Teri’s violent boyfriend, Levi Bellfield, had already murdered Marsha McDonnell, 19, by the time she started dating him in 2003, and he would go on to kill and maim again while they were together.

Bellfield, 39, dubbed the ‘bus-stop killer’ after the places where he preyed on his victims, is now serving a life sentence for the murders of Marsha and Amelie Delagrange, 22, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, now 21.

He is also the prime suspect in the 2002 murder of 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

“I can’t believe how lucky I am to be alive,” says Teri, who had an 11-month relationship with Bellfield during his killing spree.

“I know I came terrifyingly close to becoming one of his victims.”

Teri got together with Bellfield in December 2003, when she was just 15.

“I was instantly attracted to him.

"He told me he was 28 [he was really 35].

"I thought it was cool that an older guy paid me attention,” she says.

“He would take me out for dinner, pay for taxis home, and he bought me a mobile phone and presents.”

Incredibly, just three weeks after meeting him, the naïve teenager agreed to move into his flat.

Unbeknown to her, he was still involved with his ex, Emma Mills, with whom he had three children.

Bellfield – who was extremely possessive – ordered Teri to stop going to school.

Shut off from friends and family, she spent up to 12 hours a day alone in Bellfield’s dingy one-bedroom flat, forbidden to leave without asking him first.

“He abused me physically and verbally nearly every day.

"I was constantly on edge, never sure what mood he would be in when he came home from work,” says Teri.

It was while he was living with the terrified teenager that Bellfield tried to kill schoolgirl Kate Sheedy by running her over in May 2004.

He then murdered French student Amelie Delagrange that August.

Bellfield continued to abuse Teri for a further three months until November 22, 2004.

Teri had spent the night at her parents, when she woke to the sounds of armed police hammering down the front door looking for Bellfield, who was with his kids for the night.

“I told them where he was.

"A few hours later they returned to tell me he’d been arrested on suspicion of murder,” says Teri.

“I knew he was capable of doing bad things, but I was stunned.

"I still loved him.

"Even after what he put me through I wanted to be with him.”

Teri stayed in contact with Bellfield for 12 months after his arrest.

“I wanted to believe he was innocent, but after a year, the reality of how evil he is sank in and I couldn’t bear to speak to him again, so I changed my number.”

Since Bellfield’s arrest and trial, Teri has suffered depression and panic attacks.

She says she feels disgusted by their relationship.

“He was coming home and getting into bed with me with the blood of those girls on his hands,” she says.

“I’m plagued by flashbacks of the night he nearly added me to his list of victims.

" I will have to live with the memories of what he did to me, but I am just grateful I managed to escape alive.”

BELLFIELD'S VICTIMS

The girls he attacked – and did he kill Milly too?

Marsha McDonnell, 19
Marsha was attacked near her home in Hampton, south-west London after she got off a bus in February 2003. Bellfield hit her over the head three times with a hammer. She died the following day.

Kate Sheedy, 18
Kate was mown down while walking home in Isleworth, west London, following a night out in May 2004. She was left for dead, suffering a broken collarbone, collapsed lung and internal injuries.

Amelie Delagrange, 22
Amelie was targeted as she crossed Twickenham Green, south-west London in August 2004. He hit her over the head with a blunt object. Her dead body was found by a police officer.

Milly Dowler, 13
Last seen alive on March 21, 2002 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Bellfield is the prime suspect in the murder of Milly, whose body was found six months after she vanished on her way home from school.

Photography: Bradley Page, PA Photos