Today, Russell Bishop, the Babes in the Wood murderer, was urged to confess to his horrendous crimes before he succumbs to brain cancer.
The 55-year old has always denied the murder of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows, both nine-year-old best friends, in 1986, before dumping their bodies near their Brighton homes in woodland.
Today, both the parents of the girls exhorted the paedophile, currently in palliative treatment in jail, not to be a ‘coward, and to make a deathbed confession about the killings, which were among the most notorious of all the 1980s murder cases.
Babes in the Wood murderer Russell Bishop – who murdered best friends Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in 1986 – is dying from brain cancer in his prison cell, aged 55
Karen’s mother Michelle Hadaway (left), with Nicola and her parents Barrie Fellows, and Susan Eismann. The trio released a joint statement asking Bishop to be honest.
They told The Mirror, “Russell Bishop has a chance before he dies, unless he’s a bigger coward that he’s always been.”
“And if he doesn’t have the courage to confess his crimes, he will be the loser. So our message to him:
“We don’t need you to admit what you did our beautiful girls. We don’t care about your refusal… but your admission would demonstrate that you are willing to accept responsibility for your deplorable acts.
Nicola’s parents Barrie Fellows, Susan Eismann, and Karen’s mother Michelle Hadaway made the statement with the assistance of Nicola’s cousin Lorna Helffron.
The child killer was acquitted of all charges for 32 years before being sentenced in 2018.
The Sun on Saturday reported that he was initially diagnosed as having bowel cancer, but it has now spread throughout his brain.
Bishop had surgery to stop the cancerous growth, but it was unsuccessful.
He is said be ‘devastated by the diagnosis’ and is currently receiving palliative treatment at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
In 1986, when they were just nine years old, Bishop brutally murdered Nicola Fellows & Karen Hadaway.
Bishop after his initial arrest in 1986 for the Babes in the Wood murders
Sources said that Bishop has only a few weeks or at most months to live and is devastated by his diagnosis.
His life is ending and he is becoming weaker.
“Bishop has never shown much remorse and so people feel justified not feeling sympathy towards him.
Bishop lured his two best friends to a quiet den in Brighton’s Wild Park, where he sexually assaulted them and strangled them.
The tragic discovery was made within a half mile of both the girl’s families homes.
After a series blunders by police and forensic experts, Bishop was cleared in 1987 of the Babes in the Wood Murders.
He raped, molest, and throttled a seven-year old girl at Devil’s Dyke within three years.
In light of a DNA discovery, Bishop was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime.
The girls were found dead in the ‘den’ undergrowth of Wild Park, Brighton.
2017 saw Bishop’s acquittals overturned and he was convicted after a trial.
Jennifer Johnson, Bishop’s 55-year-old girlfriend, was convicted of perverting justice after he lied in his first trial.
Johnson shocked police when he claimed that the blue jumper that linked him with the crime scene and the killings wasn’t his was placed in the dock. She had previously said it was his.
Johnson had admitted lying but had pleaded not guilty perjury to perverting justice and perjury to perjury on the ground that she was acting under duress.
Lewes Crown Court found her lying again, and she had been ‘parts of Team Bishop’, determined to clear him of murder.
Johnson sent love letters to him during Devils Dyke and they were shown to the jurors.
The case was also brought into public attention by Martin Bashir, a shamed journalist who Martin Hadaway had accused of stealing Karen Hadaway’s clothes.
They said, “I’m not leaving you, so don’t be worried because I won’t. cos I love and cherish you and I will write every single day because you are special to me and I mean the world to you.
‘Don’t be worried if I’m not with your mum because I can’t find a babysitter all of the time, but I’m still thinking about you, love.
“Can we get married very soon, and I will book the churches OK? It is wonderful that I want to marry you. It’s not prison talk. Is it love? I don’t really have anything to say at the moment so bye!
After Karen Hadaway’s mother claimed that Martin Bashir had stolen her daughter’s clothes, the case was brought to public attention.
Michelle Hadaway claims that the former BBC Religion Editor obtained the clothes to DNA test for BBC Two’s Public Eye Programme 30 years ago. But, the investigation didn’t air and her calls were ignored.
Ms Hadaway stated that Mr Bashir approached her in 1991 to test her daughter’s DNA. He said science had improved in the five years since the murders but would not return the clothes.
After he claimed that he had delayed the murderer’s capture, she called him a “dishonest” rogue and demanded a criminal investigation.