LONDON (AFP) — A former nightclub bouncer was told he would spend the rest of his life in prison Tuesday for murdering two female students in west London and trying to kill another.
Levi Bellfield, who according to prosecutors "hated women", was found guilty by a jury at London's Central Criminal Court on Monday of committing the attacks between 2001 and 2004.
Sentencing him at the same court Tuesday, judge Anne Rafferty said: "You have reduced three families to unimagined grief.
"What dreadful feelings went through your head as you attacked and in two cases snuffed out a young life is beyond understanding."
She added: "You will not be considered for parole and must serve your whole life in prison."
Bellfield, 39, is the second multiple killer to be given a whole life term in Britain in less than a week. The sentence is reserved for only the most serious cases.
On Friday, Steve Wright, 49, was told he would die in jail for murdering five prostitutes in a killing spree in Ipswich, eastern England, in late 2006.
Bellfield was convicted of killing Marsha McDonnell, 19, and French exchange student Amelie Delagrange, 22. Both were hit on the head from behind with heavy objects near bus stops late at night.
He was also found guilty of attempting to murder Kate Sheedy, then 18, by running her down in his car and leaving her for dead as she returned from a night out celebrating her last day at school.
All three attacks happened in west London.
Police say they now want to question him over a string of other unsolved attacks, including that of 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler in the county of Surrey, south-east England in 2002.
Bellfield, who denied the charges, was not in court for sentencing.
His lawyer told the court his client refused to appear because of the "extraordinary explosion of bad publicity" linking him to other crimes.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
