New evidence is expected to emerge casting doubt on Michael Stone’s conviction for the Russell murders and implicating serial killer Levi Bellfield, BBC Wales understands.<\/p>\n
Lin Russell, 45, and Megan, six, were killed in 1996 within months of moving to Kent from north Wales. Josie, nine, survived despite dreadful injuries.<\/p>\n
Michael Stone was found guilty in 2001.<\/p>\n
His legal team is to release evidence, seen by BBC Wales Investigates, which they say links Bellfield to the crime.<\/p>\n
Known as the bus stop killer, Bellfield, 49, is currently serving two whole life terms. He would launch so-called blitz attacks on women as they made their way home, bludgeoning them with a hammer from behind.<\/p>\n
In 2011 the nightclub bouncer and wheel-clamping contractor was convicted of abducting and murdering 13-year-old Milly Dowler as she walked home from school in Surrey in 2002.<\/p>\n
By then he had already been convicted of three other attacks in south-west London – murdering 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell in 2003, Amelie Delagrange, 22, in 2004 and in the same year attempting to kill 18-year-old Kate Sheedy, by running her over. She survived her injuries.<\/p>\n
It is widely believed by detectives that Bellfield is responsible for numerous other crimes dating back to the 1980s.<\/p>\n
While Bellfield denies any involvement, this is not the first time his name has been linked with the Russell murders.<\/p>\n
The mother and two daughters were attacked just before 16:30 BST on 9 July 1996, as they walked with the family dog the two-or-so miles home from school in Chillenden, near Dover.<\/p>\n
Half way along a country lane, they were accosted by a man, tied up, made to sit in a copse, blindfolded and bludgeoned with a claw hammer, one by one.<\/p>\n
When they were found eight hours later, it was thought all were dead.<\/p>\n
Josie was found to have a faint pulse. Remarkably, she survived. She lives and works as an artist in north Wales, having returned to Gwynedd with her father soon after the attack.<\/p>\n
A year after the murders a tip off to Crimewatch from a psychologist who worked at a local psychiatric assessment centre, led to the arrest of 36-year-old Michael Stone from Gillingham.<\/p>\n
In October 1998, Stone, a heroin addict with a criminal history, was convicted.<\/p>\n
In the absence of any forensic evidence, the jury believed the main thrust of the prosecution’s case – three prison inmates who claimed Stone had confessed.<\/p>\n
One of the inmates admitted soon after the trial ended that they had lied and another was discredited.<\/p>\n
Stone’s legal team challenged his conviction. A retrial was ordered.<\/p>\n
But one of the inmates, Damien Daley, then aged 26, held firm to his claim that Stone had confessed to him in grisly detail.<\/p>\n
The judge’s summing up to the jury was unequivocal: “The case stands or falls on the alleged confession of Damian Daley.”<\/p>\n
In late 2001, Stone was once again found guilty and given three life sentences.<\/p>\n
As the judge addressed him, Stone cried out: “It wasn’t me your Honour, I didn’t do it!”<\/p>\n
Since then Stone has failed in two appeal bids.<\/p>\n
When asked to respond to the possibility of new allegations in this case, Kent Police said that Stone’s protests of innocence had been thoroughly tested by the judicial system.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"