West Drayton bouncer Levi Bellfield has given a "very detailed confession" to the notorious Chillenden murders say lawyers.

Compelling new evidence could link the serial killer Levi Bellfield to the brutal hammer murders of Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, six, in Kent.

Michael Stone is serving three life sentences for bludgeoning the mother and child to death in an attack near Chillenden in Kent, in 1996, in which her other daughter, Josie, nine, suffered severe head injuries and the family's dog, Lucy, was killed.

But Stone, who has fought a protracted legal battle to clear his name, has always maintained his innocence and now his legal team have said they will present new evidence on Wednesday (November 29) which they claim points to Milly Dowler's killer, Bellfield.

Now his solicitor Paul Bacon has claimed Milly Dowler's murderer Bellfield admitted the killings in prison.

He told a press conference in London: "We have now received evidence of a full confession by Levi Bellfield to the Russell murders.

"In the confession, Bellfield describes how he came across Lin Russell and her two children, how he attacked them with a hammer and his motivation for the killing.

"The confession is detailed and has a number of facts which are not in the public domain."

Michael Stone, pictured in 2001

Stone's barrister, Mark McDonald, said: "This evidence needs to tested by the Court of Appeal and, if believed, will lead to the largest miscarriage of justice since the Birmingham Six."

Levi Bellfield is a former West Drayton bouncer, who converted to Islam five years ago and now calls himself Yusuf Rahim.

Bellfield is already serving two whole life sentences for the abduction and murder of Walton schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002, the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.

It is not the first time Stone's legal representatives have pointed the finger at Bellfield - in 2011, his solicitor, Paul Bacon, claimed Milly's killer was a better match for the e-fit of the suspect issued during the police manhunt.

The claims also come months after a two-part BBC documentary aired in May saw a panel of independent experts re-examine the evidence and suggest another suspect.

Michael Stone's legal team say they have new evidence to prove he did not kill Lin Russell and her daughter Megan.

Levi Bellfield

Michael Stone's battle to clear his name

  • July 9 1996 - At around 4.25pm Lin Russell and her daughters Megan, six, and Josie, nine, are walking home along Cherry Garden Lane, near the village of Chillenden in Kent, when they are attacked by a man.
    Dr Russell and her daughters are blindfolded, tied up with towels and shoelaces and bludgeoned over the head with a hammer, leaving the mother, Megan and the family dog Lucy dead. Josie survives.
    The blood-covered bodies of Dr Russell and Megan are found lying close to each other in the early hours of the following day. Megan's swimming costume is found a few feet away.

  • December 1996 - Josie, who is still recovering from serious head injuries, moves with her father Shaun to begin a new life in North Wales.
    They have been living in the family cottage since the murders, but move back to their native Wales, where Dr Russell and Megan are buried.

Shaun Russell, with wife Lin and daughters Megan (second left) and Josie, pictured in 1996
  • July 1997 - More than 9,000 people are interviewed in connection with the case and over 1,000 statements taken.
    The inquiry stretches across the country and into France, Belgium and the US, and becomes the largest yet undertaken by Kent Police.
    A reconstruction of the attacks shown on BBC's Crimewatch programme results in almost 600 calls to the television studios and the police incident room.
    As the first anniversary of the murders approaches, detectives say robbery might have been a motive after Josie says the attacker asked for money.

  • July 17 1997 - Michael Stone, from Gillingham, Kent, is arrested and held at Chatham police station, then charged.
  • September 1997 - Josie attends an identity parade at Rainham police station near Gillingham to try to pick out the man who killed her mother and sister.
    Other witnesses, including a farm worker and a motorist who saw a car pulling out from a dirt track near the scene of the attack, are also thought to study the line-up.
    One of the nine men in the parade has previously been questioned by police about the attack before being released.

Milly Dowler's body was found on Yateley Heath common
  • October 1998 - Unemployed Stone appears at Maidstone Crown Court charged with the hammer attack. He denies the charges.
    Josie does not give evidence in court but the jury sees videotaped interviews of her with police.
    Stone is alleged to have admitted committing the attack in a discussion with another prisoner - Damien Daley - while being held at Canterbury Prison.

  • October 23 1998 - At the end of a three-week trial Stone is found guilty of murdering Dr Russell and Megan and trying to murder Josie, and is given three life sentences.

  • 2000 - Doubt is raised over the convictions after the Daily Mail reports that two key witnesses against Stone - Barry Thompson and Daley - were paid Kent Police informers.
    Thompson had told the 1998 trial that Stone described his failure to kill Josie as a "mistake".

  • January 2001 - Stone is given leave to appeal against the convictions.

Missing person, Milly Dowler CCTV footage at her school, the day she disappeared in 2002
  • February 2001 - Three judges at the Court of Appeal formally quash the murder convictions and order a retrial after the evidence Thompson gave at the first trial is found to be unsafe.

  • October 2001 - Stone is convicted a second time after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Josie smiles with relief and says "that's good" when her father tells her of the second verdict.

  • March 2004 - Stone's lawyers win the right to another appeal. Reacting to the news, Shaun Russell said he remains convinced there was no "miscarriage of justice" in the conviction.

  • January 2005 - Three Court of Appeal judges throw out his second appeal, with Lord Justice Rose saying new evidence that Daley lied under oath that he was not using heroin should not alter the findings of guilt.

  • July 12 2006 - Stone loses a High Court bid to bar the press and public from seeing an independent inquiry report on his treatment by mental health, probation and social workers before the attack.

  • September 25 2006 - The report is published and reveals Stone, who had a history of mental disorder, drug abuse and violence, had an "aggressive outburst" on July 4 1996, and told a psychiatric nurse that he wanted to kill his previous probation officer and his family.

  • December 21 2006 - High Court judge Mr Justice Royce tells Stone he must serve a minimum of 25 years in prison before he can be considered for parole, adding he feels a "whole life" order would have been appropriate but a 25-year term is the highest he can legally impose.

  • October 26 2010 - The Criminal Cases Review Commission refuses a fresh appeal over his conviction.

  • June 24 2011 - Stone's solicitor Paul Bacon says Levi Bellfield should be considered as a suspect in the Russell murders, following his conviction over the abduction and murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

  • November 29 2017 - Barrister Mark McDonald claims there is "new and compelling" evidence that exonerates Stone and suggests Bellfield was responsible.

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