A wheel-clamper from West London has been found guilty of a series of brutal night-time attacks on women and is now the prime suspect in the unsolved murder of Milly Dowler, the 13-year-old girl who was killed six years ago.

Levi Bellfield, 39, was found guilty today of two murders, and one attempted murder. All his victims were targeted close to bus stops as they made their way home alone at night.

Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting, had told a jury at the Old Bailey in his opening statement: “These women were targeted victims of a predatory man who stalked bus stops and bus routes in vehicles looking for young women to attack.”

Marsha McDonnell, 19, a gap-year student, was attacked with a hammer in February 2003. After visiting the cinema with friends, she was captured on a bus CCTV camera, about to disembark at a stop in Hampton, southwest London, yards from her home. She was found lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.

In August 2004 Bellfield attacked Amelie Delagrange, 22, a French student who was coming home on the bus and had missed her stop. The court was told that Bellfield had battered her to death as she made her way home across a green, in a fit of anger after she had rejected his advances.

Mr Altman told him: “It was not enough to hit her once. You struck her again and possibly a third time. Amelie rejected you and she paid the price for that rejection.”

Bellfield attempted to murder the then 18-year-old schoolgirl Kate Sheedy on May 28, 2004. The head girl had been out with friends celebrating her last day of school when she was knocked down by a car. She told the court that the car had then reversed back over her.

The jury could not agree a verdict on charges relating to the attempted kidnap and false imprisonment of Anna-Maria Rennie, 17, a college student, in October 2001, and to an attack on Imra Dragoshi, 34, a hairdresser who was battered over the head as she waited at a bus stop on December 16, 2003.

But Surrey Police will now interview Bellfield over the murder of Amanda "Milly" Dowler, who was last seen alive on March 21, 2002, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Bellfield is thought to have been in the area at the time.

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, who led the Metropolitan Police investigation, said that Bellfield had a deeply unhealthy interest in women which turned to violence when his advances were rejected. He confessed to one former girlfriend that he would wait in alleyways wanting to “hurt, kill, stab or rape women”.

The 20-stone former nightclub bouncer singled out lone blonde females, walking home late at night. The attacks were ferocious — a powerful hammer blow to the head — and his motive was a hatred for women. He did not sexually attack his victims, so there was no DNA evidence or incriminating fibres left at the scene.

Nevertheless, both Surrey and the Metropolitan Police made errors and could have identified Bellfield as a suspect sooner, perhaps preventing later attacks.

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