String of blunders in probe and case
THE original probe and prosecution of Russell Bishop were blighted by failings.
Police waited 22 days to arrest him, despite him being one the last people to see the girls alive and among the first on the scene when their bodies were found.
Bishop also knew details of positions the girls were found in, despite others having said he was kept back following the discovery of
their bodies in dense woodland. He was also unable to account for around an hour when they were murdered.
Then, prosecutors in the 1987 trial decided to fix the time of death, which meant witnesses who saw the girls after that time bolstered his defence. Family asked why no fingerprints were taken from the girls’ necks and bruised areas.
Sussex Police have defended the probe.