No action over 'babes in wood' claim

No action will be taken against two men arrested on suspicion of carrying out sexual offences against one of the "Babes in the Wood" murder victims, police said today.

The two men, one of whom had been named by sources as victim Nicola Fellows' father Barrie Fellows, were originally arrested in April.

Nicola, nine, was found strangled to death alongside her friend Karen Hadaway, 10, in Wild Park, Brighton in 1986. No one has ever been brought to justice for what came to be known as the Babes in the Wood murders.

Fellows, 59, was arrested at his home in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, on suspicion of conspiracy to rape Nicola while the second man, named by sources as family friend Douglas Judd, 44, was arrested at his Brighton home on suspicion of rape.

Sussex Police said the investigation into sexual abuse allegations was unrelated to the ongoing murder inquiry but detectives had now decided no further action should be taken against the two men.

A spokeswoman said today: "Two men aged 59 and 44 arrested on April 7 in connection with allegations of sexual offences involving Nicola Fellows in the 1980s have been stood down from bail.

"When there are serious allegations made, in this case alleging that sexual crimes have been committed against a child, the public rightly expect us to investigate.

"After receiving information we arrested and interviewed two men. That process and the inquiries that followed have enabled us to decide we will not be taking action against either man.

"The investigation is quite distinct from the ongoing and unresolved inquiry into the Wild Park Babes in the Wood murders."

Labourer Russell Bishop, who knew both girls and their families and helped in the search for them, was arrested two months after their bodies were found together on October 10, 1986.

He was charged with the murders but was acquitted after the prosecution admitted a series of errors in the presentation of forensic evidence at his trial in 1987.

He was jailed for life in 1991 for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl from Brighton but has always denied killing Karen and Nicola.

In 2002 in the light of plans to abolish the double jeopardy rule which prevented suspects being tried twice for the same crime, Sussex Police announced they were re-examining the case.

However, the force later said that despite the review there was not enough evidence to mount a prosecution.