True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

If you follow my blog or social media you'll know that I have done a lot of research into true crime cases and serial killers. I have an interest in Criminology and you may or may not know that I studied the subject at University. 

My interest in true crime has continued through the years and I guess it's just something I'm always going to be fascinated by, why some people do the things they do and the psychology behind it.

I was thinking the other day about my time at University and my experience on a particular course. I wasn't sure if I should share this story or not because I didn't know if anyone would be interested in reading it and I was a bit concerned that the person who it involves would be able to find it and to be honest, this isn't the type of person that I want to get on the wrong side of.

I've decided to share this post because I think it's an interesting (and a bit creepy) story and it's a reminder that you never know who's sat across from you at the train station or in a cafe or what people are really capable of.

I have to be very careful about what I say in this post because this person is easily recognisable and has been interviewed on TV and written a book so I've had to change a couple of little details but it's more or less the same story, so here goes...

My first course at University was Psychology and Criminology (don't let the glam image fool you, I'm a bit of a nerd lol) and I remember my first day, I was nervous, University was a big thing for me especially as I had worked really hard to get onto the course. It was a new chapter in my life and I had studied psychology and various courses at college so this was the next step. I was excited!

The first day I met people of all ages and some were professionals who had worked in the police force and it was really interesting to chat with people from all different backgrounds, everyone seemed so friendly.

My psychology professor was awesome and we became close (that's a story for another post lol), she wasn't what some people assume a psychology professor to be, she was heavily into all things Goth and she had the coolest office which looked more like a teenage Goth's bedroom. 

It was lunchtime and we all headed into the cafeteria, some students had arrived late and we were all sat around on different tables. I was sat near the window with a cappuccino and a sandwich whilst some of my new friends were buying their lunch. This tall, broad shouldered guy appeared out of nowhere and asked if he could sit down next to me.

He had some psychology books with him and I said it was fine for him to sit next to me. He asked if I was on the same course as him to which I replied yes and he asked my name. I told him and he said "Nice to meet you Jo, I'm "Mark", I battered my ''relative'' to death with a hammer''. As he said this he had a smile on his face and I was in a mix of shock and wondering if this was just a joke, a strange joke at that.

I don't know if it was the reaction he wanted because I just sat there stunned thinking it was a really crap joke and not really funny but he proceeded to tell me that he murdered his relative, been in prison and wrote a book about it. His book is on Amazon and it all turned out to be true.

When it comes to people who commit murder, there's all kinds of different circumstances involved. Someone could be a victim of domestic abuse and act out in self defence, others do it for pleasure and some do it as an act of revenge or just random killing.

This guy ''Mark'' wouldn't stop telling everyone in the class about his story and some of the other students thought it was fascinating, like he was some kind of celebrity. I felt a lot of bad vibes. I wanted to have sympathy for him because he had told us that his ''relative'' had abused him and his family when they were children but I just couldn't get my head around the laughing, the smiling and the constant bragging.

It didn't help either that he was trying to hang around the females of the class as well as trying to chat up the professor but she was having none of it. He told me and my other female friends that if we ever had any trouble with boyfriends we were to tell him and he would ''sort them out''. Some of the girls in my class were younger and seemed to hang on his every word, getting excited because he gave them a signed copy of his book.

He gave me a signed copy of his book and I noticed that some of the details didn't add up to what he had told me and previously spoken about in the class. I felt really bad about it, like I was being a bad person because I felt suspicious of him. He told us he had a young daughter and showed us her picture. She was around the same age as the girls on my course and he made some comments that were a bit uncomfortable to me such as ''She's got curves in all the right places'' (whilst making hand gestures towards his chest) and ''The boys are always wanting a piece of her''.

I think he felt uncomfortable with me because I didn't give him the same attention that the others did. I wasn't impressed by him. I just got on with my work and wanted to carry on with the topics we were covering. 

He'd walk into class and make a big entrance like he was a celebrity, sometimes he was late and we'd be in the middle of a discussion and he would walk in and start talking and announcing that he was there. He told us that he didn't really need to do that course as he knew a lot about psychology and he had made a lot of money from his book.

As time went on, there was a bit of an atmosphere between him and I. I wasn't rude to him or anything, I just didn't feel comfortable around him and he noticed that I was the only one not falling all over him.

One day in class we were talking about abuse in childhood and I spoke about my personal experience. I mentioned about the fear that some children go through everyday and everyone was listening to what I was saying. Suddenly, he got up and stormed out of the room.

He didn't come back for the rest of the afternoon and everyone was talking about him. I felt that maybe I had said something that had triggered him and I did feel bad about that but planned to have a quiet word with him.

He didn't come back for a few days and we thought he had left the course. I was left feeling that I had said something and felt a mixture of emotions about it.

He returned to class and everyone was asking where he had been and that they were worried, he looked towards me and said ''YOU UPSET ME WITH WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT BEING SCARED EVERYDAY''. I just sat there sinking in my chair as he went on about how my story really upset him and had put him in a deep depression. Everyone was looking at me in shock and it was awkward as hell, he was really angry with his face all red and I thought he was going to jump out of the chair and lunge for me at any moment.

I didn't know what to say back, I couldn't apologise (I can't remember if I did or not) because I hadn't said anything wrong in the first place. It was almost as if he was just looking for any tiny little thing to have a go at me.

You're probably wondering what this guy's story was, well he told us that he and his siblings had been abused as children by a relative and that he went on to criminal behaviour himself. He had spent a lot of years in and out of prison and when he got to his 40s he said that he started to have flashbacks to his childhood and when he got out of prison (again, I have to be careful with the details) the final time he decided that the reason his life had gone the way it had was because of this relative. He tracked this relative down who was now an elderly man and battered the man to death. Another disturbing aspect of this was that when he told me about the killing he smiled as he mentioned the brains all over the carpet.

After having a go at me in class, he announced that he was going to leave the course as it was reminding him of group therapy and he said goodbye to everyone but me. I was left feeling strange, I didn't know whether I was supposed to feel guilty or what cause I couldn't understand what I had done.

What I really thought it was about was that I hadn't acted like the other students, he knew that I had sussed him out (that's my opinion). 

I haven't looked him up in years but the last time I did, I heard him on a radio interview and the difference in him on there to how he is in real life was quite something. I don't know what he was in prison for the other times but I do know that he did have a bit of a strange attitude towards women especially towards me, like an aggression. I was just a young, tiny Scottish girl and he was this big built guy in his 40s screaming at me so he didn't seem to have an issue shouting at women.

Anyway, this was a bizarre experience and I don't know if you've found this interesting at all but yes, that's my experience meeting a killer. It's strange and to this day I still don't know what to make of it all. What do you think you would have done in my shoes?

Was I wrong to feel bad vibes about him? Do you think he sensed that from me and that's why he acted hostile? who knows, let me know in your comments below.

I have some other stories I'm thinking of sharing at some point, let me know if you're interested in reading them. One of the stories involves childhood friends who went on to kill someone, let me know if you would like me to talk about that.

See you in the next post x

(Levi Bellfield. Picture credit: thesun.co.uk) 

On the 4th February 2003 in Hampton, a pretty 19 year old blonde student by the name of Marsha McDonnell had been out for the evening with a friend to a cinema. She caught the late bus home and at the end of her journey she got off at her stop and began to walk the short distance to her house as she would always do. 

It was 11:30pm at night and the sky was pitch black, as she was walking on her way to the home that she shared with her family, someone struck her very violently over the back of the head with a hammer. There were no witnesses around. Marsha was eventually found and rushed to hospital where she sadly died the next day. 

The bus that Marsha had been travelling on had a CCTV camera and from this the police were able to identify a vehicle they were interested in that was in the area around the same time as Marsha was seen getting off of the bus.

One wonders if Levi had an idea that he was getting too close to getting caught because he waited a year before he struck again. This time he targeted another pretty blonde girl named Kate Sheedy. 

(Kate Sheedy. Picture credit: thesun.co.uk) 

Kate was only 18 years old and had been travelling on a bus on her way home after spending some time with her friends. When she got off of the bus, she noticed a car was parked up in front of her in a strange angle. She didn't feel comfortable and decided to cross the road. All of a sudden the car swerved up onto the pavement and then drove towards her.

She was knocked over and the driver of the car stopped and reversed back over her before driving off, leaving Kate in absolute agony and terror. It was a miracle that she was still conscious. She had suffered horrendous injuries, all of her ribs were broken, her spleen ruptured and she had extensive spinal damage. Despite all of this, Kate managed to call the police and get help.

Kate's life hung in the balance for quite a while, doctors were not sure if she would make it but she defied the odds and began to be stronger day by day. Her strength returned and so did her memory. She was able to give investigators a complete description of the vehicle. 

The police began to see a pattern emerging of someone who was targeting pretty young blonde girls but still they had no leads.

It was just three months before Levi struck again. This time he murdered a 22 year old girl named Amelie Delagrange who was a language student from France. Like the other girls (except for Milly), she had travelled on the bus home after spending the evening with friends. 

Police believe that Amelie fell asleep during the bus journey and missed her stop so got off and decided to walk the rest of the way home by making a short cut over Twickenham Green. Like Marsha, someone had approached Amelie from behind with a fierce blow to the back of the head. Levi took her phone with him and the police would later track this to a property at Walton On Thames. The net was closing in on him.

On one of the televised appeals, one of Levi's ex partners had been watching and recognised his car from the CCTV footage. She went straight to the police and told them everything she knew about Levi Bellfield. She told them about the magazines with the blonde women's faces scrubbed out, the abuse that she suffered and the rape kit that he had hidden in her garage which included a balaclava, a kitchen knife, a bin liner and another magazine with women's faces scrubbed out. 

The police went to his house to arrest him and that was quite the scene. Levi, who was naked, decided to run upstairs and hide in his attic. When one of the police officers found him he ordered Levi to stand up before stating ''You're nicked'' (You're arrested).

His house was thoroughly searched and the police soon realised there was more to Levi Bellfield than they had first believed. It got to the point where there was 27 active investigations into him for various reports of rape, sexual assault and murder.

The police decided to focus on the suspected murder investigations first. They are still investigating murders going way back to 1980 that they believe that Levi may have a connection to.

With an overwhelming amount of evidence, Levi Bellfield stood trial where he was reported to have shown no remorse throughout. He felt sorry for himself telling the court ''I'm fighting for my life here'' 

There was no emotion as he was found guilty in February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

9 years after her death, Levi Bellfield (now calling himself Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam in prison) was found guilty of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Milly Dowler. He was reported to have yawned and gave no emotion as he was sentenced, 

Levi Bellfield will never be released from prison. He was given a full life order. 

In 2011, it was reported in the press that during the investigation into Milly Dowler's disappearance, some reporters who worked for the News Of the World had hacked Milly's personal voicemail messages. The newspaper was also found to have invaded the privacy of many other high profile figures and celebrities. The newspaper closed in 2011. 

My thoughts...

Such a horrible case to cover and a horrendous individual. It's strange that someone who worshipped their mother so much could have such a hatred for women. Some people believe that it stemmed from girls at school who bullied him or that he was so insecure because he thought that the pretty young blonde girls that he was interested in wouldn't be interested in him. I was asked the other day what colour of hair did Levi's mother have, she had dark hair so it's not that you could say there was a connection there.

Nobody knows why he did it and he would never tell anyone. He's a monster with no remorse or feeling for anybody and it's crazy to think that he has all of these children, hopefully they've been able to try and get on with their lives. I saw a documentary a few years ago which featured some of his daughters.

The Milly Dowler investigation went on for years, her poor family have been through hell and then to learn that her phone was hacked by people who were just looking for a story, it's horrendous.

My heart breaks for all of the families and for these beautiful young women who had their whole lives in front of them and for Kate Sheedy who is an inspiration.

What are your thoughts on this case? leave a comment below or on any of my social media platforms. 

See you in the next post x