07 October 2023 , 09:59
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The conviction man who has spent 26 years in jail for the murders of a mother and daughter is being reviewed following an alleged confession by the serial killer Levi Bellfield.
Michael Stone has for decades been punished for the deaths of Lin Russell, 45, and her five-year-old daughter Megan, and the attempted murder of Lin’s eldest child, Josie, then nine, with a hammer. Just three months ago, the criminal cases review commission (CCRC) said there was no realistic prospect of Stone’s conviction being overturned at the court of appeal.
But now the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice has said it will begin a fresh review. Stone's lawyers said the CCRC failed to order new forensic tests on DNA strands found at the crime scene.
Lin Russell and daughter Megan were killed along a country lane as they walked home from a swimming gala in July 1996 (PA)Sex offender Levi Bellfield, currently in jail for the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange, the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy and the murder of Milly Dowler, has allegedly made multiple confessions from his cell in recent years to the Russell killings, it is reported.
So, now the CCRC has told Stone’s lawyers it is "prepared to look at the points raised" and any "additional submissions" as part of a review of the Russell killings in 1996. Lin, Megan and Josie were tied up and savagely beaten with a hammer while walking home from a swimming gala in Chillenden, Kent. Lin, Megan and their dog were killed within minutes but Josie survived.
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Stone was arrested one year later and his subsequent conviction had rested almost entirely on his alleged cell confession to Damien Daley, a criminal on remand who was in a segregation cell in Canterbury prison. He claimed that Stone told him through a heating pipe that went between their cells that he had attacked the mother and her children.
Levi Bellfield is alleged to have confessed to the murders of Lin and Megan Russell (PA)
Stone was found guilty of the killings at Maidstone Crown Court in 1998 (Press Association)But Stone, now 63, has insisted throughout that he had made no such admissions and, in 2017 and 2019, Bellfield, 55, allegedly confessed to, respectively, a fellow prisoner and Stone’s lawyers that he had been responsible for the murders. Bellfield is currently serving three life sentences. This year, the monster also allegedly confessed to the murder of Elizabeth Chau, a 19-year-old Vietnamese national studying in London, who was abducted in April 1999 from Ealing, west London.
Mark McDonald, the barrister who has represented Stone for two decades, told The Guardian: “Michael Stone has been in prison for 26 years for a crime he did not commit. I am really pleased that the CCRC have reconsidered their decision and decided to review this case again.
“I first put my application into the CCRC in 2017 after another man admitted he carried out the crime that Stone is in prison for. It took six years to make a decision. It is essential that this review is undertaken as a matter of urgency and Stone’s conviction is referred back to the court of appeal. The decision as to whether Bellfield is credible needs to be taken by the court of appeal not the CCRC."
Lin is pictured with older daughter Josie, who survived the attack in 1996 (PA)There was no forensic evidence linking Stone to the murder, nor witnesses. His initial conviction was overturned in 2001 after another prisoner, who had claimed during the trial to have heard Stone confess to the crimes, subsequently admitted to the Mirror that he had been telling the jury “a pack of lies”.
A CCRC spokesman said: “We have agreed to a request from Mr Stone’s representatives to carry out a further review. While we can’t comment on the specifics of an investigation, it is not unusual for different reviews to focus on different arguments or evidence. Our commitment to thoroughly investigate all eligible applications extends to undertaking additional work related to cases we have previously reviewed.”