Michael Payne died last week aged just 45, after a long battle with alcoholism and depression following the murder of his daughter Sarah in July 2000.

And now it has been revealed that the grieving father was ‘followed by evil;’ being befriended by Bellfield in a pub in Walton, Surrey.

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Unsuspecting Michael was already suffering after the death of his daughter when Bellfield made friends with him at a local bar, and the killer would apparently drink with him on a weekly basis.

At this time Bellfield was at the height of his killing spree, but Payne only discovered the sick truth about his pal when he saw Police taping off his flat.

Shockingly, Bellfield even kept a stack of newspaper clippings of Sarah’s murder, which were found when police searched his flat.

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A friend of Payne’s said the truth about Bellfield tormented him. ‘It is sick, what he did. I am sure Bellfield knew exactly who Mike was and targeted him.’

‘Mike had enough to deal with. He had moved to Walton when he split from his wife Sara and was struggling to cope.’

When Bellfield was jailed, he was placed in the same wing of Wakefield prison where Sarah’s killer, Roy Whiting, was imprisoned. The sex offenders’ unit is know as Monsters’ Mansion.

Bellfield, 46, is serving a life sentence for the murders of Milly Dowler, 13, Marsha, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22.