A convicted paedophile has been found guilty of the “babes in the wood” murders at the end of a retrial that drew on scientific advances in forensics 32 years after two schoolgirls were killed.

Russell Bishop had been accused of sexually assaulting and strangling Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in October 1986 in woods about half a mile from Moulsecoomb, the area of Brighton where both girls lived.

The guilty verdicts were described as marking the end of a 32-year fight for justice for the girls’ families, who hugged each other and wept in court on Monday as the jury delivered its verdict.

“Time stood still for us in 1986. To us them beautiful girls will always be nine years old. They will never grow up,” said Michelle Hadaway, Karen’s mother, who described Bishop as an “evil monster”. “What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death,” she added.

Lee Hadaway, Karen’s father, died in 1998.

In a joint statement, 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.”

Russell Bishop. Photograph: Sussex police/PA

After demonstrating that there was new and compelling evidence against Bishop in the form of scientific material, the prosecution had shown the jury how he attempted to conceal his crimes through lies, said the Crown Prosecution Service.

This included DNA evidence which provided what the CPS described as a “one-in-a-billion” DNA match linking Bishop to a sweatshirt which was at the scene of the murders.

The case had never been closed and had become the largest and longest-running inquiry in the history of Sussex police. A retrial was made possible after Bishop’s 1987 acquittal on the same charges was quashed at the court of appealin light of new evidence.

Bishop, who was not present to hear he was being convicted on the 31st anniversary of his original acquittal, will be required to appear when he is sentenced on Tuesday after the eight-week trial.

It also emerged on Monday that Bishop’s former partner could face a perjury investigation over her conduct at his murder trial at Lewes crown court in 1987. Jennifer Johnson had initially identified the sweatshirt which was found discarded along Bishop’s route home in Brighton as belonging to him, but then denied it in court.



She was not called by the prosecution in the second trial but another of Bishop’s former partners said he had been violent towards Johnson.

Nigel Pilkington, a CPS lawyer, suggested the result of the 1987 trial could have been “wholly different” if Johnson had not changed her story.

“Obviously if somebody has not told the truth in a case which has been a miscarriage of justice for 32 years, that’s a serious matter, if it turns out to be so. But we will wait to see if police make a decision to investigate,” he added.

Both Karen and Nicola had been afraid of the dark and the latter’s father had banned her from playing in an area known as Wild Park, even saying the “bogeyman” lived there, the court was told.

However, Bishop spotted the two nine-year-olds playing in the park near their home at around dusk on 9 October 1986 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, suggested Brian Altman QC.

The court heard that as well as the DNA evidence, fibre transfers linked the sweatshirt to the girls, the murder scene and Bishop’s home. Dried red paint on the sleeve was matched to a flake on Nicola’s neck and Karen’s T-shirt, providing “very strong support” they had recent contact with the garment.

There were also hundreds of ivy hairs on the sweatshirt like those at the scene of the murders. As well as the evidence from the sweatshirt, a DNA match to Bishop was found on Karen’s left forearm, jurors heard.

Bishop had returned to live in the Brighton area after his acquittal, but less than three years later, in February 1990, committed offences involving the attempted murder, kidnapping and indecent assault of a seven-year-old girl in the Whitehawk area of the city.

She survived and identified Bishop as her attacker, the jury was told. This, together with other evidence, led to his conviction for that crime in December 1990.

During the trial this year, Bishop tailored his defence to the new evidence and claimed he had touched the girls to feel for a pulse on the day after the killings, when he had joined the search for them and was nearby when they were found. However, two teenagers who had spotted the bodies insisted that he could not have come close.

Acting on instructions, Bishop’s defence team had also cast suspicion on Nicola’s father, Barrie Fellows, suggesting that police spent decades investigating the wrong man. The 69-year-old was reduced to tears during the trial by the claims against him.

The defence team also cast doubt on the new evidence, suggesting it could have been contaminated.

Det Supt Jeff Riley described Bishop as 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.”