The former bouncer accused of stalking girls near bus stops told a court he was watching the Michael Jackson television interview by Martin Bashir on the night Marsha McDonnell was killed.

On his first day on the stand Levi Bellfield told the Old Bailey that he was "pretty certain" that at the time Miss McDonnell was killed he was at home in West Drayton with his girlfriend Emma Mills and their children.

He said he remembered the programme, which was aired on February 3, 2003. Gap year student Miss McDonnell was killed by three blows to the head with a blunt object at just after midnight after getting off a bus in Hampton.

Bellfield, 39, denies her murder, that of French student Amelie Delagrange, the attempted murders of Kate Sheedy and Irma Dragoshi and the kidnap and false imprisonment of Anna-Maria Rennie.

Asked by defence counsel William Boyce QC why on February 8 he booked to go on a last-minute holiday with his family the following week, Bellfield, a wheel clamper, replied: "The business was doing fantastic."

When asked why he initially refused to take part in an identity parade for the abduction of Anna-Maria Rennie, Bellfield said: "It just knocked me sideways.

"I was angry and upset - gutted."

When asked to account for his movements on October 15, 2001, the night of Miss Rennie's abduction in Whitton, Bellfield said: "The day is my son's birthday. I believe and I say this, I believe, that I was having a Chinese out that night."

Bellfield claimed never to have seen Miss Rennie before her court appearance.

Mr Boyce asked him if at that time he owned or had use of a blue or green Mondeo, with part of the registration reading L651, as described by Miss Rennie. Bellfield replied: "No I did not."

Bellfield confirmed to the jury a number of previous convictions, which date back to 1982. They range from drunk and disorderly to ABH on a police officer in 1991 over a row about loud music, for which he was imprisoned for six months.

The trial continues.

7:07pm Tuesday 15th January 2008

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