After 32 years, paedophile Russell Bishop has finally been convicted of the "babes in the wood" murders after advanced forensic techniques revealed his DNA linked him to his young victims through a discarded sweatshirt. 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. Although Bishop, a former roofer, was originally cleared of the "babes in the wood" murders, within three years he was sentenced to life for the kidnap, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke on the South Downs. Bishop had been serving a life sentence after being convicted of kidnapping, indecent assault and attempted murder for a separate case involving a girl in Brighton in 1990. 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. 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. PA Ready News UK Nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were found dead in a woodland den in Brighton in 1986

But the jury rejected his defence and convicted him at the Old Bailey after just two and a half hours, on the anniversary of Bishop’s original acquittal. Having to go through a second trial has been traumatic and heartbreaking for me and my family.”

Sue Eismann, Nicola’s mother, told how her world “turned upside down” after the death of her daughter. “Our thoughts today are with Karen and Nicola’s families, who have shown remarkable resilience throughout this ordeal over the last 32 years.”

In 2003, Parliament changed the law to allow acquitted defendants to face trial again if there was "new and compelling evidence". “What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death.”

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. Handing him a life sentence on Tuesday with a minimum term of 36 years, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "I have no doubt that you were a predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified.”

After sentencing, Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley said: “Russell Bishop is a truly wicked man and the life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years reflects the true magnitude of the terrible crimes against these two young girls. The terror that each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable.”

The breakthrough in the longest running case in the history of Sussex police came when scientific advances led to DNA evidence providing what the Crown Prosecution Service described as a “one-in-a-billion” match linking Bishop, a convicted paedophile, to a sweatshirt found at the scene of the murders.
Russell Bishop is convicted of the murder of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows. He had been tried and found not guilty of the crimes in 1987, but the acquittal was quashed as new evidence in the form of DNA was now available. Bishop had been convicted in December 1990 of the abduction, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in February of that year.