The “Babes in the Wood” killer who strangled two young girls and dumped their bodies in the undergrowth is facing the rest of his life behind bars after a jury today reversed one of the longest running miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Russell Bishop, 52, grabbed nine-year-old best friends Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway while they were out playing together, sexually assaulting and murdering them before hiding their bodies in a Brighton park.
The brutal 1986 murders shocked the country and Bishop, then a local car thief and occasional painter and decorator, was swiftly identified as the prime suspect.
However, he was cleared at trial in 1987 and allowed to go free.
Within three years of his acquittal Bishop had struck again, abducting a seven-year-old girl in 1990 who he sexually assaulted and throttled, again dumping her body in woodland.
The victim miraculously survived and Bishop was sent to prison for life for the attack.
While serving life for attempted murder, Bishop was ordered to face a fresh trial under the double jeopardy law in light of a DNA breakthrough.
A Pinto sweatshirt discarded on Bishop's route home was linked to the defendant by DNA while fibre, paint and ivy transfers placed it at the scene.
Tests on a sample from Karen's left forearm also revealed a "one in a billion" DNA match to Bishop.
At the Old Bailey today a jury found him guilty unanimously of both murders after deliberating for just two-and-a-half hours.
The mothers of the two girls, who sat through each day of the harrowing trial, broke down in tears as the jury delivered its verdict.
Bishop, who abandoned his own defence case midway through and refused to come back to court for the end of the trial, was not in the dock today.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC said today’s verdict, which followed a two-month trial, was “putting right the 32-year-old injustice” which the two girls’ families and friends have suffered.
Mr Justice Sweeney said he "requires" Bishop to be present at a sentencing hearing tomorrow afternoon. He is likely to condemn the killer – who has refused to accept his guilt – to the rest of his life behind bars.
Nicola and Karen had gone out to play together on October 9, 1986 when they were preyed on by Bishop, who lived close to their homes in the Moulsecoomb area of Brighton.
At around dusk, Bishop spotted the girls playing in Wild Park and seized his opportunity, the prosecution said.
During the attack, he punched Nicola in the face, to "subdue" or "punish" her for being disrespectful to his teenage girlfriend earlier that day, Brian Altman QC suggested.
The day after the killings, he joined the desperate search for the children, claiming his dog Misty was a trained tracker.
He was nearby when two 18-year-olds spotted the bodies and rushed ahead of a police officer.
Bishop described details of the murder scene which only the killer could have known, including foam around the mouth of one of the girls, the court heard.
In the original trial, the prosecution said the girls must have been killed before 6.30pm, by which time he had been seen heading home on foot and the girls were spotted outside a fish and chip shop.
But in the retrial, jurors heard the time of death could have been later and Bishop simply doubled back to intercept the children, both of whom he knew.
When he was accused of the killings, he denied having anything to do with the attack and claimed his DNA had only got on the bodies when he had checked their pulses on finding them in the undergrowth.
But others in the hunt party testified that Bishop did not go anywhere near the girls’ bodies.
Bishop’s story changed over time as he tried to shift the blame, pointing the finger at others for the murders including Nicola’s father Barrie.
Mr Fellows, 69, was forced to give evidence during the trial, tearfully denying suggestions that he had been involved in the sexual abuse of his own daughter. He too was in court and overwhelmed with emotion as the jury reached its verdicts.
Nigel Pilkington, of Crown Prosecution Service South East, said Bishop is an "extremely dangerous man" who had been convicted on "overwhelming and incontrovertible" evidence.
He said: "He is a violent predatory paedophile and he gets cross when you call him that. He also considers himself to be a victim in the sense of the 1990 conviction."
He said Bishop had tried to blame Nicola's father to create "the most havoc" possible, adding: "There is not a shred of evidence against Barrie Fellows, not realistically at all."
Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley said Bishop was a "wicked" paedophile.
He said: "I still feel it's a shadow over Brighton to this day. I'm very proud of the investigation we have put together. We have been meticulous.
"We have never given up on this investigation."
