ITV Manhunt cop says Levi Bellfield 'could have been stopped' as girl, 14, raped before he murdered Amelie Delagrange

The claims come as ITV airs its final episode in the three-part series Manhunt, starring Martin Clunes as the lead detective, about Bellfield's murders in London in the 2000s.

Bellfield is currently serving out life sentences for the horrific murder of Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange.

Former cop Colin Sutton has revealed police should have treated Bellfield as the prime suspect in the teen girl's rape – which could have taken him off the streets before he killed a French student, it's reported.

The Mirror reports that in ex-DCI Sutton's book – which is due to be published tomorrow – he says that during his investigations he discovered Bellfield had been at the centre of the rape in June 2004 but was never questioned.

According to the report, Sutton believes that if Bellfield had been treated as a rape suspect, he would have not been free to go on and kill Amelie just two months later.

But he reportedly added: "With hindsight you can say that was the turning point, the opportunity that was missed. He is cunning and clever and good at avoiding responsibility for what he has done."

It's reported that Bellfield demanded vulnerable friend Peter Rodrigues store 250 ecstasy tablets for him in his sick mother's empty flat while she was in hospital.

Bellfield was simultaneously told by a friend that the 14-year-old girl needed a place to stay as she had fallen out with her parents, it's claimed.

Sutton says that Bellfield arranged for the girl to stay at the empty flat where he told his friend to "drug her and await his arrival", the Mirror reports.

The next morning it's reported the girl woke up remembering nothing in strange clothes and in pain, knowing she had been raped but not by whom.

The girl then phoned her friend, who asked Bellfield to collect her and bring her to his flat – which he did.

He was later confronted by Rodrigues, who was then seriously assaulted by the killer – but Bellfield called paramedics and police and told them his friend had been attacked by two other acquaintances.

Officers questioned Bellfield over the assault but he stuck to his story and with Rodrigues unconscious for weeks, he walked free.

When the teen girl told police she had been drugged and attacked – and mentioned the assault on Rodrigues – police turned to Bellfield for help in finding the flat where it may have taken place.

It's claimed he directed them and even told them where the drugs would be stashed. When he revealed he had the victim's clothes, washed of all evidence, his part was "not questioned at all", according to the Mirror.

Sutton says: “Bellfield, for reasons I cannot explain or discern, was never investigated as a potential suspect and that investigation was closed.”

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