Babes in the Wood murders: Paedophile Russell Bishop jailed for life

The 52-year-old sex attacker could well spend the rest of his life behind bars after being ordered to serve a minimum term of 36 years, as court hears of the horrendous suffering he inflicted on two little girls and the grieving families of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows

Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop has been jailed for life by a judge who said he should serve a minimum of 36 years and called him a “violent predator” who felt “no remorse whatsoever”.

Bishop, 52, sexually assaulted, strangled and killed nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in a Brighton park in October 1986, but escaped justice for 32 years until an Old Bailey jury found him guilty of two counts of murder on Monday.

At his sentencing on Tuesday afternoon, he was described as an “evil monster”, as the court heard of the suffering he inflicted on two little girls and two bereaved families who thought he might never be brought to justice after being acquitted of murder at a trial in 1987. The Old Bailey also heard how in February 1990, less than two years after walking free from court in 1987, Bishop abducted, strangled and sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl – a sex attack for which he is already serving a life sentence.

“He is more evil than he knows himself,” Karen Hadaway’s mother Michelle wrote in her victim impact statement. “Bishop should never be allowed the freedom to inflict this pain or suffering on any other child or family.”

In her statement, which was read to the court by prosecutor Brian Altman QC, Ms Hadaway said of Bishop’s conviction: “This is the result we should have had 31 years ago. Finally justice has been done and Bishop has been seen as the evil monster he really is.”

But, referring to the fact that her husband Lee died aged 50 in 1998 and never lived to see Bishop convicted, Ms Hadaway added: “If Bishop had pleaded guilty 31 years ago, my healing could have started then. I was 29 when Karen was killed and I am now 61 years old. Karen’s death destroyed my husband Lee and I had to raise my young family on my own.”

Nicola’s father Barrie Fellows described how the 1986 murder and 1987 acquittal had led to him enduring an “everlasting nightmare” that included an ill-founded whispering campaign suggesting he was the “real killer”.

The false rumours culminated in him being accused in court of killing his own daughter as Bishop adopted what the police condemned as a “cruel and desperate” defence tactic.

“Thirty-two years is a long time to be accused of murdering your daughter,” Mr Fellows wrote.

The false and salacious claims about him having watched Nicola in a child sex abuse video caused such damage, the court heard, that in 2009 Mr Fellows was arrested by Sussex Police.

Describing this in his victim impact statement, Mr Fellows said: “The day of my arrest will live with me forever. Degrading doesn’t even come close to what I went through.”

Police eventually cleared Mr Fellows of any wrongdoing, but, he said: “After I was released from custody, a social worker came to my house and interviewed my then 14-year-old daughter Amber. They asked her if she had ever been abused by me.

“She still has nightmares now about that day.”

In the witness box, Mr Fellows was pushed close to tears as he denied having any involvement in Nicola’s death under cross-examination by Bishop’s defence barrister.

Describing what he endured during the Old Bailey trial, Mr Fellows said in his victim impact statement: “My own physical health has been terrible throughout the trial. I have been mentally drained on a daily basis and on some days had no energy to carry on. This has caused chest infections and trips to have ECG’s on my heart from the effects of this stress.

“To look up Russell Bishop’s name on Google and see my face as the first picture to come up, with headlines such as ‘Father watched sex tape’ has caused me many sleepless nights, not just for me but for my whole family.

“Being accused by him has affected the way I interact with both my children and grandchildren.”

Mr Fellows also revealed the suffering inflicted on his son, Nicola’s older brother Jonathan, who died the month before the Old Bailey trial started, aged just 46.

Mr Fellows said that on or around the day of the murder in October 1986, “Jonathan had a row with Nicky.

“After she was murdered, he was riddled with guilt that he was not able to look after her as a big brother should. This had a huge impact throughout his life and he never truly recovered from her death.

“On 5 September 2018 he died at the age of 46.”

Describing how he had to identify his nine-year-old child in a “clinically white” mortuary room two days after she was killed, Mr Fellows said: “When I saw her my heart shattered completely. Seeing your little girl bruised and dead is the worst thing a parent could ever imagine and it has been with me since that day.”

His ex-wife Sue Eismann, Nicola’s mother, told how her world “turned upside down” after the death of her daughter.

On her feelings about Bishop, she said: “I have lived with the pain, the loss and sheer hate towards him for what he had done for the last 32 years.

“Russell Bishop is a horrible, wicked man who has no thought for anyone but himself. No child is safe if he is allowed to be free.”

During the two-month trial, helped by DNA technology that was not available in 1987, the Old Bailey jury saw through Bishop’s lies.

On 10 December 1987, it had taken a jury two hours to acquit Bishop. On 10 December 2018, 31 years to the day after Bishop cheated justice, the jurors needed just two and a half hours of deliberation to convict him.

But after a trial in which the prosecution had proved him to be “a cowardly paedophile”, Bishop did not show up in court for his sentencing, despite the judge having urged him to do so.

It seems he preferred to stay in a prison cell instead of going to the Old Bailey to hear the full extent of the suffering he had caused.

Instead, judge Mr Justice Sweeney sentenced the killer in absentia.

“I have no doubt you are a predatory paedophile,” he said. “You lured them to a secluded den in the woods. There, entirely for your own pleasure, you subdued them and strangled and sexually assaulted them.

“The terror each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable.”

Referring to Bishop’s attempt to escape justice by accusing Mr Fellows of killing his daughter, the judge said: “You falsely pretended you were innocent and made the allegation, which you were able, in law, to do, that Nicola’s father could have been the murderer instead.

“That will not add a day to your sentence, but it underlines that you have no remorse whatsoever for what you did.”

Contrasting the way Mr Fellows stood up to questioning with how Bishop gave up giving evidence and refused to subject himself to any more prosecution cross-examination, the judge said: “I observe that Barrie Fellows stood in the witness box and dealt with all the questions asked despite the distress it caused him, whereas, after cross-examination had exposed you as a paedophile and a liar, you refused to answer any more questions and have subsequently refused to attend court at all.”

Stating that there were “no mitigating features” to Bishop’s crime, the judge ordered that he serve a minimum of 36 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

The earliest Bishop can be released is in 2054 when he will be 88 years old.