‘Evil monster’ guilty of 1986 Babes in the Woods killings

● Girls’ families weep as ‘justice for Karen and Nicola finally delivered’

Babes in the Woods killer Russell Bishop has been described as an “evil monster” by the families of his two young victims as their 32-year fight for justice came to an end.

Bishop was 20 years old when he sexually assaulted and strangled nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in a woodland den in Brighton.

He was cleared of their murders on 10 December 1987 but within three years went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl, leaving her for dead at Devils Dyke on the edge of the Sussex seaside city. While serving life for attempted murder, Bishop, now 52, was ordered to face a fresh trial under the double jeopardy law in light of a DNA breakthrough.

A sweatshirt discarded on Bishop’s route home was linked to the defendant by DNA while fibre, paint and ivy hairs placed it at the murder scene in Wild Park.

Tests on a sample from Karen’s left forearm also revealed a “one in a billion” DNA match to Bishop.

Bishop denied murder, claiming the evidence could have been contaminated.

But the jury rejected his defence and convicted him at the Old Bailey yesterday after just two and a half hours, on the anniversary of Bishop’s original acquittal. 0 Karen’s mother Michelle Hadaway, top left, and Nicola’s mother Sue Eismann outside the Old Bailey yesterday. Karen Hadaway, left, Nicola Fellows, and their killer Russell Bishop

Members of the girls’ families wept and hugged each other as the verdict was delivered.

Afterwards, Karen’s mother Michelle Hadaway said Bishop

was an “evil monster”. She said: “After 32 years of fighting, we finally have justice for Karen and Nicola.

“Time stood still for us in 1986. To us them beautiful girls will always be nine years old. They will never grow up.

“What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death.”

The Fellows family said: “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop.

“He is a monster. A predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified.”

The case, dubbed Babes in the Woods murders, shocked the nation in 1986 and blight-

ed the tight-knit community of Moulsecoomb, on the edges of the South Downs in Brighton.

Nicola was a friendly, outgoing girl who would speak her mind, while Karen was sensible, but could also be cheeky, according to their parents. Both were afraid of the dark and Nicola’s father had banned her from playing in Wild Park, even saying the “bogeyman” lived there.

At around dusk on 9 October 1986, Bishop spotted the girls playing in the park near their home and seized his opportunity, the prosecution said.

The day after the killings, Bishop joined the desperate search for the children.