|
Amanda Jane "Milly" Dowler was a 13-year-old English girl who was abducted on her way home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on 21 March 2002, and subsequently murdered. Her body was discovered on 18 September 2002. On 23 June 2011, Levi Bellfield was found guilty of Dowler's murder and sentenced to a whole-life prison tariff. Bellfield had been found guilty in 2008 of murdering Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, over the two years after he murdered Dowler. Following her death, Dowler's parents established a charity called Milly's Fund to "promote public safety, and in particular the safety of the children and young people". The case also generated debate over the treatment of victims and witnesses in court, after Dowler's family criticised the way they were cross-examined during Bellfield's trial. Dowler's murder also played a significant role in the ''News of the World'' phone-hacking scandal. It was revealed in 2011 that ''News of the World'' reporters had accessed her voicemail while she was reported missing. The resulting outcry from the British public contributed to the closure of the newspaper and led to a range of investigations and inquiries into phone hacking and media ethics in British media. == Disappearance == At 3:00 pm on 21 March 2002, Dowler left Heathside School to go home on the train. She got off at Walton-on-Thames railway station, one stop before her usual stop of Hersham, to visit a cafe with friends. After telephoning her father at 3:47 pm to say she would be home in half an hour, she left on foot. She was last seen 18 minutes later, walking along Station Avenue, by a friend of her sister Gemma, who was waiting at a bus stop. A closed-circuit television camera located further along the road showed no images of Milly, indicating she was abducted within minutes of passing the bus stop.〔 It is believed she was killed and her body dumped shortly afterwards. Her parents reported her missing to the police at 7:00 pm that evening. A nationwide search followed the disappearance, including 100 police officers and helicopters searching the fields, streets and rivers around Hersham. Detectives who had worked on the abduction of Sarah Payne were called in to help. Police and the Dowler family made many appeals for information, including a reconstruction on ''Crimewatch UK''.〔 A plea was made on the ITN news programme〔 by ''Pop Idol'' winner Will Young, whose concert Dowler had attended shortly before her disappearance. The ''Crimewatch UK'' appeal included a direct appeal to her in the hope that she had run away from home of her own accord, though the day before her father had already expressed fears that his daughter had been abducted. Her mother expressed hope that her daughter had indeed run away, but admitted that she could think of no reason why her daughter would want to do so. It was later revealed that Dowler had, some time previously, written a mock leaving-home letter and notes showing she had been unhappy. A week after Dowler's disappearance, the police stated that she was probably not taken by force. They reasoned that while she was unlikely to have gone off with someone she did not know of her own free will, no-one had come forward who had witnessed a struggle, despite a number of apparent sightings of her prior to her disappearance. On 23 April, the discovery of a body in the River Thames prompted media speculation that the remains might be those of Dowler. However, the body was identified the following day as 73-year-old Maisie Thomas, who had gone missing a year earlier, and whose death was not believed to be suspicious. In June 2002, despite further searches, the offer of a £100,000 reward by national tabloid newspaper ''The Sun'' and her parents continuing to send text messages to her mobile telephone in the hope of a reply, she remained missing. At this stage police told her parents that she was probably dead. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Murder of Milly Dowler」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|