Michael Stone is set to be visited in prison on Thursday by a miscarriage of justice investigator to provide a fresh DNA sample as part of a new forensic review examining key exhibits
Megan Russell with her dog Lucy
A dog lead could help prove the innocence of the man convicted of murdering Lin Russell and her daughter Megan.
Michael Stone is set to be visited in prison on Thursday by a miscarriage of justice investigator to provide a fresh DNA sample as part of a new forensic review of the case. It coincides with the 30th anniversary of the murders of Lin, 45, and Megan, six, and the attempted murder of surviving daughter Josie, then nine.
Among the items that could be tested during the fresh probe is the leash that the family’s white terrier Lucy was attached to when she was battered to death during the frenzied hammer attack. Leading forensic scientist Angela Gallop recommended the exhibit be re-examined in a report commissioned by Stone’s barrister Mark McDonald.
Ms Gallop said the lead and a wooden stick it was tied to could provide “DNA opportunities” if it had been attached by the killer during the murders in Chillenden, Kent.
She said: ‘[Reflecting on] everything we have learnt from successful reinvestigations of past cases, and latest versions of new techniques now available we believe [there is] scientific work that could reasonably be done in an attempt to reveal physical traces that had been left behind by the offender on the victims and/or at the crime scene, and which therefore could be used to definitively identify him.”
The new scientific work will use DNA-17 testing which can isolate male and female genetic material. Stone’s saliva is being taken this week for another technique, called Y-STR, which can separate male DNA from a sample mixed with genetic material from other people. These results cannot be searched on the police database but can be used to compare against specific alternative suspects.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission’s forensic assessment has been ongoing for a number of years but is yet to carry out any tests.
Mr McDonald said: “Michael has maintained his innocence for the 29 years he has been in jail and he feels the answer is in the DNA because of course if you find it from anyone else he is exonerated. But he’s careful not to build up his expectations.
“The CCRC spent so long saying they would get a forensic report and not doing so that we got one for them. We are still waiting for them to do the work and we would like it to be done quickly.”
Ms Gallop’s report, compiled last year, includes the leash among a number of items that should be examined including the dog’s teeth, nail scrapings from Lin’s left hand and a fingerprint from a lunchbox.
Stone, now 66, was convicted on a disputed cell confession in 1998 and at a re-trial. No trace of him has ever been found at the scene despite extensive forensic examination at the time of the murders in July 1996. He was given life with a 25-year tariff in 2001.
Ms Gallop also suggests examining a balaclava, found half a mile from the murder scene, that contained 22 hairs that did not belong to the victims and fibres that matched clothes they were wearing.
A new forensic strategy by an expert at the laboratory Eurofins was shared with Stone’s lawyers this month.
Lin was walking her two daughters home from school, along a country lane when they were attacked. A car pulled up and a man got out, tying them up, dragging them into a copse and beating them with a hammer. Josie was the only survivor after suffering severe head injuries.
Two witnesses described seeing a suspicious man in the area driving a beige Ford Escort. Stone drove a white Toyota Tercel, had no access to other cars and was not accused of stealing one. An E-fit produced by one of the witnesses led to Stone being named as a possible suspect.
The CCRC rejected Stone’s case in 2010 but has been examining it again since 2017.
Serial killer Levi Bellfield, who murdered Marsha McDonnell, Amélie Delagrange and Milly Dowler, allegedly confessed that he was responsible for the Russell murders. The CCRC has said his claims were not credible.
