Babes In The Wood killer Russell Bishop should ‘rot in hell for all eternity’, the mother of one of his victims said today after news emerged of his death.
The murderer, who was 55, passed away in hospital last night after being rushed there from the top security HMP Frankland, in County Durham.
He murdered best friends Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, both nine, in 1986 before dumping their bodies in woodland near their homes in Brighton.
Reacting to the monster’s death, Michelle Johnson, Karen’s mother, said: ‘May you rot in hell for all eternity you evil wicked monster and I hope your family suffer in the same way as you made me and my family suffer for so long when you took the life of my beautiful nine-year-old daughter, Karen, and her friend Nicky.’
She added: ‘He put us through decades of pain and grief due to his evil actions. The suffering we have had to endure has been unimaginable.’
‘He has gone. It was a bad day when that b***ard was born. I don’t know whether this brings any closure for me but at least he is gone, that’s all I can say.’
In 2020, it was reported he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer, but this later spread to his brain.
According to The Sun, the killer died in hospital last night while being watched over by a pair of prison officers.
Bishop lured the two best friends Nicola and Karen to a secluded den in Brighton’s Wild Park where he sexually assaulted and strangled them.
The tragic discovery was made just half a mile from both of the girl’s family homes.
Bishop was cleared of the Babes in the Wood murders in 1987 after a series of blunders by police, forensic experts and prosecutors.
Within three years he went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl at Devil’s Dyke.
While serving life for that crime, Bishop was ordered to face a fresh trial for Nicola and Karen’s murders in light of a DNA breakthrough.
He was finally convicted of Nicola and Karen’s murders in 2018 after his acquittals were quashed in 2017.
Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop has died from brain cancer. The murderer, 55, passed away in hospital last night after being rushed there from the top security HMP Frankland, in County Durham
Bishop brutally killed Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in 1986 when they were both just nine
A source told The Sun last night: ‘Bishop spent his last weeks in relative peace – a world away from the torment he has caused the girls’ families.
‘There will be few tears shed for his passing.’
The killer was reportedly taken to hospital yesterday after his health deteriorated rapidly in prison and he began suffering from breathing difficulties.
He passed away shortly before 9pm last night.
Ms Johnson added today: ‘He was an evil, evil man – a monster. He killed my daughter and ruined the lives of so many people.’
She said she was told Bishop had terminal cancer last year and the two families reached out to give him a chance to explain why he had murdered the two girls in 1987.
Reacting to the monster’s death, Karen’s mother Michelle Johnson (pictured left in 2018 with Nicola’s parents Barrie Fellows and Susan Eismann), said: ‘May you rot in hell for all eternity you evil wicked monster and I hope your family suffer in the same way as you made me and my family suffer for so long when you took the life of my beautiful nine-year-old daughter’
‘We reached out. It might have given him peace of mind to tell us but he didn’t say a thing – not a thing.
‘I still can’t believe that his family stood by him all those years – a child murderer – and I have absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever. His mother, his brothers – the whole lot of them.
‘How could they do that? His brothers and relatives were allowed to bring up their children and live their lives while we had to mourn our Karen.’
She said she felt ‘numb’ when she received the call to tell him the double killer had died.
‘I got a call earlier today from Victim Support who told me he had died in hospital and I thought to myself: ‘Good. At least he can’t bring suffering to anyone else now.’
‘He is past tense now. He is finally out of our lives and I don’t think anyone I know will shed a tear for him.’
In October last year, the killer was urged by Nicola and Karen’s families to finally come clean and confess to his horrific crimes after decades of denials.
Bishop pictured after his initial arrest for the 1986 Babes in the Wood murders
They told The Mirror: ‘Russell Bishop has a chance to come clean before he dies unless he is a bigger coward than he has always seemed.
‘And if he doesn’t have the guts to confess his crimes and admit his guilt, he will be the loser, so our message to him is simple.
‘We don’t need your admission of what you did to our beautiful girls. Your refusal doesn’t matter to us… but your admission would show you have finally had the courage to take responsibility for your despicable crimes.’
Nicola’s parents Barrie Fellows and Susan Eismann and Karen’s mother Ms Johnson issued the statement with the help of Nicola’s cousin Lorna Heffron.
Last summer, Bishop’s girlfriend Jennifer Johnson, 55, who had two children with the killer, was convicted for perverting the course of justice for lying in his first trial.
Johnson stunned police in the dock after suddenly claiming a blue jumper that linked him to the crime scene and killings was not his. She had previously told investigators it had been his garment.
Johnson had admitted lying, but had pleaded not guilty to perjury and perverting the course of justice, on the basis that she was acting under duress.
But the jury at Lewes Crown Court decided she was lying again and had been ‘part of Team Bishop’, desperate to get him cleared of murder.
Love letters sent from Johnson to him during the Devils Dyke case and shown to these jurors, had laid bare the lengths she would go to for him.
They trilled: ‘I’m not going to leave you so don’t worry because I won’t. cos I love you very much and I will write every day because you’re special to me and you mean all the world too.
‘Don’t get worried when I’m not up with your mum as I can’t get a babysitter all the time but I’m still thinking of you love.
The girls were found dead in this ‘den’ in undergrowth in Wild Park, Brighton
‘Can we get married quite soon and I will book the church OK? It is wonderful that you want to marry me. It’s not prison talk is it love? I haven’t got a lot to say so bye for now.’
New DNA techniques linked the killer to the double murders through the blue sweatshirt.
The case was also brought to public attention last year when Karen’s mother accused journalist Martin Bashir of losing her daughter’s clothes.
Ms Hadaway said the former BBC religion editor obtained the clothes for DNA testing for BBC Two’s Public Eye programme 30 years ago, but the investigation did not air and her calls to the broadcaster were ignored, she claimed.
Ms Hadaway previously said Mr Bashir approached her in 1991 and asked to have her daughter’s clothing DNA tested, saying that science had advanced in the five years since the murders, but never returned the clothes.
She called him a ‘dishonest rogue’ and called for a criminal investigation after she claimed he delayed the killer’s capture.
In December, it was revealed that Bashir admitted in a handwritten letter to Ms Hadaway to having taken the clothes.
In his letter, Bashir said he was ‘deeply sorry’ that the clothing in which Karen was murdered – which he revealed he took ‘to the BBC’ – went missing.
Karen’s parents Michelle and Lee Hadaway moved to Surrey after the murder of their daughter and divorced six years later, blaming the tragedy.
Lee moved back in Brighton where he was homeless and addicted to tranquillisers.
He died from a heart attack in 1998 without seeing Bishop convicted of killing his daughter.
Pictured: A blue Pinto sweatshirt, allegedly worn by Bishop and said to contain vital DNA evidence, which was found beside a path behind Moulsecoomb railway station
Jennifer Johnson, Russell Bishop’s girlfriend, pictured leaving Brighton Magistrates Court on left and after the first trial on the right
The letter from Johnson to Bishop showed she only cared for him, not his victims
Nicola’s dad Barrie Fellows was dogged for years by entirely false claims by Johnson and Bishop implicating him in the murder of his own daughter.
His brother Kevin spent 18 months conducting his own investigation into the blue sweatshirt before he died of cancer without seeing justice for Nicola.
After his initial acquittal at Lewes Crown Court in 1987, there were shouts and scuffles among those in the courtroom and two female jurors burst into tears.
Extra police had to be drafted in to restore calm.
The Daily Mail reported at the time that Bishop’s brother and his father rushed forward, fighting with police and shrieking their delight.
As the family were led out by police, Bishop’s mother is reported to have shouted: ‘Don’t you touch my son, we love you darling.’
Outside the court, she added: ‘I always knew he was innocent. I always believed it.’
Soon after the verdict, Sussex police officially announced: ‘The investigation is closed. We’re not looking for anyone else. Unless we receive new information, which at this stage is unlikely, that is it. Closed. No more inquiries.’
A distraught Barry Fellowes, Nicola’s father, said: ‘If he didn’t do it, then who killed my Nicola? It means a killer is still at large.’
He added: ‘We have been trying as best we can to rebuild our lives, but you can never get over something like this.
‘You can never forget the good times, the smiling face or the joy and happiness she brought.’
Before killing Nicola and Karen, Bishop had in 1984 been convicted of burglary and fined £200, while a year later he was ordered to do 150 hours community service for a further five burglaries.
The Daily Mail’s original news report after Bishop’s 1987 acquittal detailed how there was uproar at the verdict
He also had motoring convictions.
The seven-year-old girl Bishop attacked after he was acquitted was snatched off the street, thrown in a car boot.
Bishop drove her to Devil’s Dyke where he left her for dead.
She was spotted on the roadside, naked, freezing and terrified.
The girl was able to identify Bishop and he was jailed for life.
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