Levi Bellfield, the ex-bouncer accused of stalking bus stops in west London and killing two girls, took the stand for the first time on Tuesday.

It was the first opportunity for jurors at the Old Bailey to hear the voice of the man who had been sitting in the dock for nearly three months, waiting for his turn to speak.

Bellfield denies two murders, two attempted murders and an abduction.

Since the trial started in October Bellfield has sat, day in, day out in an enclosed dock flanked by three security guards. For the most part he has remained calm and alert, and has been seen taking notes and passing slips of paper to his defence team through slits in the perspex enclosure.

On Tuesday the 39-year-old father looked nervous only briefly when he was made to wait for a horde of journalists to cross the courtroom and take their seats before he could swear on oath.

Bellfield, who is white, stood in the witness box wearing a smart dark suit and tie with his hands behind his back. Speaking in a slightly high-pitched voice he later opted to sit down so he would not have to stoop to the microphone.

His eagerness to speak led him to be reminded sternly by his own defence counsel William Boyce QC not to butt in until questions had been asked in full.

Mr Boyce also had to rein him in when he began to gabble a lengthy explanation to the jurors as to why he had previously been imprisoned for dangerous driving.

At one point the West Drayton wheel-clamper chuckled at his own difficulty in using a map to explain directions to jurors.

At the end of the day's session as he left the box to make his way back to the dock he looked briefly but directly at one of his alleged victims, Isleworth student Kate Sheedy, who was sat just a few feet away with her mother. The parents of fellow alleged victim Amelie Delagrange were also present.

The trial continues.

10:27am Thursday 17th January 2008

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