'I didn't kill Megan and Lin Russell' Jailed killer Michael Stone tells pals he was SET UP

CONVICTED murderer Michael Stone has told pals from jail he was set up over the deaths of Megan and Lin Russell.

By Anthony Blair /

In letters written from prison, he claims that he is receiving a harder time in prison than other inmates because he won't confess to his crimes.

But Stone, 57, insists that he didn't carry out the brutal killings in 1996.

His lawyers have long declared that he is innocent, and recently said that Levi Bellfield had confessed to the murders.

Michael Stone was convicted of murdering Lin and Megan Russell PA ARCHIVE/PA IMAGES

JAILED: Michael Stone has spent 20 years in prison for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell

Michael Stone in prison PA ARCHIVE/PA IMAGES

'SET UP': Stone told pals in letters that he was innocent of Russell murders

Writing to friends in letters obtained by the People, Michael said: "I'd rather starve to death than confess to murder."

He claims that he is the victim of a "deliberate fit-up" by Kent Police and that he just wants justice.

A spokesman for Kent Police told Daily Star Online it was "unfair on the victims to continue to raise questions or re-release details" about Stone's murder.

He went on: "Following two trials at which Stone was found guilty by a jury on both occasions, and an appeal to the High Court, Michael Stone remains convicted of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell, and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in 1996."

Lin Russell, 45, and daughters Megan, six, and Josie, nine, were subject to a gruesome attack in 1996.

They were tied up and bludgeoned with a hammer in a country lane near Chillenden, Kent.

They died from their injuries but Josie, incredibly, survived.

Scene of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell PA ARCHIVE/PA IMAGES

GRUESOME: Police at the scene of the murder in Chillenden, Kent

“I'd rather starve to death than confess to murder.”

Michael Stone

Stone, a heroin addict, was given three life sentences after a fellow inmate said he confessed while on remand.

But after 20 years in prison, Stone wrote: "There is no way ever on this earth I would accept responsibility and guilt for murders that I did not commit."

He blamed authorities for failing to catch Megan and Lin's real killers, saying his case was "riddled with police corruption."

Stone is in Frankland Prison, Co Durham, along with Levi Bellfield, 49, who is serving a life sentence for three murders.

The James Bulger murder

 
James Bulger was abducted, tortured and murdered by 10-year-old Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history
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James Patrick Bulger was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two Police Handout
James Patrick Bulger was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two

    Levi Bellfield and Milly Dowler 2008 METROPOLITAN POLICE/PA ARCHIVE/PA IMAGES

    EVIL: Levi Bellfield was convicted of murdering Milly Dowler and two others young females

    He strangled Milly Dowler, 13, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and killed Marsha McDonnell, 19 and Amelie Delagrange, 22 in south west London between 2002 and 2004.

    He is reported to have told a cellmate it was "hilarious" that Stone was inside for the killings that he carried out.

    Earlier this month a member of Bellfield's family said that he would confess to more murders soon.

    But Kent Police said that a comprehensive investigation carried out by the Met Police into whether Bellfield had carried out other murders found no evidence to support those claims.

    Murder of Milly Dowler: 15 years on

     
    On March 21st, 2002, Milly Dowler was reported missing by her parents. Following an extensive search for her, she was found dead in Yateley Heath Woods in Yateley, Hampshire, on 18 September 2002
    1 / 11
    Surrey Police Handout photo taken from a CCTV camera from Weybridge Train Station, Weybridge in Surrey timed at 15:07 showing Amanda Dowler on the day she went missing, March 21, 2002 PA
    Surrey Police Handout photo taken from a CCTV camera from Weybridge Train Station, Weybridge in Surrey timed at 15:07 showing Amanda Dowler on the day she went missing, March 21, 2002

      Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell PA ARCHIVE/PA IMAGES

      Amelie Delagrange (left) and Marsha McDonnell (right) were also murdered by Bellfield

      In the letters Stone said he loses many of the privileges and extra cash enjoyed by people in prison for committing horrendous crimes because he won't confess.

      He said prison lags still give him more of a "hard time" than other criminals.

      He wrote: "When I do eventually win my appeal there will be a big cry out what's been going on and an enormous public enquiry.

      "I just want true justice and exposure." 

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