POLICE will re-examine three violent attacks after it was revealed Milly Dowler’s murderer may have been behind them.

The review is in response to press coverage earlier this week which revealed serial killer Levi Bellfield is linked to 24 other violent attacks and rapes over two decades - including three in Sussex.

If proved, this would make the 49-year-old, who is serving life without parole, one of the country’s most prolific attackers of women in history.

Sussex Police stopped short of pledging to reopen any investigations but said an “assessment” would be carried out into each one.

In 2008 a force spokesman told The Argus the killer’s links to Sussex crimes had “not been ruled out entirely” after it emerged he worked as a car clamper in Chichester.

Exactly how detectives investigated those links since could not be confirmed yesterday.

The news follows accusations the force was failing women by not investigating violent crimes properly.

The mother of murdered Susan Nicholson made the claim last month, calling into question the handling of her daughter’s case in 2011, Caroline Devlin’s in 2006, the murders of Brighton teenagers Shana Grice last year and Katrina Taylor in 1996, as well as 24-year-old Cassandra Hasanovic in Bognor in 2008.

Among the unsolved cases linked to former club doorman Bellfield is the attack on Sarah Spurrell in Hastings 13 years ago.

The medical technician was viciously bludgeoned from behind in Laton Road, Hastings, in January 2004. The 23-year-old survived after her balaclava-clad attacker fled when a car drove past.

The killer has been linked to two other similar attacks in Sussex – one just three hours later in the same road and another in St Leonards.

A dossier of intelligence matching Bellfield’s movements prior to his first conviction in 2008 to unsolved attacks in London and the South East was gathered by officers on a national crime analysis task force but only just came to light.

They identified Bellfield as Mrs Spurrell’s attacker but she was never informed and the investigation was dropped when he was behind bars for murder.

She told The Sunday Times her case was not taken seriously and called on him to be prosecuted.

A Sussex Police spokesman: “All lines of enquiry were exhausted and the decision was taken to close the investigation as there was no evidence to link [him] to any case for which he has not already been convicted.

“In view of media coverage referring to three specific cases in Sussex, we will carry out an assessment of each one. We will not be reopening any investigations at the moment.”