World's Most Evil Killers - Season 5, Episode 2 - Russell Bishop - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In October 1986, nine-year-old friends, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway,
disappeared while playing near their homes in Brighton, England. GRAHAM BARTLETT: They were just seen being
little girls around the estate. Nothing extraordinary at all, until that point when they disappeared off the face of the Earth.
NARRATOR: The following day, the bodies of the two young girls were discovered. The police had a prime suspect, 20-year-old Russell Bishop.
But at his trial a year later, the killer walked away scot free. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Anyone with half a brain,
would have been careful never to do it again. And yet, he does it again. NARRATOR: After attempting to kill a third young girl
in 1990, Bishop would eventually face justice in 2018, 32 years after the murder of Nicola and Karen,
the Babes in the Wood. MALCOLM BACON: Evil, insignificant, arrogant. He's a creature.
He's horrible, absolutely horrible. NARRATOR: Russell Bishop had finally been unmasked as one of the world's most evil killers.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: In December 2018, Russell Bishop was serving time in Frankland maximum security
prison for the abduction, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in 1990.
Investigators were certain the 52-year-old was also responsible for the 1986 murders of nine-year-old friends,
Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway. But in 1987, Bishop had been found not guilty of their murders.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: There was a huge shock within the police, when Bishop was acquitted
of killing Nicola and Karen. The investigation had been carried out so professionally
and so assiduously. So when the jury returned with not guilty verdicts, everyone was just stunned.
It just really rocked the whole police to the core. We just thought, what could possibly have gone wrong?
We knew that it was Bishop. Everybody knew that it was Bishop, yet he'd walked free.
NARRATOR: Since then, Graham Bartlett has studied Russell Bishop's career of crime.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: When I was a very young detective at Brighton, I became involved in the second investigation
into Russell Bishop. As a result of that, I became very aware of the case that had gone on before,
and the injustice that had been served through the acquittals. So I became fascinated with the case.
And as my career took off, I became constantly involved in terms of just being aware--
and also when I was the Divisional Commander of Brighton and Hove-- this cloud over the whole policing
of the city that we hadn't delivered justice for those two girls. NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in Brighton,
on the South Coast of England. Russell Bishop was born in February in 1966. One of five brothers, Bishop had a troublesome time growing up.
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Bishop had difficulties at school in terms of his learning, he was dyslexic.
So he was sent to a series of different special schools, and he ran away a lot. So this says to me, that from quite a young age,
this is somebody who thinks that the rules don't apply to them. They simply don't want to follow them.
NARRATOR: As a teenager, Bishop struggled to stay on the straight and narrow. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The first brushes he has with the law
are for mundane offenses. A driving offense in 1983, when he was 17. A burglary offense in 1984, when he was 18.
And then in 1985, he's convicted of more burglaries, and is given 150 hours of community service.
He's bumping along at the bottom of the law in a very minor way. GRAHAM BARTLETT: He would smoke drugs.
He would carry out theft burglaries, low level burglaries, steal from cars. Just really the run of the mill irritant on the estate.
NARRATOR: To try and fit in with his friends, Bishop would embellish his criminal accomplishments.
He has a bit of a penchant for bigging himself up. I mean, he likes to say, Oh, I'm a master criminal.
Absolute nonsense. I mean, he might have tried to steal the odd car, but on a scale of 1 to 10, he's a zero.
He's no master criminal at all. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Bishop was a compulsive liar.
He would lie about sexual conquests, how many women he'd slept with, the kind of criminal activity
that he'd been involved in. So he's somebody who's very concerned with what other people think of him, and essentially
giving a performance. So he will embellish, he will exaggerate, he will report what he wants to have happened,
rather than what's actually happened. NARRATOR: By 1986, 20-year-old Bishop was living in Moulsecoomb, a suburb of Brighton.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: At the time, he was living with his common law wife, his girlfriend,
had a child by her. But also was seeing a 16-year-old girl, ended up having a sexual relationship with her.
In some ways, he did show that he preferred younger girls, but nothing at all has come out then or now, that would suggest
that he was a pedophile. NARRATOR: On the afternoon of the 9th of October 1986, nine-year-olds, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway,
had come home from school and were playing on the green outside their homes in Moulsecoomb.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Everybody can pretty much see them through the window. It's late afternoon and there are
a group of girls, not just two. After an hour, maybe 45 minutes, Nicola and Karen
split off from the rest of the group and go in search of something else to do. At about 6:15, the girls are seen
outside the fish and chip shop with a bag of chips each and walking. Nothing all that unusual in that except that
by then, both Nicola's and Karen's mother are becoming rather concerned. GRAHAM BARTLETT: When Karen didn't come home for tea,
which is something that she would always do when her mum asked her, both parents started to get worried,
started to have a look round, phone around friends, and try and find where they are.
And they were drawing a blank. In this sort of estate, in any sort of estate, certainly in my childhood too, it wasn't unusual
for kids to go missing for a couple of hours or so, the evenings were still light.
But something about them going missing and not being seen, nobody knew where they were,
that really piqued people's worries about what had happened to these two little girls.
NARRATOR: Throughout the evening there have been various sightings of the girls around the estate
and in nearby Wild Park. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The last time the two girls are seen,
is heading towards Wild Park with their bags of chips. And in the same vicinity, at around the same time,
there's also a sighting there of Russell Bishop. NARRATOR: Bishop knew both girls through his friends
and neighbors in Moulsecoomb. GRAHAM BARTLETT: It was a very close knit community.
Bishop used to play for Barrie Fellows football team, he was a goalkeeper in Barrie Fellows football team.
So he knew the Fellows through that way. Also, his girlfriend at the time knew the Hadaway's.
So he got to know them through that means, really. But Moulsecoomb is one of these places where people
literally know everybody. NARRATOR: By 8:30 PM, night had fallen, and the girls still hadn't returned home.
Their worried parents decided to call the police. GRAHAM BARTLETT: When the officers drove into Newick Road
to go and see the parents, immediately they sensed something was different. They both policed Moulsecoomb for a while,
they'd been to these kind of calls before. But the number of people out on the street, the little huddles
of concerned faces trying to work out what was going on, immediately they picked up on that.
NARRATOR: A police search began for the two nine-year-old friends. GRAHAM BARTLETT: It's difficult when you're either commanding
or taking part in a search such as this, because your overriding emotion must be hope.
You must hope that you're going to find these girls alive. Find Nicola and Karen, bring them back to their mum and dad.
But in fact, the longer it went on, the less likely that was becoming. NARRATOR: The girl's parents, the police,
and the whole community were desperate to find Nicola and Karen alive. It was cold and dark, but the search continued until 2:00 AM.
When it resumed later that morning, Detective Constable John Moreton was one of the huge number of police that
had been drafted in to help. JOHN MORETON: The briefing started at 9 o'clock. And at that stage, we had all the available uniformed
personnel at Brighton engaged. And the search had been ramped up considerably in an effort to find the girls.
NARRATOR: Police Constable Paul Smith had also reported for duty. He was tasked with searching homes
in the area near Wild Park. PAUL SMITH: We were doing every single house parallel to the park and beyond, which is a massive estate.
And I think there was sort of 30, 40 guys involved. You knock on the door, you say, look,
we've got two little girls gone missing, can I search your house? And every single person, every one of them
said, please come in. Hope was always there. But actually, this dread that something
awful had happened to them, was starting to grow in people's minds. NARRATOR: Members of the public also joined in the search
for Nicola and Karen. One of the Moulsecoomb residents was 20-year-old Russell Bishop.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: He was searching around with everybody else. He got in a car at one point and went to the back of the park.
But was constantly putting himself in or about the center of the search, just wanted to be kept coming back to Wild Park.
Kept wanting to talk to officers. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Bishop literally can't help himself.
And as with many narcissists, he wants to be right in the middle of everything. He can't step back from something, he can't be quiet.
And any kind of attention, whether that's positive or whether that's negative, is something that he will value.
So he places himself right in the middle of this drama that he's created. NARRATOR: When Paul Smith continued with his search
for the nine-year-old girls in Wild Park, Russell Bishop was already on the scene with his dog.
PAUL SMITH: We were talking about searching, looking for the girls, and he was quite negative about that.
He said, I've been searching all day, my dog knows them, he's a good tracker. And I've decided to give up, I've been doing it all day.
And I said, well, we've got to keep looking, got to find them. If we find them, rush them to hospital
and have them checked over, and then they'll be back with their mums and dads, sort of thing.
And he said, oh, well, I'm not doing that. He said, because if I found them and they're dead,
I get arrested, won't I? For killing them. With my background, and the fact I've
been in trouble with the police, I'd get nicked. And I said, no, you won't. You've just got to give a statement.
NARRATOR: At around 4:00 PM, Police Officer, Paul, and local resident, Bishop, were still
searching for the girls, who'd now been missing for almost 24 hours. PAUL SMITH: We were walking towards Wild Park by this time,
into Wild Park. And there was a shout from a boy. And he said, we found them, we found them.
We went rushing off towards them. And I had wet weather trousers on, because it had been raining.
And I had a long raincoat, I had boots. So I was a bit slower than he was. And I said to Bishop, look, you run on ahead,
and if they're there, you keep them away from the girls, and you keep away from the girls.
NARRATOR: Paul Smith arrived just after Bishop. The nightmare that everyone was dreading had become a reality.
PAUL SMITH: I kept him away. He was about 12, 13 feet away from where the girls were.
And I could see that they looked dead. I went across to them and I took their pulse, and--
Sorry, it still gets me. I took their pulse, and they were stone cold dead. Like pieces of marble.
NARRATOR: The two teens who'd found the girls told Detective Constable John Moreton, that no one apart from Paul Smith
had gone anywhere near the bodies. But Russell Bishop had a totally different story.
JOHN MORETON: He said to me that he'd been searching with the other two along this path
and they come to a fallen tree, which they had to cross. And that he had crossed the tree, gone to the girls,
and seen that they were both dead. And to verify that, he said he took a pulse from both girls
at the neck. Frankly, I was so staggered by what he said that I sat down immediately, and wrote down
what he told me in my notebook. PAUL SMITH: It was nothing to him. You know like you swat a fly, and then you get rid of it.
It was like that. He was just not bothered. There was no emotion. I would have expected him, because he knew
them, to be like, oh my God. Even if you're in shock. But, no, nothing. Nothing there at all.
It could have been a dead dog. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The police were suspicious of Bishop from the beginning,
because he was overly enthusiastic. And some of the information that he was sharing, really
didn't stack up. So he claimed to have checked the girls pulses. He claimed to have seen blood coming from the mouths of one
of the girls, and he couldn't have been close enough to say that. So the police were quite concerned at this behavior.
There were a lot of red flags here. So he was the prime suspect, really. NARRATOR: Nicola Fellows and Karen
Hadaway had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. The news of the discovery quickly
spread amongst the residents of Moulsecoomb. The entire community was in shock. GRAHAM BARTLETT: Any murder is big.
Any murder is a tragedy. But the loss of two little girls, in such brutal circumstances, is probably
the biggest thing that can happen in terms of policing. GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's a dreadful scene,
and it's a dreadful crime. It has a monstrous effect on the community in Brighton.
Originally, the killings were known as the Wild Park murders, but they later became known as the Babes in the Wood killings,
because the girls were so innocent and young. JOHN MORETON: I'd gone to school in Moulsecoomb
for all my childhood, so it was a personal blow to me that somebody would take two young girls from that estate,
and decide he was going to murder them. To me, you don't do that. Not on my beat.
NARRATOR: The search for two missing girls had now become a double murder case. Evidence from the surrounding area was scrutinized.
At the briefing the next morning, our attention was drawn to a blue sweatshirt, which had a logo across the front, Pinto,
in white lettering. It had been handed in a police box by a railway engineer who was at Moulsecoomb station,
and found it hanging over the wire that separates the station from the footpath.
NARRATOR: In 1986, DNA was still in its infancy, but that didn't mean there weren't any clues
to be found on the sweatshirt. GRAHAM BARTLETT: As time went on, the various forensic items were recovered from it.
Fibers from the girls jumpers. Ivy spores that were peculiar to the area where the girls were killed, and not where the sweatshirt was found.
So it became very clear that whoever had murdered Nicola and Karen, had been wearing this sweatshirt
at the time they did that. Because otherwise, those fibers would not have retained on there.
So it was really, really significant, this sweatshirt. NARRATOR: Russell Bishop had been acting suspiciously,
and he had been spotted in the area at around the same time as the girls were last seen alive.
Investigators were convinced that the Pinto sweatshirt belonged to Bishop. The evidence appeared to be pointing in one direction.
In December 1986, Bishop was charged with the murders of Nicola and Karen. Almost a year later, in November 1987,
his trial began at Lewes Crown Court. They never quite got to the point where they could say, through science,
that that sweatshirt was worn by Bishop on that night. They knew that it had been worn by the killer,
but they couldn't put it on Bishop's back at that point. NARRATOR: The prosecution put forward
the case that Bishop had murdered Nicola and Karen at around 6:30 PM. But one witness testified she'd waved hello
to the two girls at a quarter to seven, 15 minutes after the killings had supposedly taken place.
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The judge asked the jury to go away and consider three propositions.
And if one or more of them they didn't agree with, then they had to acquit. So the first one was that the girls were dead by 6:30.
The second was that Bishop had worn the Pinto sweatshirt. And the third was that the Pinto sweatshirt
had been worn by the murderer. Absolutely stunned. The most stunning thing of all was
that the jury came back within two hours with a not guilty verdict. NARRATOR: The case put forward, was just not strong enough
to convince the jury of Bishop's guilt. It was a gut wrenching blow to the families of the two girls,
the investigators, and the community as a whole. GRAHAM BARTLETT: Bishop knew, when
he heard those words, not guilty, that he got away scot free. In his mind, and in everybody else's mind,
there was no possibility of him being prosecuted again for that. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The way that the law stood
at this time, we had a principle called Double Jeopardy, which meant that somebody couldn't be tried for the same crime twice.
Once they'd been acquitted, that was it. The Prosecution couldn't just keep trying .
So Bishop is acquitted, and he feels absolutely invincible at this point in time.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Bishop leaves Lewes Crown Court with his arms in the air, shouting, I'm innocent.
And rushes across the road to celebrate in the pub opposite. Now, some brass neck, wouldn't you think?
Some ego there. After all, he knows perfectly well that he's killed those two innocent young girls.
NARRATOR: In the minds of the people who worked on the case, Russell Bishop had just got away with murder.
PAUL SMITH: Ordinary blokes like me, the PCs and that, was stunned, because after we'd heard about the case
and we knew what had gone on, we were sure that he was a killer. It was absolutely devastating for everybody.
That they had a child killer, a double child killer, in their hands, and he got away.
NARRATOR: Investigators were certain Bishop was the perpetrator, but they couldn't
prove it in a court of law. So he walked away a free man. By 1989, Bishop himself, was seeking justice.
Thing is, we still got to get this case reopened. And that's all what's been on my mind,
is to get this case reopened. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: After he's acquitted, Bishop doesn't just go away and live a quiet life.
As a narcissist, he feels entitled to attention. And he quite likes the infamy that comes with being
involved in this case. So in 1989, he goes on a march with the family and the local community, to a local police station
to basically raise awareness about this case, which is apparently still unsolved.
REPORTER: Some people might be surprised that you're now linking up with the parents of the two murdered schoolgirls,
having been accused yourself of that murder. People are very surprised. People keep on asking me, why do I keep on, and on, and on.
The fact is, I want to see this case reopened. My name isn't cleared until someone
else is pulled to justice. The real person. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He really enjoys
being at the center of that, because it enables him to claim the victim status for himself.
He's saying, everybody look at me, I am the victim of a miscarriage of justice, Feel sorry for me.
NARRATOR: By February 1990, Sussex Police were still trying to move on from what they believed
to be a grave miscarriage of justice, when a similar attack took place in the county.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: I remember in my first month as a Detective at Brighton CID. I was a very junior DC, bottom of the pile.
Working one Sunday evening, it happened to be the third anniversary of the girl's funerals,
and then suddenly everything changed. The Sergeant came in and told us that a little girl had gone
missing from Whitehawk, which is a similar state to Moulsecoomb, in a different part of Brighton.
And shortly after she'd been reported missing, a little girl had been found naked, scratched,
crying on Devil's Dyke, which is a big, windswept part of what's now the South Downs National Park.
NARRATOR: Detective Inspector Malcolm Bacon, was in charge of the investigation.
She comes to. She's in the middle of nowhere. So she stumbles out, and she's been seen by a couple
who are on the main road there. So she goes to them. And the first thing she said was, you're not
kidnappers are you? Bless her heart. But of course, they weren't. Wrapped up in a pullover and a coat,
and took her to The Dyke Golf Club. NARRATOR: The seven-year-old girl that survived a terrifying ordeal,
which she bravely shared with Malcolm and his team. After rollerskating to the local shop to buy some sweets,
her young life would change forever. MALCOLM BACON: She is on her way back, when she says she saw this red car.
And she was scooting past it, suddenly she was grabbed. Literally grabbed, snatched off the street,
and dumped into the boot of this red car, this red Cortina. MALCOLM BACON: She was scared.
Absolutely scared witless. And she realized she saw a can of WD-40. She described it as the stuff that her dad
uses to get the car started. And she also found in there, like a hammer type thing,
and so she started bashing on the lid of the boat with this hammer. Suddenly, the driver shouted down and told her to shut up,
stop doing that or I'll kill you. NARRATOR: The girl kept quiet, hoping that she'd be set free.
But her ordeal continued. MALCOLM BACON: She was bundled straight into the back seat of the car.
And from there, she realized, and she saw the person who was responsible. And she was strangled.
She was strangled, certainly to the point of view that she passed out. And I am sure--
I am sure that Bishop was convinced that he killed her. NARRATOR: Three years after the murders of Nicola Fellows
and Karen Hadaway, Russell Bishop was hoping to claim a third victim. MALCOLM BACON: At that point unconscious,
hardly any life signs at all, she was sexually assaulted. Bishop then just takes what he considers
to be the dead, naked body of a seven-year-old child that he is just assaulted and abused, and just discards.
There's no other word for it. He discards her. He just throws her in the middle of these gorse
bushes on a freezing cold Sunday night in February. NARRATOR: Bishop sped off in his car.
But the monster had made a mistake. The girl was not dead. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think he did seriously believe
that she was dead, because strangulation was a method that he'd used before on Karen and Nicola,
and it had been successful in relation to that case. So he assumes that it's worked again,
and that he's gotten away with it again, because there are no witnesses. We don't normally use forensic pathologists
to do examinations of children, but on this particular case, it was. Because he noticed not only the pinching around the throat,
but also petechial hemorrhages, which is indicative of a suffocating injury. That's the sort of thing that you
look at when a person has been strangled and they're killed. But that's how close she was.
Seconds, I would suggest. Seconds away from death. NARRATOR: The seven-year-old girl's incredible testimony
immediately helped Malcolm and his team come up with a prime suspect. MALCOLM BACON: So I gave a briefing to the troops,
and I mentioned about the red car, this, that, and the other. And the uniform chief inspector said,
are you aware that Russell Bishop was seen in a red car this week? NARRATOR: Less than two and a half years
after his acquittal for murder, the police were paying 23-year-old Russell Bishop another visit.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: They drove up to his house, and saw him scrubbing as if his life depended on it.
MALCOLM BACON: Washing his red Cortina on a Sunday night in February, that didn't sit right.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: So Bishop was arrested, and taken to the police station. NARRATOR: Bishop was back in custody.
It was a moment of bittersweet redemption for Sussex Police. MALCOLM BACON: People were volunteering to come in.
Soon as somebody heard it was Russel Bishop that had been nicked as well, you've got to be honest, that was like a magnet
as well. That was like a magnet. And I went down with the Sergeant from the scenes of crime officer to look at this car.
And when we opened up the boot lid, we saw the WD-40, we saw the hammer, we saw the chip marks to the boot.
And we thought, we're going in the right direction. NARRATOR: Evidence collected at the scene near Devil's Dyke,
didn't help Bishop's cause. MALCOLM BACON: We find tire marks at the area where we believe the assault took place.
The tire marks were later found to be exactly identical to the ones that were on Bishop's car.
NARRATOR: Soon, news reached the station of even more evidence that pointed towards Bishop's involvement.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: There was a taxi driver that had found a bundle of clothing on a road that was fairly busy, but was
the natural route away from the Dyke to where Bishop lived. This bundle of clothing would ultimately
be a parcel of evidence that had both the girls and Bishop's DNA in it together.
MALCOLM BACON: Chippings from the boot lid, they were on there. There was clothing fibers, which later matched up to the ones
that the little girl was wearing. There was blood, and there was semen on those trousers.
Immediately linking the little girl, to those trousers, to Bishop, and then the car as well.
NARRATOR: In a bid to make sure Bishop didn't escape justice, the brave seven-year-old girl was willing to face
her attacker once more. GRAHAM BARTLETT: Almost at the time a decision had to be made whether Bishop was going
to be freed or not, his solicitor asked for an identification parade. This was a bit of a last desperate throw of the dice,
in my view. It was a chance for Bishop's solicitor to see how well this little girl would stand up to the account
that she'd given. They set it up in a room with a one way mirror, so she could stand back and she can observe.
He sat down, he was given his number. MAN: I'm going to ask you in a moment, to look through the window at the line
of men who are sitting there. I shall then ask you, whether the person who you saw on that day is here.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: The girl looked up and down the line, stopped at Bishop, looked at Bishop.
He couldn't see her. GIRL: He's number 9. MAN: You think it's number 9? Thank you.
MALCOLM BACON: So it was really quite a tear jerking moment, in a sense. It was so emotional, that little bit.
I mean, it was just wonderful. For her, and for us. Definitely for us. NARRATOR: Bishop was charged with kidnap, indecent assault,
and attempted murder. At his trial in November 1990, he took to the stand in a bid to discredit
the police investigation . GEOFFREY WANSELL: The ever slippery Bishop attempts to convince the world that he's
been fitted up for the crime because of his fame. Oh, I'm the man that got away with the Babes
in the Wood killings. I was acquitted, but now they're trying to make up for lost time.
MALCOLM BACON: He got in the box and he started to give evidence, and his arrogance just
shone through. He didn't have to do anything, just let him talk. Just let him talk.
And he just showed this psychopathic behavior throughout. He couldn't stop himself from being
the victim to this arrogance that he showed throughout. NARRATOR: With incredible bravery,
the young girl, who had since turned eight, agreed to take to the stand in order to help get a conviction.
It must have been the most extraordinary moment. You've got this man full of all kinds of slippery stories,
and you've got this little girl sitting on a high stool with pillows saying, I know who attacked me.
He did. It was a moment of the highest drama. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think this kind of courage
and resilience is something that Bishop will never have, because he's such a coward.
Very often in these cases, the victims embody everything that the perpetrators aren't.
And that is very much the case here. NARRATOR: There is no escaping justice this time.
On the 13th of December 1990, Russell Bishop was sentenced to life in prison. GRAHAM BARTLETT: Sometimes when murderers are convicted
and good sentences are passed down, the police have a bit of a celebration. They might go out for a drink, or you know, just are very
satisfied with the outcome. There were no celebrations this time. We locked up a very, very evil man.
But there was no cause for celebration, because the families of those two little girls
were still waiting for their day in court, still waiting for justice. NARRATOR: The guilty verdict to reaffirm the community's
belief that Bishop was behind the 1986 murders of Nicola and Karen. GRAHAM BARTLETT: Even though Bishop had been convicted
of a very similar offense against a very similar girl in very similar circumstances, nothing
would have allowed the police to recharge Bishop with those earlier murders, and put him before the court.
The law simply didn't allow it. So we were stuck. We knew that Bishop had killed Nicola and Karen,
everybody knew that within the police, the families knew that. Nothing we could do about it.
NARRATOR: By 2004, 38-year-old Russell Bishop had been in prison for 14 years. The convicted pedophile was due to be released at any moment.
Detective Jeff Riley had been recruited in the same year that Bishop was sent to prison, but he was still aware
of the miscarriage of justice surrounding the Babes in the Wood murders. JEFF RILEY: Well I joined the police in 1990,
and so of course, that was only a few years after he'd been acquitted at trial. And I was aware of the investigation,
and I was aware it had a massive impact clearly on the families, a massive impact on the community
at Moulsecoomb. And I think it always hung as a bit of a dark cloud over Brighton and over Sussex Police,
because you never want to see the murder of two little girls with the guy not brought to justice.
NARRATOR: But all that was about to change. JEFF RILEY: The big change came in 2003, when the Criminal
Justice Act was brought in. It was actually became law in 2005. And that was a real milestone in the UK justice system,
because it meant that someone who was found not guilty, i.e acquitted at trial, could now potentially
be taken back to trial and be retried for the original offense. NARRATOR: The new legislation that
remove the so-called Double Jeopardy law, meant Bishop could be retried for the murders
of Nicola and Karen. But only if there was some new evidence against him. GRAHAM BARTLETT: When we talk about new evidence,
we weren't talking about evidence that had been sat there and the police haven't bothered to look at,
or the prosecution had decided not to use at court. It had to be new evidence, and it had to be compelling.
NARRATOR: Gathering the new evidence would take years. But fortunately, as Bishop was still
considered a danger to young girls, his parole was continually denied. By 2013, Jeff and his team believe
they had made a breakthrough. Although DNA testing wasn't readily available to detectives in 1986, forensic science had
come on in leaps and bounds. And the blue Pinto sweatshirt once again became pivotal in the case.
JEFF RILEY: Normally they would always test around the neck. They would test under the armpits.
But they took the view that actually it had like a double cuff on the sweatshirt.
So if we unpick the cuff and pull it apart, we may find some evidence of the wearer within that cuff.
And that's exactly what they did. And that's exactly what they found. They actually recovered a full DNA profile from Russell Bishop
from within that cuffed area. That had been there since he'd wore the jumper in 1986.
NARRATOR: Back in 1986, the sweatshirt had merely been regarded as lost property.
And had been handled so many times, contamination of the evidence couldn't be ruled out in a court of law.
Incredibly, it was back to square one for Jeff. JEFF RILEY: Well that was a massive blow
for the investigation. We'd been running two years. I'd been discussing with the family,
we built their hopes up. We'd invested a lot of money, from Sussex Police's point of view.
We'd invested a lot of time. But of course, the impact on the family could have been significant.
But the scientists were quite upbeat and they said, look, we've got lots of other options to test evidence.
So just because we've lost this DNA in the cuff, which was our original bet, doesn't mean to say
there's not other avenues. NARRATOR: Some evidence from the original investigation
was still securely sealed away. Forensic samples taken from the bodies of Nicola and Karen
using an adhesive tape. GRAHAM BARTLETT: They decided that they would go back to these tapings.
The tapings that had been taken back in the 80s by the scientist who was looking for fibers, hair,
foliage, those sorts of things. Because these tapings were sealed parcels in time, really.
They were time capsules, of evidence. There was no break in seals. So they examined the tapings.
And this was a Eureka moment, because within those tapings, was Bishop's DNA. NARRATOR: Modern science had proved what detectives
back in 1986 couldn't. The new DNA evidence firmly placed Russell Bishop at the scene of the crime, and proved
he had been in physical contact with the two nine-year-old girls. It also meant without a doubt, Bishop had been wearing the now
infamous Pinto sweatshirt. JEFF RILEY: So even though we'd lost the cuff, we had DNA on the sweatshirt, we had DNA from our victim,
and we had all the other evidence that stood the test of time. GRAHAM BARTLETT: Bishop's assertion--
and it was probably his only consistent assertion, other than the fact that he hadn't killed the girls--
was that he knew nothing about that sweatshirt, and it wasn't his. Yet here it was sprinkled in his DNA.
NARRATOR: Based on this new evidence, investigators knew that the Court of Appeal
would agree to a retrial. The only thing left to do was break the news to Russell Bishop.
JEFF RILEY: He was a Category A prisoner, because of his security risk. So we had to take him to a Category
A holding police station. And that's the first thing he would have known about our investigation, was when
he drove into the rear yard of Durham Central Police Station. And he just kept saying, I want to go back to prison,
this has been dealt with, this is gone away. I think he was hoping it had gone away.
And I think he'd convinced himself it had. But of course, he hadn't thought about Double Jeopardy,
he hadn't thought about the Criminal Justice Act. And he hadn't thought about the fact
that we'd never forgotten about this case. And there he was in custody, being arrested again for the murders of Karen and Nicola.
It was a massive moment for us. NARRATOR: The retrial began at the Old Bailey in October 2018.
Further evidence was presented against Bishop, including explicit letters he'd written to a 13-year-old girl
from his prison cell, while on remand for the original trial in 1987. He started shouting that it wasn't right that he
was questioned in this way. He appealed to his counsel. He appealed to the judge.
The judge very quickly told him that these questions were appropriate, and if at any stage,
they weren't, he would step in, but he didn't need to. As this went on and went forward,
Bishop became more and more angry. He then asked for a break. He then left the witness box.
He then refused to return. And the following day, refused to return to trial. So actually, he never came back to court
after his initial evidence. I think he realized at that moment, that he'd blown it.
Because the jurors could see for themselves exactly what he was capable of. NARRATOR: After just three hours of deliberations,
on the 10th of December 2018, the jury had reached a decision. When they filed back into the court,
the families were all there, that barristers were all there, the police officers were there.
Everyone was in court, apart from Bishop. JEFF RILEY: The family was sitting just behind me.
The courtroom was packed. But the atmosphere was electric. I mean, absolutely electric.
The jury came back in. You all look at the jury, trying to get an indication of what you think.
We've all done it over the years. But we just couldn't tell. GRAHAM BARTLETT: The foreman stood up.
The clerk asked whether they had made a decision on which they were all agreed. The foreman confirmed they had.
And then, when asked whether or not they found Bishop guilty or not guilty of murdering Nicola,
he replied guilty. And when asked whether they'd found the defendant guilty or not guilty of murdering Karen,
he replied guilty. JEFF RILEY: The feeling in the court was just astounding. I looked at the family, and just the look on their face,
and they let out a gasp. And I think there was a gasp that just went around the court.
GRAHAM BARTLETT: It was a huge moment for the whole city, for the police, for the retired officers,
that this was a cloud that had now lifted from the city. NARRATOR: Unlike his acquittal exactly 31 years earlier
to the day, Russell Bishop would not be celebrating in the pub. The following day, the 52-year-old
refused to appear in front of the judge to hear his fate. GRAHAM BARTLETT: He sentenced Bishop with a withering attack
to two life sentences and a minimum term of 36 years. Bishop will be, at the very least, 88,
when he is eligible for parole. I would be astonished if that man ever walked the streets again.
Detectives don't like to get too emotional with these things, but this was just such
a massive moment for the team. And I remember sitting next to one of my guys, and I was just shaking hands, and just looking at the family,
and smiling at Barrie, and Michelle, and Susan. And just thinking, I'm so pleased for you.
I'm so pleased that finally you've got justice for your daughters. It was an amazing moment.
One that I've never had before, and I don't think we'll ever have it again. NARRATOR: A weight had been lifted
from Moulsecoomb and the city of Brighton as a whole. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think the feeling in the community,
amongst the family, and the officers involved, was that they had finally achieved
justice for Karen and Nicola. But I don't think it was very much a celebratory moment,
it was more the closing of a chapter. Because Karen and Nicola would now be women with years of life behind them and in front of them.
And this is something that Bishop has denied to them. So I think there is a sense of justice here,
but we'll never be able to get back what he's taken away. NARRATOR: For 32 years, Bishop thought he'd got away
with murder, but justice eventually caught up with the callous killer. Russell Bishop is an evil pedophile psychopath.
His crimes speak for themselves. The way he conducts himself, the way he's conducted himself throughout, just underline the evil
that that man is. I used to say that there were people that did evil things, but very few evil people.
Well, Bishop is one of those evil people. NARRATOR: Bishop was a pedophile who couldn't resist his selfish and impure instincts.
He squeezed the life from two innocent young girls, and it was only his own ineptitude
that saved the life of a third. Justice was 32 years in the making. But the scars he's left on the community he ripped apart,
will take even longer to heal, making Russell Bishop one of the world's most evil killers.
[MUSIC PLAYS]

An investigation into the man known as the 'Babes in the Wood Killer,' who evaded justice for over thirty years after strangling and molesting two nine-year-old girls in 1986.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Russell Bishop, acquitted for murdering two girls, was retried and convicted in 2018 after new DNA evidence emerged.

Key points

The Disappearance of Two Girls. In October 1986, nine-year-old friends Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway disappeared in Brighton.
The Discovery of the Bodies. The following day, the bodies of the two young girls were discovered, shocking the community.
Bishop's Acquittal. Despite strong suspicions, Russell Bishop was acquitted of the murders in 1987, leaving the community in shock.
The Missing Girl. A little girl goes missing, leading to a tense investigation.
The Ordeal. The seven-year-old girl survives a terrifying kidnapping and shares her story.
Bishop's Arrest. Russell Bishop is arrested again, marking a bittersweet moment for the police.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Evil, insignificant, arrogant. He's a creature.

Malcolm Bacon describes Russell Bishop's nature.

0:59WatchAug 19, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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