Daily Mail
April 8, 2014
A payout of £4,500 to Milly Dowler’s killer provoked outrage among MPs and campaigners last night.
Levi Bellfield was granted compensation for a prison attack when a fellow inmate attempted to blind him. He suffered only minor cuts to his face.
He sued the Government for failing to protect him at high-security Wakefield Prison and won a three-year legal battle after the Ministry of Justice admitted full liability at a county court hearing.
It is understood that the long dispute, as civil servants tried to contest his claim, has run up a substantial legal bill which will be met by taxpayers.
Bellfield has told friends he will spend the money renting a caravan in Kent for his elderly mother.
Last night Labour MP Ian Austin condemned the payout as ‘disgusting’ and promised to raise it with Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.
He said: ‘This is a complete and utter disgrace. I will be asking Mr Grayling how this evil child murderer could possibly be awarded such a huge sum of money. Every right-thinking person will agree this is distasteful and wrong.’
National Victims’ Association founder David Hines added: ‘It really gets us that murderers claim for being attacked and get rewards. It’s a sin.’
Bellfield was told in 2011 that he would die behind bars for the murder of the 13-year-old in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, nine years earlier.
He was already serving a whole life term handed down in 2008 for the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, and 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell.
Bellfield lured Milly back to his flat before killing her and dumping her body in remote woodland in Hampshire where he used to walk his dog. The teenager’s skeletal remains were found six months later.