Serial killer Levi Bellfield, now Yusuf Rahim after he converted to Islam while in prison, was found guilty of murdering 13-year-old schoolgirl Millie Dowler in 2011. Three years before he had been convicted for the deaths of Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amélie Delagrange, 22, and the attempted killing of Kate Sheedy, 18, who testified against him in court. His reprehensible acts led him to become the only serial killer in the UK to receive two whole life sentences – ensuring the monster will never leave prison before his death. The horrific case will be reexamined tonight (July 30) as part of the new Channel 5 documentary ‘5 Mistakes That Caught A Killer’.
Milly Dowler disappeared on the way home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, back in March 2002 and her body was discovered six months later.
The teenager suffered horrific abuse after Bellfield kidnapped her – she was repeatedly raped, tortured and imprisoned before her death.
He was questioned a number of times and denied all ties to the deceased, however, experts who analysed his interview tapes claimed to have been able to spot the signs where he gave himself away.
Cliff Lansley, a body language expert, alleged that in just “seven seconds” Bellfield revealed he was a killer, during the 2018 Investigation Discovery documentary ‘Faking It: Tears of a Crime’.
While he reviewed old footage of a police interview, Mr Lansley commented: “We’ve got a head shake no, to say that’s not the case and a single sided shoulder shrug.”
In the clip that apparently gave Bellfield away, he said: “I thought he’s mad and I drove-off and left him.”
Mr Lansley continued: “If that was a bigger head shake we wouldn’t be worried.
“But when the head shake is less than a centimeter and it’s micro, then that’s an indication of a contradiction of the positive statement he’s saying about ‘I drove off and left him’ – so this is possibly a lie.”
He added that Bellfield’s “animated” response, where he used his hands to tell the story in an elaborate way fits with him being in “convince mode”.
Mr Lansley elaborated: “So when the facts are your friend you can just tell the truth but when you’re telling a lie you have to try to convince.
“So within seven seconds we have behaviour, which is indicative of a story that has been faked – this is strong evidence of deception.”
In another segment, he noticed a “micro gesture” where his head ever so slightly moved “down once and up” after being asked if he killed one of the women.
Mr Langsley added: “It was five frames, one fifth of a second, of acknowledgement of when he (Police) said ‘Did you Levi?’
READ MORE: Milly Dowler’s killer Bellfield hints at new link to double murder
“We got a yes from the head, this is a confession, the head is saying yes, he’s not speaking but his body is shouting.
“It’s highly likely that Bellfield had no idea that information was leaking from his body… he chooses not to speak but his body gives an affirmative nod then his body, he’s confessing, that’s a ‘Yes’.”
Dawn Archer, then a Professor of Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, seemed to confirm that Bellfied had lied too.
She played a clip where the killer recalled: “I say, ‘What the f*** are you doing?’ I just couldn’t believe it. I was in disbelief.”
Ms Archer said: “Surge features are outbursts of emotions, words like ‘wow, oh, gosh, what the f***’, all of those things don’t happen normally without some sort of expression in the voice.
“We don’t have signs of the emotions that should accompany this.”
They also claimed to have discovered “one contradiction” that had “escaped unnoticed until now”.
Ms Archer recalled the clip where Bellfield claimed to have left his friend behind and not taken the individual with him in the car.
She commented: “Levi Bellfield says ‘We got to the width restriction’, why use ‘we’, why say ‘we got to the width restriction’.”
Seconds later, he corrected his error to “I got to the width restriction”, but Ms Archer noted: “I find the whole account suspicious.”
Channel 5 true crime documentary ‘5 Mistakes That Caught A Killer’ will air at 9pm tonight (July 30).