#milly dowler

Hannah Williams was a 14-year-old British schoolgirl who went missing during a shopping trip on 21st April 2001, her body was found on 15th March 2002 and Robert Lesarian Howard, a convicted sex offender, was charged with her murder.

On 21st April 2001 Hannah Williams told her mother she was going shopping but never returned home. It was initially presumed Hannah had run away and the search for her was hindered by a friend reporting seeing her long after she had been killed. During the search for another missing girl (Danielle Jones), Hannah's body was found in an industrial area of Kent and was identified by her distinctive clothing, she had suffered a violent rape and been strangled. Robert Howard, who had known Hannah since 1999, was arrested 8 days after her body was found. At trial, Howard was found guilty of the rape and murder of Hannah Williams and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 2015.

Many parallels have been drawn between the press coverage of Hannah Williams' case and other missing girls of a similar age who disappeared around the same time (notedly Milly Dowler and Danielle Jones). Hannah's case received significantly less coverage than other missing girls and it was argued this was due to her not fitting the more 'wholesome' image, Hannah had a nose piercing, came from a working class, single parent family, she had spent time in care and had a history of running away from home. Milly Dowler and Danielle Jones, on the other hand, were middle class and had stable family homes. Jones and Dowler received heavy press coverage and were featured on the front pages of national newspapers, in contrast most of the press attention, a total of 62 articles, about Williams' case got was when her body was discovered due to initial speculation it was the body of Danielle Jones. The Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman received 898 articles in less than 2 weeks. A police spokesperson described Williams' mother as 'not press conference material.' The National Missing Persons Helpline highlighted the differences in reporting commenting that often the media would ask for cases with a female victim, within a certain age range and from a certain background.

Amanda Jane ‘Milly’ Dowler was a 13-year-old British schoolgirl who went missing in 2002, 6 months later her remains were found in Yateley Heath Woods.

Milly was seen walking home from school on 21st March 2002, when she failed to return home she was reported missing to the police, no witnesses had seen a struggle despite Milly last being seen at 4.08pm on a busy street in broad daylight. Police initially suspected Milly may have run away. Despite multiple searches and huge amounts of reward money being offered there were still no signs of Milly, in June 2002 police told her parents she was probably dead.

On 18th September 2002 human remains were discovered in a wooded area of Hampshire, dental records confirmed them to be Milly’s however due to the severity of the decomposition no cause of death could be established. None of Milly’s possessions were ever recovered.

Levi Bellfield is a British serial killer also known as the Bus Stop Stalker and the Bus Stop Killer. He is Britain’s only serial killer to date to be sentenced to two whole life sentences.

Bellfield’s life seems to have be characterised by crime- he has arrests for burglary, assaulting a police officer, theft and driving offences. He has also fathered 11 children with three women. He was described by officers are initially seeming jokey and friendly but that his mood quickly switches to violent and cunning, ex girlfriends also echo this describing him as charming at first then very controlling. One ex girlfriend described Bellfield’s hatred for women, especially blondes, stating that she found a bin bag with a balaclava, a knife and a magazine with the faces of blonde women scratched out, she added that he boasted of raping women and told her he hated blonde women and that they deserved to die.

Bellfield was arrested on 22nd November 2004 for the murder of Amélie Delagrange, he was also later charged with the murder of Marsha McDonnell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, who late gave evidence against him. All three women were young and blonde and officers suggested they may have been murdered due to rejecting Bellfield, who likely approached them in his car. Marsha was murdered shortly after she got off a bus

On 30th March 2010, Bellfield was charged with the abduction and murder of 13 year old Milly Dowler.

#MillyDowler's family She has written a book, called , which features unseen pictures

How Milly Dowler’s family considered suicide pact if killer got off: Sister tells of shattering impact of brutal crime and brands police probe ‘a world class f***-up’ as she reveals unseen childhood photos Milly Dowler (left) and her sister Gemma (right) were photographed sat on a wall during a holiday to Brecon, Wales This was the last family holiday the family shared together and they were seen…