Serial killer Levi Bellfield has signed a fresh confession saying he murdered Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, a lawyer has said.
Michael Stone is serving three life sentences in prison for the murder of Ms Russell, 45, and her six-year-old daughter who were found bludgeoned to death in Chillenden, Kent, in July 1996.
Ms Russell’s other daughter Josie, then aged nine, suffered severe head injuries but survived.
Image: Michael Stone pictured in 2001
Stone has always protested his innocence over the attack.
Bellfield is currently serving two whole life terms for the murders of two young women, Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange, and schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Bellfield claimed responsibility for the Chillenden murders last year but later retracted the statement.
Stone’s solicitor Paul Bacon has said Bellfield has now written and signed a fresh confession, saying the move “must have taken some courage and considerable soul-searching”.
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“It will, hopefully, bring closure to the families involved,” he said.
“Now, the police need to respond and investigate these crimes afresh, to affect closure for these families.”
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Bellfield’s solicitor Theresa Clark told the BBC that her client “needs to take responsibility”.
Image: Lin Russell and daughter Megan
She said that he confessed after engaging with prison psychologists.
“At the end of the day, the instruction from my client is clear. He’s adamant that he did it,” she said.
“My client says ‘I did it, I need to take responsibility for what I’ve done’.”
It is understood the alleged confession has been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Kent Police said its position on Stone’s conviction remains unchanged.
Bellfield was given a whole life term for murdering 19-year-old Ms McDonnell in 2003 and 22-year-old Ms Delagrange in 2004, as well as trying to murder 18-year-old Kate Sheedy in the same year.
Image: Marsha McDonnell
Image: Amelie Delagrange
He was already serving his sentence when he went on trial for killing 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who was snatched while walking home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002.
Image: Milly Dowler
Bellfield was found guilty of abducting and killing the schoolgirl following a trial at the Old Bailey in 2011.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as the British car firm works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The US president has introduced a 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into the country, which came into force on Thursday.
JLR, one of the country’s biggest carmakers, exported about 38,000 cars to the US in the third quarter of 2024 – almost equal to the amount sold to the UK and the EU combined.
In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for the company behind the Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover brands said: “The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands.
“As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”
The company released a statement last week before Mr Trump announced a “baseline” 10% tariff on goods from around the world, which kicked in on Saturday morning, on what he called “liberation day”.
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JLR reassured customers its business was “resilient” and “accustomed to changing market conditions”.
“Our priorities now are delivering for our clients around the world and addressing these new US trading terms,” the firm said.
Trading across the world has been hit by Mr Trump’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.
All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.
Cars are the top product exported from the UK to the US, with exports worth £8.3bn in the year to the end of September 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
For UK carmakers, the US is the second largest export market behind the European Union.
Industry groups have previously warned the tariffs will force firms to rethink where they trade, while a report by thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research said more than 25,000 car manufacturing jobs in the UK could be at risk.
Two people have died following a fire at a caravan site near Skegness, Lincolnshire Police have said.
In a statement, officers said they were called at 3.53am on Saturday to a report of a blaze at Golden Beach Holiday Park in the village of Ingoldmells.
Fire and rescue crews attended the scene, and two people were found to have died.
They were reported to be a 10-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man.
The force said the victims’ next of kin have been informed and will be supported by specially trained officers.
Officers are trying to establish the exact cause of the blaze.
“We are at the very early stages of our investigation and as such we are keeping an open mind,” the force said.
A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.
“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.
The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.
In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.
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Image: Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.
It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.