Levi Bellfield contempt case to open

Contempt of court action against two newspapers over their coverage of the conviction of Levi Bellfield for the murder of Milly Dowler is to open.

The Attorney General brought proceedings against the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror after Bellfield was convicted of murdering the schoolgirl.

The jury was still considering a separate charge that he had attempted to abduct an 11-year-old girl.

But is was discharged after coverage of the verdict was considered prejudicial.

Bellfield had been accused of attempting to abduct Rachel Cowles, then aged 11, the day before he snatched 13-year-old Milly in Walton, Surrey, in 2002.

Last November at the High Court, the newspapers argued their reports would not have posed "substantial risk of serious prejudice" to the jury's consideration of the outstanding charge.

But the contempt proceedings were permitted by Lord Justice Moore-Bick and Mr Justice Bean, who had to decide whether Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC had an "arguable" case against the papers.

The hearingat London's High Court is set to take two days.