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Levi Bellfield: The 'Bus Stop Killer' and Britain's Double Whole-Life Prisoner

Jun 16
3 min read

Updated: Jun 25

Levi Bellfield preyed on young women and girls at the most mundane moments of their day — walking home, waiting at a bus stop, stepping off a night bus. A former nightclub bouncer and wheel-clamper from south-west London, he attacked with sudden, brutal violence, and his crimes would make him the first prisoner in England and Wales to receive two whole-life orders.

This article traces Bellfield's attacks, the two separate trials that convicted him, and the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler that sealed his place among Britain's most notorious killers.

Levi Bellfield: The 'Bus Stop Killer' and Britain's Double Whole-Life Prisoner

Key Facts at a Glance

Full name: Levi Bellfield (born Levi Rabbetts)
Born: 17 May 1968, Isleworth, London
Known as: The Bus Stop Killer; the Bus Stop Stalker
Victims: Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange; plus the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy
Span: 2002–2004
Sentence: Two whole-life orders — the first prisoner to receive two

The Bus Stop Killer

Working as a bouncer and running a wheel-clamping business, Bellfield used vehicles to stalk victims after dark in the suburbs of south-west London and Surrey. His attacks were marked by extreme, often hammer-driven violence delivered without warning, typically against lone young women near transport stops.

Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange

In February 2003, 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell was struck over the head and killed near her home in Hampton after stepping off a bus. In August 2004, 22-year-old French student Amelie Delagrange was attacked in the same manner on Twickenham Green as she walked home, having missed her stop. The shared method pointed investigators toward a single offender.

The Survivor: Kate Sheedy

Not all of Bellfield's victims died. In May 2004 he deliberately ran over 18-year-old Kate Sheedy with a vehicle. She survived her grievous injuries and later gave evidence against him — testimony that helped secure his conviction.

The First Trial, 2008

Bellfield was arrested in November 2004. On 25 February 2008 he was convicted of murdering Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange and of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation he never be released.

Milly Dowler, 2002 and 2011

The case that haunts Britain came earlier in his timeline. In March 2002, 13-year-old Milly Dowler was abducted while walking home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey; her body was found weeks later in Hampshire. Bellfield had lived close to where she vanished but was not suspected until his arrest for the later murders. On 23 June 2011, after a trial at the Old Bailey in which the judge called him a “cruel and pitiless killer,” he was convicted of Milly's murder.

Bellfield’s private life was as violent as his public crimes. Former partners later described years of rape, abuse and coercive control, and it was an ex-girlfriend’s call to police — voicing her suspicion that he was responsible — that helped focus the investigation on him. Detectives came to believe his catalogue of offending against women stretched well beyond the cases that could be proven in court.

Two Whole-Life Orders

Both the 2008 and 2011 trials ended in whole-life orders, making Bellfield the first prisoner in England and Wales to be handed two such sentences and ensuring he will die in prison. Detectives suspected he might be responsible for many other unsolved attacks, though a later review found no evidence to charge him with further crimes. The investigation that caught him was dramatised in the ITV series “Manhunt.”

The Detective Work That Caught Him

Bellfield's capture owed much to painstaking police work, later dramatised on television. Detectives connected the attacks on Marsha McDonnell, Amelie Delagrange and Kate Sheedy through their shared method and through CCTV and vehicle evidence placing Bellfield near the scenes, while information from people close to him helped focus suspicion. The case built gradually until it was strong enough to convict him in 2008. Only afterwards did investigators turn fully to the 2002 abduction of Milly Dowler, who had vanished near where Bellfield was living, securing a second conviction in 2011. The inquiry is often cited as an example of how methodical cross-referencing can expose a predator hiding in plain sight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRSdYDVaaFU