LONDON - Former nightclub doorman Levi Bellfield will remain in jail for the rest of his life for bludgeoning to death two female students and the attempted murder of a third in southwest London.

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Tuesday to two whole life sentences for the murders of French exchange-student Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19.

Bellfield, 39, from West Drayton, Middlesex, was also given a whole life sentence for the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, a student who suffered horrific injuries when she was deliberately run over by a car.

All three attacks occurred near bus stops.

Bellfield, who was not in court to hear the sentences, was told in his absence he would not be considered for parole.

Family and friends of the victims shouted "yes" after sentencing and clapped following the judge's remarks.

The judge, Mrs Justice Anne Rafferty, said Bellfield's motives were beyond understanding.

"You have reduced three families to unimagined grief ... three young women, upon whom you preyed in the dark as they stood or walked near to or from buses.

"What dreadful feelings went through your head as you attacked and in two cases snuffed out a young life is beyond understanding.

"You will not be considered for parole and must serve the rest of your life in prison."

She criticised Bellfield's decision to contest the charges.

"The families of all three have waited months as during this trial you took every point from the ludicrous to the bizarre.

"You obliged your counsel to put Kate (Sheedy) through indignity after indignity in the witness box."

She said the jury were "twelve sensible individuals who saw for what they were the contrived defences you put forward".

Bellfield's lawyer William Boyce said his client had chosen not to attend court because of the publicity surrounding his conviction which included "suggestions, allegations, and accusations ... which he denies".

After Bellfield was found guilty on Monday, police said they were also investigating his possible role in 20 other attacks, including the 2002 murder of Milly Dowler, one of Britain's most notorious unsolved crimes.

Her body was found in woods in Hampshire, six months after she disappeared from a suburban street in broad daylight in Walton-on-Thames as she was on her way home from school.

Bellfield's attacks terrorised women in southwest London.

McDonnell had been travelling on a bus before she was attacked near her home in Hampton, Middlesex, in February 2003.

Delagrange had just got off a bus in August 2004 before she was battered about the head on Twickenham Green with a blunt instrument.

Former convent school head girl Sheedy, then 18, was run over as she walked home after getting off a bus in Isleworth following a night out in May 2004.