Levi Bellfield trial: Milly Dowler police chief attacks 'incongruous' justice system

The police chief in charge of the Milly Dowler murder investigation has attacked the justice system for "destroying" the privacy of the schoolgirl's innocent parents while allowing footballers to use superinjunctions to hide their own transgressions.

Milly Dowler police chief attacks 'incongruous' justice system
Mark Rowley, the Chief Constable of Surrey Police Credit: Photo: PA

Mark Rowley, the Chief Constable of Surrey Police, said he was "shocked" by the treatment of Bob and Sally Dowler, the parents of 13-year-old school girl Milly Dowler, during the trial of Levi Bellfield for their daughter's murder.

He criticised the way Milly's family were cross examined and their personal lives were thrown into the spotlight during the trial and called for changes in the way the justice system treats victims and witnesses during court cases.

He said it was a "most bizarre and distressing coincidence" that the Dowler family had their privacy "destroyed" at the same time as footballers and celebrities were at being granted super-injunctions to protect details of their personal lives.

He said: "There were some extraordinarily private details that came out and I don't understand why they have to be public when celebrities can get injunctions to protect their privacy.

"They make money out of celebrity, but here is someone who doesn't want celebrity, whose daughter has been killed, but is being vilified and humiliated. It completely incongruous and unnecessary."

Chief Constable Rowley's comments come after the director of public prosecutions said the case had raised "fundamental questions" about how victims were treated.

He said the Crown Prosecution Service will contribute to a forthcoming review of the criminal justice system by the Ministry of Justice that will consider "all aspects of victim support".

Following the conviction of Levi Bellfield for the murder of Milly Dowler, the schoolgirl's parents said they had paid "too high a price" for the verdict. They said they had suffered a "mentally scarring experience on an unimaginable scale" during his trial.

Private details of their lives came out during a hostile cross examination by Bellfield's defence team.

The family complained they were forced to defend themselves against allegations while Bellfield said nothing. He was even able to refuse to turn up in court to hear his sentence.

Mr Rowley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the way the Dowler family had been treated highlighted faults with the justice system.

He said "dignity and care that is lost in the treatment of victims and witnesses in sensitive cases is startling".

He said: "People see, sometimes, the care of victims and witnesses as a nice moral add-on. It can't be that.

"They're the lifeblood of the system and unless we treat them carefully and thoughtfully, fundamentally it undermines the system in the long term.

"Somehow we need to find a different way into the system that looks at, with equal vigour, how can we care for the victims and witnesses in these cases, while testing the evidence, and how do we protect privacy as well.

"I'm not saying never go personal, but if you go personal then for goodness sake, think about the dignity of the people involved."

He added: "If those are the rules, then the rules are not right. There needs to be stronger practice advice so judges are not worried about appeal by restricting defence questioning."

Surrey Police has already issued an apology for mistakes the force made during the investigation that could have allowed them to catch Milly Dowlers killer or even have prevented her murder in the first place.

The force admitted it had missed opportunities to catch Bellfield before he murdered Milly, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, and attempted to kill 18-year-old Kate Sheedy.

One of those missed opportunities came the day before 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly was snatched as she walked home from school when police believe Bellfield tried to abduct another girl, 11-year-old Rachel Cowles, just three miles from where he went on the snatch Milly.

Despite the Cowles family reporting the incident to police immediately, it was not passed to detectives working on the Milly inquiry and police failed to link the cases for three years.

The connection was only established when Mrs Cowles sent a letter to the Surrey Police chief constable, pointing out the similarities between the two cases.

Mr Rowley conceded the police investigation into Bellfield had not been "perfect", adding that he had spoken to the family of Marsha McDonnell, 19, who was murdered by Bellfield 11 months after he killed Milly Dowler.

He said: "I told them there is some uncertainty about what could have been done differently at the start of the investigation.

"There's certain things I would like to have been done differently in terms of the house to house [inquiries] and the linking of incidents.

"Looking at it, it looks very unlikely it would have taken us to the answer more quickly but of course I can never be certain about that, and that adds extra anxiety and I've apologised to them about that."

Bellfield had also faced a charge of attempting to abduct Rachel Cowles, who is now 21, but the jury was discharged and there will be no retrial.