CONVICTED PAEDOPHILE, RUSSELL Bishop, has been found guilty of murdering two nine-year-old schoolgirls near Brighton, UK, 31 years after being acquitted of the crimes.

Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows went missing from their home after going out to play on the evening of 9 October 1986. Their bodies were found in a secluded woods nearby the following afternoon.

Bishop was quickly arrested but he was acquitted of their murders at a trial in 1987. The case became known as the Babes in the Wood.

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Less than three years after his acquittal Bishop snatched a seven-year-old girl off the street and brought her to remote location where he sexually assaulted and strangled her, leaving her for dead. 

The child survived the attack and went on to become a crucial witness in a trial that saw Russell handed a life sentence.

After a fresh investigation by Sussex Police the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) made a successful application to the Court of Appeal to quash the acquittal of Bishop under the ‘double jeopardy’ law.

A retrial was ordered and 52-year-old Bishop was convicted of the Babes in the Wood murders today.

“Today’s guilty verdicts mark the end of a 32-year fight for justice for the families of Karen and Nicola,” Nigel Pilkington, from the CPS, said.

“In order to bring Russell Bishop to justice, the CPS demonstrated to the Court of Appeal there was new and compelling evidence against him in the form of forensic material.

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Pilkington said that the prosecution showed the jury how Bishop attempted to conceal his crimes through his lies and it also showed them DNA evidence which provided a one-in-a-billion DNA match to a sweatshirt Bishop was wearing and which was at the scene of the murders.

Bishop will be sentenced tomorrow.

Comments are closed because sentencing has yet to take place.