Milly Dowler trial: man ‘tried to abduct’ another girl

Rachel Cowles, who was 11 at the time, told the court she was left scared and crying after a man alleged to be convicted killer Levi Bellfield offered to drive her home.

She described the driver as “white, in his 30’s or 40’s and had a skin-head or was bald.”

Ms Cowles, now 21, said she was walking home from school in her uniform when a red car pulled over on the side of Upper Halliford Road in Shepperton in March 2002.

She said she noticed the children’s booster seats in the back seat.

“One was green and blue and one was pink. It signalled to me that perhaps he had one male child and one female child,” she told the court.

“I remember him saying ‘hello I’ve just moved in next door would you like a lift home?’ I said no thank you it’s alright.” Rachel Cowles

She went on: “I remember him saying hello I’ve just moved in next door would you like a lift home?

“I said no thank you it’s alright.”

Asked if she had felt comfortable with the man making that offer to her, she replied: “No”. She said she had decided to go home “to see if I could see his car and if he was telling the truth.”

The prosecution at the Old Bailey told the court that Bellfield drove off when he saw a police car and went on to murder teenager Milly Dowler the next day.

Thirteen-year-old Milly Dowler disappeared as she walked home from Walton-upon-Thames train station in Surrey. Her body was found 25 miles away by mushroom pickers six months later.

Levi Bellfield, 42, denies abducting and murdering Milly and attempting to kidnap Rachel.

Miss Cowles said she felt scared after the incident and when she got home she told her mother, who reported it to the police.

She said: “I felt scared as I suddenly realised the enormity of what just happened.”

She had burst into tears as she spoke to a policeman on the telephone, she added.

In 2008 Bellfield was convicted of the murders of Marsha McDonnell, 19, in 2003 and 22-year-old Amelie Delagrange in 2004 with the use of a blunt weapon.