Murderers on life sentences to be banned from marrying after Levi Bellfield's ... trends now
Britain's worst criminals facing whole life jail terms will be barred from marrying thanks to new legislation.
News that Millie Dowler's murderer Levi Bellfield planned to marry a regular female visitor at HMP Frankfield in Durham prompted outrage last year.
But such unions will be prevented under Justice Secretary Dominic Raab's Victim's Bill which set to be unveiled in the next two weeks, The Sun reports.
Some 60 prisoners, many of them serving long jail terms, applied to marry last year.
In a leaked letter to a cabinet colleague, Mr Raab said: 'I consider there is a very real risk that marriage in such cases would undermine public and victims’ confidence in the Criminal Justice System.
News that Millie Dowler's murderer Levi Bellfield planned to marry a regular female visitor at HMP Frankfield in Durham prompted outrage last year
Bellfield's girlfriend has reportedly said the killer has changed and is her dream man
'Even where there is no risk of direct physical harm there is a significant risk of coercive or controlling behaviour.
'I have seen how Bellfield seeking to marry has caused distress and trauma to his victims.'
The launch of the bill was pushed back amid concerns of legal challenges, while Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights sets out the right to marry.
But the Rishi Sunak's Government is confident it would face off any legal battle, with backing from the Attorney General.
A Government source said allowing egregious criminals to wed would add to the distress the surviving relatives of victims
Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith has also lent his support, saying vulnerable members of the public could be 'groomed' into marriage by manipulative crooks.
Labour's Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed criticised the Conservatives for failing to enact a bill sooner, insisting that Labour has led calls for a Victims Bill for eight years.
Dowler was snatched from the street while on her way from school to her home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002
Marsha McDonnell, 19, was had been to the cinema with friends and was on a late night bus when she was attacked with a hammer
Bellfield is known as Britain's most evil killer and murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002.
His new fiancee previously told the Mirror: 'He is not a monster. Yes he has a bad past, but 17 years in prison changes a person.
'He has changed, he has remorse, and there are always reasons a person goes wrong in life.
'There is always a far bigger picture. He is 53 years old, still young and has to live knowing he will just grow old and die in that horrendous place.'
Bellfield was introduced to his fiancée through Peter Sutcliffe, who was friends with the woman before he died in 2020.
Bellfield and Sutcliffe were on the same wing in HMP Frankland. Bellfield asked to be put in touch with her after seeing her picture in Sutcliffe's cell, the Sun reported.
They spoke on the phone, before she then began visiting Bellfield at the County Durham prison.
'What people don't realise is that the woman was friends with Sutcliffe for years before he died, although there was no romance between them,' a source told the Sun.
Amelie Delagrange, 22, whose body was found, with a serious head injury lying on Twickenham Green, south west London
