbc presenter) talking about Bellfield and spoke in detail about why he has very grave doubts that Bellfield had anything to do with the murder of the Russell’s. His points were

- he is satisfied that Jo Collins is correct that Bellfield was with her all day on her 25th birthday, which was the day of the murders

- he sounds like he thoroughly checked out her story and the fine details of it such as what they were wearing. It was also backed up by her mother, as they had stayed at her house the previous night

- She hates Bellfield with a passion, has no motive to give him an alibi, and had given evidence in court

- Bellfield had very dark hair throughout his relationship with Jo, inconsistent with the police sketch. He did dye his hair, but much later and when he was in a different relationship (Emma iirc)

- He didn’t have any connections with Kent at the time, and got access to the caravan near Margate years after the murders (this was from CS speaking in 2017 on the BBC documentary, rather than the podcast)

- In his statements claiming responsibility for the Chillenden murders, he gave details of an area near a sports club where he claims to have disposed of his outfit and rubber gloves worn in the murders, and says that he burnt them by the wall near the bowling green. However that wall was actually built well after 1996 and he appears to have used Google Earth to retrofit a narrative

- Still with retrofitting a narrative, the pathologists say that the murders were committed by someone right handed. Bellfield was left handed. In Bellfield’s recent statement, he specifically says that he used his right hand to kill them with a hammer. That is a strange detail for a layman to draw specific attention to, and CS says that it is an attempt to retrofit a narrative

- Finally, Bellfield is a narcissistic, controlling, manipulative invertebrate liar and that should be the starting point with any claims Bellfield makes. He hasn’t even taken responsibility for the murders he did commit.

 

[TWK]

Link to podcast Manhunt: How DCI Colin Sutton Caught Levi Bellfield

There some interesting other episodes on cold cases such as Suzy Lamplugh,

 

[tes1984]

I think for me the beige car, if it was reported missing in July 1996 would be the clincher. Is it possible to verify when it was reported missing?

Bellfield's ex said she thought he got rid of the car around March 1996, and got an insurance payout. I haven't seen this verified anywhere though. If he claimed insurance, there should be a record somewhere of the payout.