"No Comment": Levi Bellfield Questioned by Surrey Police About Milly Dowler

Name: "No Comment": Levi Bellfield Questioned by Surrey Police About Milly Dowler
Uploaded: 2011-06-24T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: A Surrey Police detective puts it to Levi Bellfield that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler in March 2002. To every question but two, Bellfield answers "No comment."

A Surrey Police detective puts it to Levi Bellfield that he abducted and killed Milly Dowler in March 2002. To every question but two, Bellfield answers "No comment."

Subject: Levi Bellfield
Recorded: 2005
Runtime: 2:01

Content warning: Concerns the abduction and murder of a 13-year-old girl; the detective says he believes the motive was sexual; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This two-minute excerpt from a Surrey Police interview-room recording shows a detective questioning Levi Bellfield about the disappearance of a schoolgirl in March 2002, whom the detective calls only "her" in the excerpt; the case is that of Milly Dowler. Bellfield speaks, but his only words are "No comment", given again and again, and "No", given twice. The Telegraph, which dated the interview to 2005, published the clip on June 24, 2011, the day after Bellfield was convicted of Milly Dowler's murder, when Surrey Police released recordings of his interviews.

Historical Context

Amanda "Milly" Dowler, 13, disappeared on March 21, 2002, after leaving Walton-on-Thames railway station in Surrey. Her remains were found on September 18, 2002, in Yateley Heath Woods, Hampshire. Bellfield was arrested on November 22, 2004, in connection with the murder of Amélie Delagrange. On February 25, 2008, he was convicted of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and the next day received a whole life order. He was charged with Milly Dowler's abduction and murder in 2010, convicted at the Old Bailey on June 23, 2011, without giving evidence, and given a second whole life order the next day. In 2016 Surrey Police said he had admitted the crime; he later denied making that admission.

Circumstances of the Interview

The detective refers to "the last two days" of interviewing and to what a colleague (apparently named Sarah) has already told Bellfield. He puts the police case to him: that his actions on March 21 and 22, 2002, were not those of an innocent man, that he took the girl back to Collingwood Place and killed her there, that he moved her body afterward, and that over the following days he drove to Hampshire and dumped her body.

What the Interview Covers

The detective notes that over the last two days Bellfield has not denied involvement or said "It's not me", asks why he has not "shouted from the rooftops" that police have the wrong man, asks whether silence is "a macho type of thing" or would help his notoriety, and invites him to explain where he was. Bellfield answers "No comment" each time, except for a "No" to the macho question and a "No" when asked whether he moved the body.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The clip shows the stance Bellfield kept from interview room to trial: he did not give evidence at his 2011 trial. It also shows the case the police put to him years before he was charged.

Archival Importance

Released interview-room recordings of British serial killers are uncommon. This excerpt preserves, in Bellfield's own voice, his refusal to answer about the Dowler case, and the detective's account of what police believed had happened.

Important Caveats

Bellfield says nothing beyond "No comment" and "No"; nothing in the clip is an admission. The detective's statements are allegations put to him in interview, though the jury later convicted Bellfield. The 2005 date comes from The Telegraph's description and has not been independently confirmed. Several of the detective's phrases are unclear in the machine transcript and are not quoted. No captions were available; the transcript rests on two machine passes of the same footage.

Detective: That was at the very beginning of the interview. Do you remember that?