Two new witnesses come forward after serial killer Levi Bellfield confesses to hammer murders

TWO new witnesses have come forward after serial killer Levi Bellfield confessed to the hammer murders of mum and daughter Lin and Megan Russell.

Bellfield, 53, has offered to take a lie-detector test over his statement as we can reveal he told prison pals he has killed at least seven people in all.

One of the new witnesses has been described as “highly credible”.

She says she saw Bellfield after Dr Lin, 45, and Megan, six, were murdered in Cherry Garden Lane at Chillenden, Kent.

In his confession, Bellfield even mentions seeing the woman as he drove off in a beige Ford Sierra.

He said: “As I left, I pulled out of Cherry Garden Lane, then out on to another little road where I pulled out in front of the lady.

“I kept looking in the rear-view mirror at her while also checking my face for blood.”

The woman is understood to have recognised Bellfield from media stories two years ago, and to have picked him out in a virtual parade.

The police’s original e-fit looks more like Bellfield than Michael Stone — the man locked up for killing Lin and Megan.

The Russells had been walking home from a swimming gala on Tuesday, July 9, 1996.

Daughter Josie, nine, survived horrific injuries.

Family dog Lucy was also slain.

Bellfield has pledged to draw pictures of the scene showing where he left the bodies and Stone’s solicitors believe he is telling the truth.

They say he provided a detailed description about the murders and of exactly where it happened.

The Sun on Sunday told last week lifer Bellfield admitted he had killed Lin and Megan to Stone’s solicitor.

It means Stone, 61 — jailed for life after being convicted in 1998 — may have suffered a miscarriage of justice.

The other witness is a jail inmate.

He contacted Stone’s legal team to say fellow lag Damien Daley — who claimed armed robber Stone confessed to him — had since admitted making up the story.

He has been in jail with heroin addict Daley, who is serving life for murdering a drug dealer in 2014.

Daley claimed Stone had confessed to him at Canterbury Prison when they were in adjoining cells.

Stone successfully appealed when another inmate who provided “confession” evidence admitted he had made it up.

But he was again convicted at a 2001 retrial that also relied on Daley’s testimony.

'ADMISSION'

A source close to the Russell case said: “The new witnesses are important and a huge breakthrough.

“One claims to have seen Bellfield at the scene, and got a really good view of him.

“And the other completely undermines the basis of Stone’s conviction.

"They have given Stone and his legal team hope that the conviction might finally be overturned.

“It is also highly significant that Bellfield has offered to take a polygraph test to show he is not lying.

“It is something that Stone’s solicitors want to arrange and use to show his confession is solid.

“It couldn’t be used in court, but would add to the case Stone should be allowed to appeal his conviction as Bellfield is likely to be guilty.

“If Bellfield does offer drawings of the scene, showing where bodies were, that would add to it further and would show a knowledge only the killer and investigating officers would have.

“Again, it would add significantly to the confession.”

Bellfield has become a fitness freak in prison as a new picture obtained by The Sun on Sunday shows.

He looks happy and relaxed at Wakefield Prison, West Yorks, before he was moved to HMP Frankland, County Durham.

The source said: “He looks younger and healthier now than in old photos, which he hates.”

Bellfield, we can reveal, is to be quizzed in weeks at Frankland Prison by Met detectives over the Judith Gold murder and teenager Elizabeth Chau’s disappearance.

'ADD TO CONFESSION'

He is serving two full-life terms — one for killing Milly Dowler, 13, in 2002 and one for the murders of Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in South West London in 2003 and 2004.

In his confession, he also admitted the unsolved murder of mum-of-three Judith Gold, 51, in Hampstead, North London, in 1990.

A seventh victim is likely to be Elizabeth Chau, 19, who vanished in West London in 1999.

University student Elizabeth was last seen on CCTV as she walked home to Ealing where Bellfield, of West Drayton, West London, ran a clamping business.

Our source said: “Bellfield is expecting the police quite soon. He’s saying he’ll speak to them and could tell them about the other murders he’s talking about.

“Obviously, he confessed to the Judith Gold murder in his statement but he didn’t go into detail.

“And in the case of Elizabeth Chau, if she is dead, her body has not been found so the killer would know where it is.”

We told last week how Bellfield had described in chilling detail how he approached Dr Russell and her two daughters.

He said: “I was wearing bright yellow marigold washing up gloves and holding a hammer.

'GUILT'

“My first intention was to attack Lin but I quickly changed my mind due to the screams and was worried she would fight back given the children were with her.”

He said he was splattered with blood and had thrown the hammer in the River Thames before flying to Turkey, returning days later to scrap his car.

Bellfield, who calls himself Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam, said he was shocked to find another man — Stone — arrested.

In his statement, he wrote: “It is clear Kent Police have their best interests when publicly saying they have the right man and it was not me. I can only inform you of my guilt.

"I know what I did. I’d even take a polygraph. I am not mentally unstable, nor a serial confessor.

"I’m just doing something I should have done many years ago.”

Bellfield’s four-page statement will be referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which can order a retrial.

Stone’s solicitor Paul Bacon declined to comment in detail before the statement is passed to the CCRC.

He said: “I am satisfied this statement is genuine and that Michael Stone is innocent.”

The CCRC said all evidence will be “carefully analysed”, including a bootlace found at the scene which police mislaid for 14 years until it was found in storage.

It is understood to have provided a partial match to Bellfield.

Stone’s sister, Barbara, wants an independent police force to handle any future probe.

Ex-Yard cop: Do a cold case review - Alan Jackaman, Ex-Met Police detective

BELLFIELD has offered to talk to police in this statement — and they should take him up on that.

If he is willing to take a polygraph test then that is a pointer to the fact he is telling the truth and should be done.

If I was investigating this, there are a lot of things I would want to verify.

He says he was working as a cabbie and had his car scrapped — can this be checked?

I would also want more detail from Bellfield on his car.

He also describes the lane in detail so I would want a site visit to see if that’s right.

His flights to Turkey could be checked, and he says he threw the murder weapon – the hammer – into The Thames at Walton. That can be searched.

The Met Police’s diving team will have searched the river at that point previously.

But it could be the case that they have recovered a hammer and not realised its significance and it is in a store somewhere so their files should be checked.

The ideal thing would be for the Home Office, Kent Police and Met Police to have a conversation and either for Kent to look at it again or the Met to step in.

The CCRC should act quickly and not kick it into the long grass.

But its role is primarily to assess whether Stone could be innocent and there should be re-trial.

My gut reaction is that Bellfield is telling the truth.

• Alan Jackaman was part of the Met’s first dedicated Murder Investigation Team in 1994. He led the cold-case review that convicted Robert Napper in 2008 of the 1992 killing of Rachel Nickell, 23.