Crimes That Shook Britain (South East England)
Murder of Lin and Megan Russell On 9 July 1996, Lin Russell, 45, was walking home from school in Chillenden, Kent, with her two young daughters, Josie, 9, and Megan, 6.
On a country lane, drug addict Michael Stone suddenly attacked, demanding money. The three victims were tied up, blindfolded, then savagely beaten with a hammer. Josie was the sole survivor, despite suffering catastrophic head injuries. And, as she recovered, the brave little girl helped officers create an e-fit of the attacker.
A year later, psychopath Stone, 37, was charged. A cellmate testified Stone confessed while on remand in Canterbury Prison. Michael Stone was convicted and jailed for life for the murders of Lin and Megan.
Josie and her father Shaun moved to Wales to rebuild their lives. Stone continues to protest his innocence from prison and has pointed blame at killer Levi Bellfield, who he says resembles the e-fit picture.
Daniel Gonzalez Daniel Gonzalez, from Woking, had fantasies of being horror-film slasher Freddy Krueger and wanted to be a ‘famous serial killer’. On 15 September 2004, wearing a hockey mask, Gonzalez stabbed Marie Harding, 73, to death on a Worthing footpath. Two days later, he killed Kevin Molloy, 46, in north London, then Derek and Jean Robinson, 75, and 68, in their home. Two other men, aged 61 and 59, survived attacks.
Gonzalez was arrested at a tube station on 17 September after buying a ticket with a bloodstained £20 note. Daniel Gonzalez, 26, was jailed for life and took his own life in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital in August 2007.
Killing of Billie-Jo Jenkins Billie-Jo Jenkins, 13, was killed by a blow to her head at her home in Hastings, on 15 February 1997. Billie-Jo had been placed in foster care with Sion and Lois Jenkins when she was 9, and foster father Sion said he’d got home that day to find Billie-Jo in a pool of blood.
Sion soon became prime suspect - forensics found microscopic spots of blood on his clothes and, in July 1998, he was convicted of murder. But experts said blood on his clothing could’ve come from Billie-Jo’s airway as she lay dying. After two appeals, Sion’s conviction was quashed. After two re-trials failed to reach a verdict, he was acquitted in 2006. The case is still unsolved.
Levi Bellfield Levi Bellfield hated all women. The 6ft 1in, 20st wheel clamper stalked and attacked them after they got off night buses. In February 2003, Bellfield bludgeoned student Marsha McDonnell, 19, with a hammer in Hampton, southwest London.
In May 2004, he drove into Kate Sheedy, 18, before reversing over her. Amazingly, she survived. Bellfield beat French student Amelie Delagrange, 22, to death in August 2004 on Twickenham Green. He was arrested when his van was caught on CCTV near the scene.
Bellfield was sentenced to a whole-life term for killing Marsha and Amelie. Afterwards, police linked Bellfield to the unsolved murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 13, who’d vanished while walking home in Walton-on-Thames in March 2002. Her remains were found six months later.
Despite being convicted of Milly’s murder in 2011 and handed another whole-life term, Bellfield refused to admit his guilt. But, 14 years on, he admitted abducting, raping and strangling the schoolgirl.
Hungerford Massacre A sunny August afternoon in 1987 in Hungerford, Berkshire - and loner Michael Ryan, 27, armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a pistol, went on a rampage. Ryan shot dead a mother picnicking with her kids in Savernake Forest and, by 1pm, he was shooting people at random in the town center.
By the day’s end, 16 people were dead, including Ryan’s mother and a police officer. A further 15 were injured.
Armed police swarmed the area, and, after evading capture all afternoon, Ryan shot and killed himself.
Murder of Sarah Payne Sarah Payne, 8, vanished while playing with her siblings near her grandparents’ home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex on 1 July 2000.
A huge police hunt was launched and, on 17 July, Sarah’s body was found beside a field, 15 miles from where she’d disappeared. Roy Whiting, a local paedophile and convicted sex offender, was the prime suspect. A strand of hair matching Sarah’s DNA was found on a T-shirt in Whiting’s white van and fibers from the van were also on Sarah’s shoe.
Whiting was jailed for life. Sarah’s mother Sara successfully campaigned for Sarah’s Law - which allows anyone to formally ask the police if someone with access to a child has a record for child sexual offenses.
