Milly Dowler accused 'walked dog at heath'

(PA)

Accused Levi Bellfield used to walk dogs in the beauty spot where schoolgirl Milly Dowler was found, the Old Bailey heard today.

Former girlfriend Johanna Collings, 38, said she was with Bellfield five or six times when he was training her two whippet puppies.

They would spend more than an hour coursing in the wood at Yateley Heath in Hampshire, she said.

Miss Collings said he also went with her on at least five occasions to the Yateley horse show where she would take part in show jumping events.

"I drove the horse down and he would follow in a car. He didn't blend in," she said.

And she was with him a couple of times at the nearby Blackbushe market and car auctions, she told the jury.

But Bellfield would frequently "disappear" saying he was going to the market - which she took to be the auction, she added.

Miss Collings said she had not approached police when Milly's body was found in the wood in September 2008 because she was not sure exactly where she had been discovered.

Bellfield, 43, denies abducting and murdering Milly, 13, and attempting to kidnap 11-year-old Rachel Cowles in March 2002.

Milly's remains were found in the woods 25 miles away, but were too decomposed to say how she died.

Bellfield, a former wheelclamper and bouncer, was convicted in 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.

Earlier today, a friend of Bellfield's told the court he helped clear out bags of clothes and a mattress the day after Milly was killed.

Milly is alleged to have been snatched off the street and murdered by Bellfield the day before in a flat in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

Malcolm Ward, who was 20 at the time, said he helped him load the items into a van which was driven to Bellfield's new address.

Mr Ward said he had been working with Bellfield at a club in Uxbridge and was asked to help decorate the kitchen of Little Benty, West Drayton, because he was moving.

But after three hours, Bellfield drove him to Collingwood Place, Walton.

Mr Ward said: "He was grabbing stuff, clothes, tracksuit bottoms and hoodies, and putting them in two black bags in the bedroom."

They were put into the van along with a mattress from the same room, he said.

"When I left, the mattress was still in the van."

Bellfield was not his "usual jolly self" but had been "quieter than normal".

Mr Ward added: "He was sad, not happy. He may have had something on his mind."

The trial was adjourned to tomorrow.