Rugby player became drug gang’s Mr Big

JAILED Rob Foxen AN ex-rugby league player whose career was ended by injury went on to lead a gang which distributed up to £1.8million of cocaine.

Rob Foxen, 30, who played for Swinton Lions and Oldham, was jailed for 10 years.

Manchester crown court heard he co-ordinated dealers and suppliers in the North West.

Sentencing the dad-oftwo, Judge Hilary Manley said: “You are genuinely remorseful but gave no thought to the harm it [drug dealing] caused.”

Foxen, of Eccles, Greater Manchester, who admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, had convictions for public disorder, affray, assault and drink-driving.

Twelve other men were jailed for a total of 67 years for their roles in the gang. MISSION The Parker probe Bishop indecently assaulted a girl of seven

Russell Bishop’s barrister told a jury police probing the murders of pals Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows wasted “32 years building a case against the wrong man”.

He said Nicola’s father, Barrie, had been hiding a “guilty secret”, had no alibi and made incriminating comments after the killings.

The girls were sexually assaulted and strangled near their homes on the South Downs, on the outskirts of Brighton, in October 1986.

In his opening speech, defence lawyer Joel Bennathan QC told the Old Bailey: “We will ask questions of witnesses to show when the girls went missing there was someone close to them who has no alibi.

“That someone made comments after the killings far more incriminating than anything Russell Bishop said. That someone is someone who may actually – unlike Mr Bishop – have been able to order Nicola Fellows to meet him in Wild Park.

“That someone has a guilty secret – he has been complicit in the sexual abuse of Nicola Fellows. In the end it might mean he could not let Nicola Fellows tell the world what has been happening. That person is her father, Barrie Fellows.”

CLAIMS

Nicola’s mother, Susan, confirmed she heard abuse claims involving her from a girl of 16 Bishop was in a relationship with.

She said she never spoke to Mr Fellows of it, as she would not dare.

Mrs Fellows also said her ex had hit her grandmother in the face, breaking her nose, after she said she did not like him. He was never charged over the alleged assault.

Karen’s mum, Michelle Hadaway, was asked about concerns she raised about Mr Fellows in 1989.

She had written a letter to her local councillor, saying: “I’m afraid Barrie Fellows’ strange and unnatural behaviour since my daughter was murdered has not got better.”

She said Mr Fellows told her it was “lucky Karen had not been beaten before she died”, which she found strange coming before she had been told what happened.

Mr Fellows also remarked more than once that Karen was in the “wrong place at the wrong time”, she told the jury.

Bishop was cleared of the girls’ murders in 1987 but the Court of Appeal ordered a fresh trial in light of new DNA evidence.

Three years after his acquittal, he was convicted of the kidnap, indecent assault and attempted murder of a girl of seven.

Bishop, 52, denies murder and the trial continues.