Gemma Fox - Nine years ago a terrifying event happened to the Dowler family of Surrey in the UK. On the 21st of March 2002 Amanda Dowler, known as Milly, disappeared on her way home from Heathside School.The 13-year old had decided that rather than take a lift home from her mother and sister she would instead get the train with her friends and then spend time with them in the cafe at Walton Railway Station.
Milly disappeared at 4pm that afternoon in Walton-on-Thames in what was literally the "blink of an eye". Her friend Katherine Haynes was the last person to see Milly as she made her way around the side of advertising boards. She never made it home. Milly was to become the victim of serial killer Levi Bellfield, a nightclub bouncer who was, finally, convicted of her murder last month in a trial that dragged the entire Dowler family down.
Milly's body was found on September 18th 2002 in Yateley Heath Forest near Fleet, Hampshire. Her cause of death could not be determined because of the length of time her body had been exposed.
Despite police being right on Bellfield's doorstep and visiting the flat he lived in 10 times Bellfield was never apprehended at the time and went on to kill 2 other girls and attempt to kill another.
Six years after Milly died Bellfield was finally cited as her killer when police realised the similarity of Milly to his other victims. He was charged and stood trial this year. The trial was horrifying for the Dowler family who had their private lives opened out to the court. Throughout the trial Bellfield said nothing. Finally, on June 23rd this year he was convicted of Milly's kidnap and murder. Here was some closure for the Dowler family, or so folks thought at the time.
Back on April 21, 2003 a 21-year old woman called Lianne Newman of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire was sentenced to five months in jail. Newman had been found guilty of making a series of phone calls to the Dowlers, to Milly's school and to local police. In the calls she had claimed to be Milly.
Now, as the Dowler family should be looking forward and should be able to try and put the events of the past nine years behind them, the Guardian newspaper in the UK revealed that in the months between Milly disappearing and her body being found in 2002 an investigator for the News of the World newspaper had allegedly hacked into the voice mail of the teenagers mobile phone. The newspaper hacker(s) then listened to the frantic messages left by Milly's parents and her friends. Then something happened that has already been described as "heinous". When the voice mail inbox became full, the messages were deleted.
That act alone sent out false hope to the Dowler family that Milly was still alive. They would have no idea that their daughter was already dead and that the person deleting the messages was someone working for the News of the World. Today though, they and the rest of the world, found out what happened, and calls have already been made for the paper to be closed and for the chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, to be fired. Brooks was the editor of the News of the World when the alleged hacking of Milly's phone took place.
It's a dark day for journalism in the UK.
