Student's killer is linked to Milly Dowler case

Police hunting the killer of the schoolgirl Milly Dowler are now investigating the movements of the soldier who murdered Sally Geeson.

Lance Corporal David Atkinson, 31, who set himself on fire and jumped to his death from a Glasgow hotel window while under investigation for Miss Geeson's murder, had links with the area where the body of the Surrey teenager was found in 2002. Atkinson, a Royal Engineer who was convicted at a court martial in 1998 of imprisoning an 18-year-old Polish woman, was based at Waterbeach near Cambridge when he murdered Miss Geeson two weeks ago.

Police in Surrey are looking at his movements three years ago to establish whether he could have murdered Milly Dowler, 13, in Walton-on-Thames on 21 March 2002. Milly's body was found in woods at Yately Heath, Hampshire, six months later, close to where Atkinson had been based the previous year.

At the time of Milly's murder, Atkinson was at the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham, Kent, but a Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed that he had spent time at Gibraltar Barracks in Minley, Hampshire, in 2001.