Bellfield's friend describes attack

A friend of alleged murderer Levi Bellfield has described in court how he pulled up at a bus stop and attacked a woman.

Sunil Gharu said Bellfield told him "watch this" before throwing Albanian hairdresser Irma Dragoshi to the floor.

After the alleged incident at Longford village, near Heathrow, in December 2003, Bellfield drove off laughing, Mr Gharu said.

The 39-year-old, from west London, is accused of being a bus stop stalker who murdered two students as well as attacking Mrs Dragoshi and two other women.

Bellfield, a former doorman and wheel clamper, denies attempting to murder Mrs Dragoshi, as well as a count of grievous bodily harm with intent.

He also denies the murder of Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell, the attempted murder of convent school head girl Kate Sheedy and the kidnap and false imprisonment of teenager Anna-Maria Rennie.

Mr Gharu told the Old Bailey he and another man were in a black Volkswagen with Bellfield when they drove into Longford.

"He pulled up out of the blue," he said. "He switched off the headlights but the engine was still running.

"He made a comment like 'look at this' or 'watch this' or something and said to me to get into the driver's seat. Then he got out of the car. He jogged up to where the bus stop is. I think he put his hood on, he had a hooded top on."

Bellfield then approached a woman wearing a long jacket and a scarf who was on her mobile phone, he added.

"He just jogged up to her," Mr Gharu added. "It looked like he grabbed her. There was a bit of a struggle and he threw her to the ground then jogged off."

He said that Bellfield had grabbed the woman by the upper body and "just sort of swung her", and had also been pulling on her handbag.

Mr Gharu said that as she lay on the ground he jogged away, crossed the road, then jogged back to the car, climbing back in and driving off.

Brian Altman, prosecuting, asked what Bellfield was doing as he drove away.

"Just laughing about what he'd done," Mr Gharu said.

Afterwards the two men never spoke to each other about what had happened, he added.

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