MARY BELL SPLASHES OUT ON pounds 200K HOME

CHILD killer Mary Bell has bought a pounds 200,000 house in the countryside.

The three-bedroom property is set in secluded grounds near woods.

Bell, 46, who lives quietly with her 19-year-old daughter, spends most of her time tending her garden, writing and visiting her local shops. Her comfortable lifestyle will outrage relatives of Bell's two tiny victims who protested last week when she was granted lifetime anonymity for her and her daughter.

The double killer was 11 when she was convicted of manslaughter in 1968 for suffocating four-year-old Martin Brown and Brian Howe, three, in Newcastle.

Released at the age of 23 in 1980, she was given a fresh identity to protect her daughter when she was born four years later in 1984. She has since changed her identity twice more and moved home five times.

Bell has received thousands of pounds in state benefits and has also held down jobs as she carves out a new life.

Five years ago she was given pounds 50,000 for co-operating with author Gitta Sereny on Cries Unheard, a book detailing her crimes.

Last week's anonymity judgment in the High Court was welcomed by Sereny who said: "She was a child when she committed her crimes and is today a different person who is full of remorse."

But victim Martin Brown's sister Sharon Richardson, 30, accused the Government of reneging on a promise made by Jack Straw when he was Home Secretary that he would bring in a law to prevent criminals profiting from their crimes.

She added: "Bell has been given privacy. What about our privacy? It's all about her and how she has been protected. As victims we are not given the same rights as a killer."

She added: "We have to get on with our lives, but she has stuck the knife in again and brought all this anguish back."

[email protected]

Copyright 2003 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.