The father of a schoolgirl killed more than 30 years ago wept in court today as he denied any involvement in his daughter’s death.
Russell Bishop, 52, is accused of sexually assaulting and strangling nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in a Brighton woodland in 1986.
Bishop’s legal team has previously suggested Nicola’s father Barrie Fellows may have killed the girls himself to cover up the alleged sexual abuse of his own daughter.
Mr Fellows gave evidence in Bishop’s Old Bailey murder trial today and insisted he had done no such thing.
Russell Bishop is on trial for the murder of schoolgirls Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in 1986. Nicola’s father Barrie (right) gave evidence at the trial today
He denied ‘being party to Nicola being filmed in a pornographic video’ and then watching the tape with another man.
Bishop’s lawyer Joel Bennathan QC asked him: ‘Were you anything to do with her death?’
‘No,’ Mr Fellows replied.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told him: ‘It is being suggested, so that nobody is left in any doubt, Mr Bennathan having sat down; you are being accused of having killed Nicola.’
As Ms Johnson wept in the well of the court, the prosecutor continued: ‘You are being accused of having killed Karen.
‘This is what is being suggested to you; that you sexually assaulted your own daughter and Karen in that den, having punched Nicola in the face.’
Mr Fellows denied the claims and left court in floods of tears.
Nicola Fellows (left) and Karen Hadaway (right) were found dead in woodland in 1986. Nicola’s father gave evidence at the trial of her alleged killer today
Earlier, Mr Fellows had spoke of a conversation he had with Bishop in the weeks after the girls’ bodies were discovered.
Mr Fellows was taken through a witness statement he gave after the girls’ were killed.
He told police that Bishop had come to see him and said: ‘I have come to clear the air.’
Pictured: Mr Fellows shortly after his daughter’s murdered
When Mr Fellows said he would call the police, Bishop told him: ‘I didn’t kill your daughter’.
Mr Fellows also told the court about the day of his daughter’s disappearance, how he had become worried and went out to find out where she was.
He told the court: ‘They shouldn’t even have been in the Wild Park. They had been banned from the park after dark.
‘I didn’t like my children going out after dark anyway. It’s not safe.’Bishop was acquitted of the two girls’ murders in 1987 but jailed for life three years later for the abduction, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl.
Bishop was acquitted of the two girls’ murders in 1987 but jailed for life three years later for the abduction, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl.
But the roofer is in the dock after senior judges ruled there is compelling new evidence and quashed the decision of a 1987 jury to acquit him.
At the centre of the case are fibres, paint traces and plant spores found on a sweater he is accused of dumping as he made his escape.
Bishop denies the murders. The trial continues.
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