![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/michael-stone-faces-fresh-blow-in-bid-to-overturn-conviction-for-chillenden-murders/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/0_Exclu.jpg&description=Michael Stone was arrested a year after Lin and Megan's murders on unrelated charges, when he is alleged to have confessed to a fellow prisoner in Canterbury prison Michael Stone has been dealt a fresh blow in his bid to overturn his conviction for the notorious Chillenden murders. The inmate was 37 when he was handed three life sentences for bludgeoning Dr Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan to death with a hammer in 1996. But he has always maintained his innocence and last month Milly Dowler killer Levi Bellfield, 54, claimed to be behind the violent attack that also left nine-year-old Josie Russell with severe head injuries. Now Stone, 62, has been told by the Criminal Case Review Commission they will not refer his case back to the Court of Appeal. Stone's legal team last night said it was "utterly astonishing" his conviction would not be tested again in the courts. A statement released by barristers Mark McDonald and Paul Bacon said: "We find the decision by the CCRC utterly astonishing. "What more can a person do to prove their innocence than another man confessing to the crime?" Stone was jailed for a minimum of 25 years in 1998 and is eligible for release now after completing his sentence. But he says that he is refusing to seek parole until his conviction for the murders, which took place in Chillenden, Kent, is quashed. Stone's legal team have urged police to launch a fresh probe, while Bellfield's solicitor says he has admitted his guilt to the Chillenden murders and that of student Elizabeth Chau, 19, who vanished in 1999 from as she walked home from university in west London. Stone's legal team said: "Levi Belfield has made numerous statements confessing to this awful crime. But the CCRC say they don't believe him. "They give as their main reason that in the past he has confessed to other crimes and the police don't believe him. "But we question the motivation behind the police and whether in fact they are investigating Belfield's confessions){kind=link}
Michael Stone was arrested a year after Lin and Megan’s murders on unrelated charges, when he is alleged to have confessed to a fellow prisoner in Canterbury prison
Michael Stone has been dealt a fresh blow in his bid to overturn his conviction for the notorious Chillenden murders.
The inmate was 37 when he was handed three life sentences for bludgeoning Dr Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan to death with a hammer in 1996.
But he has always maintained his innocence and last month Milly Dowler killer Levi Bellfield, 54, claimed to be behind the violent attack that also left nine-year-old Josie Russell with severe head injuries.
Now Stone, 62, has been told by the Criminal Case Review Commission they will not refer his case back to the Court of Appeal.