'Two blondes battered to death and three others attacked by the bus-stop stalker'

13 April 2012

A nightclub bouncer murdered two young women and attacked three others after stalking bus stops in search of victims, the Old Bailey has been told.

Levi Bellfield, 39, allegedly preyed on vulnerable women who were walking home alone after getting off late-night buses.

One of the victims of his three-year campaign of violence in an affluent area of West London was Amelie Delagrange, a 22-year-old French student, the court heard.

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Amelie Delagrange, pictured left, and Marsha McDonnell were bludgeoned to death as they returned home after nights out with friends

Bellfield is accused of battering her to death as she returned home from a night out with friends.

Miss Delagrange, who was working in a patisserie to improve her English, had missed her bus stop in Twickenham and was retracing her steps when she was attacked with a blunt instrument.

Bellfield is also accused of bludgeoning to death Marsha McDonnell, a blonde 19-year-old gap-year student, as she walked the short distance from a bus stop to her front door in Hampton.

The prosecution used computer graphics spliced with stills from the bus's CCTV to recreate Miss McDonnell's final journey on the 111.

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The two students were killed a year apart, but within a few miles of each other

The footage showed Bellfield's silver Vauxhall Corsa following the bus, and then slowly overtaking it when it stopped to let Miss McDonnell off.

The car is then seen pulling into a side road. Bellfield is also accused of attacking Kate Sheedy, an 18-year-old former convent school head girl, seconds after she got off a bus near her house.

She survived being deliberately run over twice by Bellfield in his car, according to the prosecution, but has been "scarred physically and mentally".

Irma Draghosi, a 33-year-old hairdresser, received severe head injuries after Bellfield attacked her as she waited for a bus, the court heard.

Bellfield, who also ran a wheelclamping firm, is also accused of attempting to kidnap and imprison 17-year-old Anna-Maria Rennie, to whom he offered a lift at a bus stop.

In the cases of Marsha McDonnell and Kate Sheedy, the jury was told Bellfield relied on the lighting inside the buses to pick out his victim.

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Last picture: Marsha McDonnell gets off a bus moments before she was attacked

Brian Altman, prosecuting, said: "It allowed the attacker of these women to see into the bus from the outside.

"Thus these women were not chance victims of a street attacker.

"These women were targeted victims of a predatory man who stalked bus stops and bus routes in vehicles looking for young women to attack."

Bellfield, from West Drayton, West London, denies murdering Miss Delagrange in Twickenham in August 2004 and Miss McDonnell in Hampton in February 2003.

He also denies the attempted murder of Miss Sheedy in May 2004 and Irma Draghosi in December 2003 and causing her grievous bodily harm.

He further denies the kidnap and false imprisonment of Anna-Maria Rennie in October 2001 in Twickenham.

Mr Altman said Miss Rennie had been "cooling down" at a bus stop after a row with her boyfriend.

Bellfield is said to have got out of a car, in which there was another man, and offered the tearful 17-year-old a lift.

Victim: Amelie Delagrange came to London from France to improve her English

She refused but chatted to Bellfield for 20 minutes before trying to leave, the court heard. Bellfield is alleged to have grabbed her in 'a bear hug', pinning her arms to her side and clamping his hand over her mouth.

It is said he then attempted to drag her into the car but Miss Rennie put up a violent struggle, kicking her attacker to escape.

When she broke free, Miss Rennie ran into a nearby park pursued by Bellfield, who is alleged to have shouted "whore" after her.

Miss Rennie reported the attack but heard no more until after Bellfield was arrested in November 2004.

Miss Rennie was then asked to take part in an identity parade and picked out Bellfield.

In December 2003, Irma Dragoshi was attacked at a bus stop in the village of Longford near Heathrow Airport.

Mr Altman said: "The defendant got out of a vehicle and ran over.

"He attacked her by hitting her with a blunt instrument."

Mrs Dragoshi was said to have been "spun round and smashed to the ground" and was left with amnesia.

Kate Sheedy was attacked in May 2004 after celebrating the end of exams with schoolfriends.

When she got off a bus close to her home in Isleworth, she became 'suspicious' of a white people carrier parked in front of her and crossed the road to avoid walking past it.

Mr Altman said: "Suddenly but very deliberately, the waiting people carrier moved, turned at speed and drove towards her.

"It ran her over in the mouth of the side turning, causing her massive injuries from which she survived, albeit with that she remains scarred mentally and physically."

Amelie Delagrange, from Hanvoile, a village north of Paris, was found with massive head injuries on Twickenham Green in August 2004.

She had been out for the evening with friends but on the bus home she missed her stop and was forced to walk back. As she crossed the green, she was fatally hit over the head with a blunt instrument.

Mr Altman said the chances of the offences having been committed by two or more men could be excluded.

He said there was direct evidence linking Bellfield to the attacks on Miss Rennie and Mrs Dragoshi and "compelling" circumstantial evidence linking him to the other three crimes.

Mr Altman added that there was a "pattern" to the attacks, all of which involved "the assailant using his vehicle in the hours of darkness to locate and target lone females".

The jury heard the link between the attacks on Miss McDonnell, Miss Delagrange and Miss Sheedy was the presence at each one of a vehicle associated with Bellfield.

These were a silver Vauxhall Corsa, a white Toyota Previa and a white Ford Courier van.

The jury will be taken to the site of the attacks next week.

The trial continues.

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