Milly Dowler: The real story of Manhunt's tragic murder case

Levi Bellfield has recently been blocked from having a civil partnership under a new law. The serial killer and rapist is known for committing some of the most evil crimes in modern Britain.

His victims include include Miller Dowler, Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell. The hunt for the Levi was famously dramatised in an ITV's three-part 'Manhunt', which aired in 2019.

Martin Clunes played the Metropolitan Police's Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, who cracked the case of Milly's murder which had eluded police for years.

While he helped to bring serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice, the full picture of Milly's killing would not be revealed until 14 years after the fact, due to Bellfield's cruel and sadistic tactic of withholding information.

13-year-old Milly Dowler disappeared on 21 March 2002 when she was on her way home from school in Walton-on-Thames, South West London.

On that day, she got off the train from school with a friend, a stop before Milly's usual one, and the two went to eat at a cafe. Milly phoned her father at 3:47 pm to say she would be home in half an hour, and left at 4:05.

She was last seen three minutes later, walking home alone on Station Road, just yards from Levi Bellfield's flat.

Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search, in which police called in helicopters and staged a Crimewatch reconstruction.

Milly's body was discovered six months later in September 2002 by mushroom pickers in Yately Heath Woods, Hampshire.

Her remains were badly decomposed, meaning that a cause of death could not immediately be established, and dental records had to be used to confirm her identity.

In addition, Milly's clothes and possessions were missing, and have never been recovered.

In February 2008 Surrey Police confirmed that Levi Bellfield was the prime suspect in the murder inquiry, however it was not until 2010 that Bellfield was arrested and charged.

By this time he was already serving a whole life sentence for the murders of 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell, and Amelie Delagrange, 22.

When he was convicted of Milly's murder in 2011, he became the only British convict to receive two whole life tariffs.

Detectives established that he had abducted, raped and strangled Milly, however the full details would not emerge to the public until 2016.

Despite his conviction, Bellfield did not admit to Milly's murder and would not disclose any information surrounding her abduction and death.

When he bragged to a fellow prison inmate in 2015 about the murder, police were finally able to tell the Dowler family what had happened to their daughter.

Bellfield abducted Milly in his red Daewoo car from Station Road, and sexually assaulted her at his flat there. He then drove Milly to his mother's house.

Here, he repeatedly raped her, including once in broad daylight over the boot of his car. He then moved her to another location before torturing her and finally strangling her to death.

Milly died on the morning of 22 March, meaning that she had endured 14 hours at the hands of Bellfield. A day after Milly's death, he burned his bedsheets and threw out the mattress in his flat.

He told his then girlfriend, Emma Mills, that his dog had fouled the bed but police believed it was a bid to destroy forensic evidence.

His red car has never been found, with police saying that it too may have been destroyed. When he decided to confess, Bellfield would only speak to female officers from Surrey Police to give them the harrowing details of the sexual torture he committed.

At the time, DCI Sutton told the Telegraph: "Everything Bellfield does is for his own interests. He will be enjoying inflicting more pain on the Dowler family and he will be enjoying the attention he is getting.

"The fact that he demanded to speak to female officers is typical of him. He thinks he can control and manipulate women, he may have been trying to get a reaction out of them when he was describing what he had done, and he always wants to be the one dictating what happens."

The Dowler family said that Bellfield's cruel tactics had placed them under "unimaginable" stress.

They said: "Now we know the final hours of Milly's life, perhaps her soul at long last, can finally resting peace."

Following their daughter's death, Milly's parents established a charity called Milly's Fund to "promote public safety, and in particular the safety of the children and young people."