A woman has hit out at police after learning from a news outlet that serial killer Levi Bellfield had reportedly confessed to attacking her with a hammer almost 20 years ago.
Sarah Spurrell, 44, accused Sussex police of treating her as a “complete and utter joke” after the vicious assault in January 2004. She said that she only found out about Bellfield’s confession, allegedly made earlier this year, when she was told this month by ITV News London.
The then 23-year-old medical technician was hit three times over the back of the head in a dark street in the seaside town of Hastings, East Sussex, the Mirror reports.
“I remember it like it was yesterday... I was walking to my friend’s house to collect my stuff for work the following week and a white car passed me three times,” Sarah told ITV News London. “I thought it was a bit suspicious, so it drew my attention straight away to the fact there was something going on.
“I didn’t think too much of it until I literally was almost at my friend’s house up the road and I was smacked over the back of the head.
“Before I could turn around and look who it was, I was then hit another two times really, really hard to the point where I heard the blood hit the car next to me.
“Luckily a car came round the corner and pretty much saved my life and he (the attacker) ran off down the road.”
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Sarah said her attacker turned back and looked straight at her as she was driven to the hospital and recalls seeing “evil” in his eyes. She added: “Even though he was wearing a balaclava, his size, his build, his eyes they were evil - whoever it was wanted to kill me.
“If police had given me people to identify and he [Levi Bellfield] was in it, I would have told them straight away that was the person who attacked me whether he had a balaclava on or not.”
Bellfield, 55, of West Drayton, London will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of three murders. His victims included schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 13, of Hersham, Surrey, who disappeared in 2002. Her badly decomposed body was found six months later.
He is also said to have admitted killing student Elizabeth Chau, 19, who vanished in Ealing in April 1999. Police are thought to be considering a fresh search for Elizabeth’s body at a nature reserve in Kempton after Bellfield indicated on a map where her remains were buried.
Sarah said the attack ruined her life and she suffers from anxiety after police treated her case like a “joke”.
She said: “I asked if they could go and investigate the crime scene and they turned and said ‘we’re not CSI - the police haven’t got that much money’. I got really angry.”
Sarah said she used to be outgoing and confident but now feels scared and insecure. She said she was angry police did not tell her about Bellfield’s alleged March confession to attacking her. Sarah dismissed concerns Bellfield’s confession could be a case of him attention-seeking from behind bars.
“Police treated it as a joke from the start and didn’t go and collect any evidence even though I asked them to,” she added. “They have no evidence because they didn’t do any investigating. They failed me right from the start - who else have they failed?”
Bellfield was given a whole life term for murdering Marsha McDonnell, 19, in 2003, murdering Amelie Delagrange, 22, and trying to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, in 2004.
He was already serving his sentence when he went on trial for killing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who was snatched from the street walking home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002.
Bellfield was found guilty of abducting and killing the 13-year-old following a trial at the Old Bailey in 2011. ITV says police have not interviewed Bellfield over the alleged confession.
