The killer of student Sally Geeson is now prime suspect for the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Lance Corporal David Atkinson, 31, was based under a mile from the spot where Milly's body was found, just four months before she disappeared.

Police believe he would have been familiar with the area surrounding Walton Station, in Surrey, where she was last seen leaving on her way home from school in March 2002.

Her body was eventually discovered at nearby Yateley Heath Wood - which is less than a mile from the Gibraltar Barracks, where Atkinson was based from November 1993 to mid 1994, then again from March to November 2001.

It is understood he had quit an Army training course and not yet started another on the day Milly went missing.

His whereabouts at that time is therefore unclear and the Army has been scouring its records to try to help police with their investigations.

Police checked the records of 6,500 Army cadets and 876 military staff at Gibraltar Barracks as part of Miss Dowler's murder hunt.

Atkinson was previously accused of attacking his German wife and faced charges of sexual assault and kidnap.

He also forced an 18 year-old student into his car, but was cleared of a sexual attack.

Police in Germany, where he was previously stationed, are also investigating whether Atkinson was behind a murder and a series of unsolved sex attacks in the area.