World News Today: Bellfield silent in Dowler trial

Bellfield denies abducting and murdering Milly

The man accused of killing Surrey schoolgirl Milly Dowler has refused to give evidence at his Old Bailey trial.

Levi Bellfield, 42, who denies murdering the teenager, told judge Mr Justice Wilkie that he would not be speaking in his defence.

Prosecuting, Brian Altman QC said Bellfield was trying to put Milly's parents Bob and Sally Dowler on trial.

Their 13-year-old daughter vanished in Walton-on-Thames in March 2002 while walking from school.

Her body was found in Yateley Heath, in Hampshire, six months later.

Mr Altman told the jury that Milly's parents' lives had been laid bare after the years of suffering they endured following the loss of their child.

He told jurors: "The grieving parents are not on trial here.

"That fact may have been forgotten when they came to give their evidence to you."

After Bellfield refused to give evidence, the judge asked defence counsel Jeffrey Samuels QC if he had advised his client that "the jury may draw such inferences as it sees proper", and he confirmed he had.

The court has now begun hearing the prosecution's closing speech from Brian Altman QC.

Bellfield denies abducting and murdering Milly, and attempting to kidnap 11-year-old Rachel Cowles the day before.

Mr Altman said Bellfield had "ducked the opportunity" to give his side of the story from the witness box because he had no innocent explanation.

He said there was a "wealth of evidence" about "his conduct, his actions, and his words at the time of Milly's disappearance" for which jurors would have wanted to hear his explanation.

"How, for instance, would he have explained, when tested, his behaviour on the day of, and the night following, Milly's disappearance?" asked Mr Altman.

Milly Dowler vanished in Walton-on-Thames in March 2002 while walking home from school

"We don't know, because he has declined to give us his account, tested and examined from the witness box."

Mr Altman told the jury that it was reasonable to expect that Bellfield would have wanted "to grasp the opportunity of explaining and protesting his innocence, but he has not done so".

"The reason he has not done so is that he doesn't have an innocent account to give - an account that will stand the test of critical scrutiny."

Mr Altman said the case against Bellfield relied on "many strands of circumstantial evidence" as abductions and killings were "seldom observed by others or seen for what they really are".

Milly was snatched from the street when the road was quiet, he said.

"No-one saw it, or saw it for what it was, such was the skill, brazenness and resourcefulness of her abductor and killer."

Mr Altman said Bellfield had given evidence at his first trial, but chose not to in this trial.

He said the defence had implied Milly ran away that day and fell into the arms of her killer somewhere other than Bellfield's "back yard".

Mr Dowler had been questioned about porn he had hidden that was discovered by his daughter, Mr Altman said.

And Mrs Dowler had been accused of "shutting her eyes" to the situation, he added.

He said: "As I understand it, it is going to be suggested that Milly had run away, she did not want to be in her father's company that day.

"So she hung around Station Avenue, only to slip away into the arms of someone else.

"What under-pins this theory? The father's lifestyle as well as the aspects of Milly's character."

He said the defence was advancing a "ludicrous theory".

And he added: "The defence is desperate to put as much clear water as it can between Bellfield and the prosecution allegation that Milly disappeared in a flash on his doorstep."

Bellfield, a former wheelclamper and bouncer, was convicted in 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.

The jury of seven men and four women was told that Bellfield gave evidence in his defence at that trial.

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