Killings accused was 'suicidal'

Amelie Delagrange was one of two women killed

A man accused of stalking and killing two women near bus stops has told a jury he was suicidal and depressed.

Levi Bellfield, 39, claimed he was taken to hospital days after student Amelie Delagrange, 22, was killed on Twickenham Green, west London.

Mr Bellfield, of west London, denies two counts of murder and two of attempted murder between 2001 and 2004.

Miss Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, were killed by blows to the head, the Old Bailey has heard.

Mr Bellfield told the court he was feeling suicidal and depressed and had taken 20 Diazepam tablets the night before French student Miss Delagrange was killed.

He also told doctors he had bought a rope to hang himself.

£20,000 debt

Under questioning from his barrister William Boyce QC, he confirmed what he had told doctors at Hillingdon hospital on 25 August 2004.

He agreed he said he had been suffering from depression for two years and had become tearful and was experiencing panic attacks.

After being admitted, Mr Bellfield said he told doctors that he had tried to hang himself six months earlier and three months later had placed a tyre round his neck in another aborted suicide attempt.

Marsha McDonnell had been on a night out with friends

When questioned why he left the hospital the day after being admitted he said he was upset after he saw a girl self-harming.

"I felt I was in a much better position than that girl," he said.

"I did not want to attend that place. I did not want to go there," he added, explaining why he did not keep his further appointments.

When Mr Boyce asked him to explain the reasons behind his distress, Mr Bellfield said he had been £20,000 in debt because of cars he had bought and his home in West Drayton where his partner Emma Mills lived with their children.

'Big hole'

Miss Mills had given birth to a baby four weeks earlier, which the court heard he did not want.

Mr Bellfield also said he regretted getting involved with a girlfriend, Terri Carroll, with whom he had been living after his relationship with Miss Mills deteriorated.

"I dug myself a big hole getting involved with Terri," Mr Bellfield said.

He also confirmed he was arrested for benefit fraud in 2004.

The accused later clashed with prosecutor Brian Altman. When asked about aliases he assumed to avoid reprisals from people whose cars he clamped, Mr Bellfield said: "I am here on trial for murder not alias names."

He denied a claim by a couple in west London that he drove to see them in a white van hours before Miss Delagrange was attacked.

'Attention seekers'

But his explanation was interrupted by Mr Altman, who said: "Do you want to make a speech?"

Mr Bellfield accused the couple of making up their testimony so they could get a "day out at the Old Bailey".

"I am sure they loved it. They are attention-seekers," Mr Bellfield said.

The prosecution alleges the accused followed buses and watched bus-stops for female victims in west London between 2001 and 2004.

Mr Bellfield also denies the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18, and hairdresser Irma Dragoshi, 33, and the kidnap and false imprisonment of Anna-Maria Rennie, 17.

The trial continues.