TRAGIC NICOLA:
SEVEN words captured angry Nigel Heffron’s emotions as he saw Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop finally jailed after 30 years.
Nigel, 64, had vowed to get justice for his niece Nicola Fellows and pal Karen Hadaway – “however long it takes”.
He even got a job as a Parliament tour guide for 18 months so he could lobby the then Home Secretary David Blunkett in person.
The nine-year-olds were murdered by sex monster Bishop in 1986 and he walked® free after a bungled trial in 1987.
But last week the killer got a minimum of 36 years – and Nigel and the families finally saw justice. And as he left the Old Bailey the campaigning uncle mouthed: “Job done Nikki. Rest in peace now.”
RELIEF
The sense of relief was overwhelming after the long fight to nail Bishop, 52.
Hospital porter Nigel told the Sunday Mirror he had “waged war” on the Crown Prosecution Service and besieged Lord Blunkett and other MPs with demands for a fresh trial.
But England’s 800-year-old “double jeopardy” law – preventing a suspect being tried twice for the same offence – stood in the way. Even Lord Blunkett, Home Secretary from 2001-2004, said it “allowed extremely dangerous people to walk the streets”.
He writes for the Sunday Mirror today of Nigel’s unwavering campaign: “As a tour guide Nigel was able to have a word with me as well as give me written material. He was pushing at an open door in terms of double jeopardy and I’m just relieved justice has been served.”
Nicola and Karen went missing in Brighton on the evening of October 9, 1986. They were strangled and sexually assaulted and their bodies were found in woods the following day.
Calculating Bishop had joined a search for the girls. But the roofer, then 20, was later arrested and charged.
He was cleared after a series of mistakes by the prosecution at Lewes Crown Court. The blunders allowed him to strike again in 1990.
Bishop snatched a girl of seven off a Brighton street, bundled her into his car boot and drove to a beauty spot. He was jailed for a minimum of 14 years for rape and attempted murder.
Nigel said: “At the 1987 trial both police and the Crown Prosecution Service were useless. They didn’t liaise, yet they kept on saying they were about to produce some damning evidence. They never presented it. So-called expert witnesses looked like amateurs. Despite an apparent cast-iron case he went free with a big smile on his face. It was sickening.”
The trial was told that Bishop’s former common-law wife Jenny Johnson had given a police statement saying a jumper found near the scene was Bishop’s.
But in court she said she’d never seen