'I didn't top the girls': How brazen Russell Bishop greeted victim's father after police bailed him over Babes in the Wood murders... 32 years before he was eventually convicted
- Barrie Fellows was accused of watching a video of Nicola being raped by lodger
- Real murderer Russell Bishop, 52, accused him of killing her after 1986 murders
- Allegations were dismissed and Bishop was finally brought to justice last year
- Mr Fellows has spoken out in a new ITV documentary about the case on tonight
The father of a Babes in the Wood victim has told how the killer's first words to him after being released by police following his initial arrest were: 'I didn't top the girls.'
Barrie Fellows, 69, was accused of watching a video of Nicola being raped by his lodger and killing her after her body was found at Wild Park in Brighton in 1986.
The allegations made by the actual murderer Russell Bishop, 52, were investigated and dismissed by police - and he was finally brought to justice last December.
Now, Mr Fellows has spoken out in a new ITV documentary about the case, in which he claims Bishop framed him and tried to make him a scapegoat for the murders.
He also revealed how Bishop, with whom he had played cricket, knocked on his door after he was arrested then released on bail by police due to contradicting evidence.
Russell Bishop (left, in a prison mugshot) blamed Barrie Fellows (right, outside the Old Bailey in November 2018) for the Babes in the Wood murders in Brighton in 1986
Nicola Fellows (left) and Karen Hadaway (right) were found dead in woodland 33 years ago
He told Sir Trevor McDonald in an interview: 'Bishop knocks on my door, and the first words out of his mouth were 'I didn't top the girls.' Not 'how are you?'
'He says 'I've been arrested and I've been down there for ages'. Well I said 'I'm not talking to you anymore, I'm going to phone the police'.’
The distraught father, who was reduced to tears after being cast as a suspect, added: 'Some people won't believe the truth until it hits them right in the face.
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'This is the truth and the truth is he murdered two little girls. He tried to murder another little girl. He is now wallowing in prison where he should be.'
The murders of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway evolved into one of the most traumatic and challenging cases that the British legal system has ever faced.
The documentary on at 9pm tonight sees Sir Trevor interview relatives and get exclusive access to police footage to reveal the truth behind the case.
The girls were found dead in this 'den' in undergrowth at Wild Park in Brighton in October 1986
The 79-year-old presenter looks at why it took two trials, a law change and cutting-edge DNA science to bring the killer to justice 32 years after the murder.
He said: 'This programme looks into the harrowing case of the murder of two nine-year-old girls through the eyes of the family and police officers involved in the case.
'The film shows how justice finally caught up with killer Russell Bishop, 32 years after the murders in what is a real testament to everyone involved never giving up.'
He also speaks to Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley who explains what qualifies as 'new and compelling evidence' for a double jeopardy case to be brought to retrial.
Convicted paedophile Bishop was jailed for life with a minimum of 36 years at the Old Bailey on December 11 after being convicted of the murders at a second trial.
A Pinto sweatshirt discarded on Bishop's route home was linked to the defendant by DNA while fibre, paint and ivy transfers placed it at the scene
A police map shows the key locations on the Moulsecoomb Estate in the investigation
Bishop was 20 years old when he sexually assaulted and strangled the girls in a woodland den, but was originally cleared of their murders.
However, within three years Bishop went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl, leaving her for dead at Devils Dyke on the edge of Brighton.
While serving life for attempted murder, Bishop was ordered to face a fresh trial under the double jeopardy law, in light of a DNA breakthrough.
A Pinto sweatshirt discarded on Bishop's route home was linked to the defendant by DNA while fibre, paint and ivy transfers placed it at the scene.
Tests on a sample from Karen's left forearm also revealed a 'one in a billion' DNA match to Bishop.
The case, dubbed Babes in the Wood, shocked the nation in 1986 and blighted the tight-knit community of Moulsecoomb, on the edge of the South Downs in Brighton.
It is believed to be the oldest double jeopardy case and Sussex Police's longest-running murder inquiry.
The girls' families gasped and wept in court as the jury delivered its verdict after just two and a half hours of deliberation at the Old Bailey in December.
Nicola was a very friendly, outgoing girl who would speak her mind, while Karen was sensible, but could also be cheeky, according to their parents.
Michelle Hadaway, the mother of Karen Hadaway (left) and Sue Eismann (right), the mother of Nicola Fellows, link arms last December after finally seeing their daughters' killer convicted
Both were afraid of the dark and Nicola's father had banned her from playing in Wild Park, even saying the 'bogeyman' lived there, the court heard.
At around dusk on October 9 1986, Bishop spotted the girls playing in the park near their home and seized his opportunity, the prosecution said.
During the attack, he punched Nicola in the face, to 'subdue' or 'punish' her for being disrespectful to his teenage girlfriend earlier that day, Brian Altman QC suggested.
The prosecutor pointed out Bishop's violent nature, saying he slapped his partner Jennie Johnson when she was pregnant with their second child.
The day after the killings, Bishop joined the desperate search for the children, claiming his dog Misty was a trained tracker.
He was nearby when two 18-year-olds spotted the bodies and rushed ahead of a police officer.
Afterwards, he gave conflicting accounts to police and produced a series of fake alibis, including a 'wild man' of the woods and his drug dealer.
He described details of the murder scene which only the killer could have known, including foam around the mouth of one of the girls, the court heard.
In the original trial, the prosecution said the girls must have been killed before 6.30pm, by which time Bishop had been seen heading home on foot and the girls were spotted outside a fish and chip shop.
But in the retrial, jurors heard the time of death could have been later and Bishop simply doubled back to intercept the children, both of whom he knew.
Bishop tailored his defence to the new forensic evidence, claiming he touched the girls to feel for a pulse, even though the 18-year-olds insisted he never got near.
The former roofer denied murder but admitted attacking the girl in 1990 claiming it was because he was angry and wanted to 'shame and belittle' her.
The case of the murdered girls, called the Babes in the Wood, sent shockwaves around Britain
The friends were buried next to each other at Brighton city cemetery, pictured in January 2018
Acting on instructions, his defence team cast suspicion on Nicola's father Barrie, suggesting police spent 32 years investigating the wrong man.
Bishop was pictured three years after the killings, handing out leaflets during an appeal
During the two-month trial Nicola's father Mr Fellows had been reduced to tears over the claims against him.
Bishop's defence also cast doubt on the forensic evidence, suggesting it could have been contaminated.
In his 1987 trial, Ms Johnson denied the blue Pinto belonged to her partner in the witness box, having previous identified it.
While Bishop refused to attend court for the verdict, mothers Michelle Hadaway, 61, and Susan Fellows, 69, sat through harrowing evidence for a second time.
Karen's heartbroken father Lee Hadaway died without seeing his daughter's killer brought to justice.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Bishop is an 'extremely dangerous man' who was convicted on 'overwhelming and incontrovertible' evidence.
Babes In The Wood presented by Sir Trevor McDonald is on ITV tonight at 9pm
Why was Barrie Fellows considered a suspect in his daughter's murder?
Barrie Fellows is pictured in October 1986
The father of one of the Babes in the Wood murder victims was accused of involvement in the killings in what the prosecutor called a 'smokescreen'.
Barrie Fellows, who played cricket with Bishop, attending the trial of his daughter's killer, only to be cross-examined himself.
Mr Fellows denied any involvement and had to leave the court after weeping in the witness as he was accused of killing the girls.
Bishop's barrister Joel Bennathan QC had told jurors 'that the police and prosecution have spent 32 years building a case against the wrong man'.
Bishop's former girlfriend Marion Stevenson told jurors how she visited the Fellows' home with Bishop before the killings to see another man, their friend Dougie Judd who lodged there.
When she crossed the living room on her way to the kitchen for a glass of water, she claimed to have seen Mr Fellows watching a video of his own daughter having sex with Mr Judd.
Mr Fellows denied this ever happened when he gave evidence.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC slammed the defence case, saying: 'What you have seen unfolding before your eyes is the creation by the defendant of a smokescreen in the hope, quite literally, that he gets away with murder for the second time.'
He said the 'common theme throughout was an effort to smear Barrie Fellows', perhaps to bolster his ultimately unsuccessful claim for compensation years later.
Mr Altman accused the defence team of 'scraping the Barrie barrel' and dragging Mr fellows' name through the mud in a 'desperate' attempt at sidestepping the mountain of scientific evidence against him.
Mr Fellows was questioned by police following his daughter's death.
He told officers that instead of joining his wife, Susan, and Michelle Hadaway in the search for their daughters he had eaten his dinner at home. Officers found this explanation unconvincing.
Cold case experts rexamined the case using evidence from a bag with DNA tapings
After he was taken in for questioning, police did nothing to assuage residents suspicions and a hate campaign erupted on the Moulsecoomb estate.
Graffiti was daubed on a nearby house which said: 'Fellows out.'
At the first trial Ivan Lawrence QC - who was also a Conservative MP - sought to place doubt in the mind of the jury over Mr Fellows' innocence.
Mr Lawrence said Mr Fellows' alibi that he was at home having his dinner while his wife searched for their daughter was weak.
Mr Fellows responded by storming out of the public gallery saying: 'I've had enough of that.'
The tapings from Karen Hadaway's clothes which helped secure the verdict last year
Mr Lawrence told the judge: 'I don't suggest for a moment that Barrie Fellows was the murderer and I'm sorry he left before he heard me say this. He can't be the murderer because of the times.'
But Mr Lawrence went on to say there was enough suspicious evidence surrounding Mr Fellows as there was concerning Bishop.
In 2009 - now divorced from wife Susan and remarried - he was arrested at his home in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire over an alleged plot to rape Nicola before her death.
Weeks later it was discovered the allegation had been made 20 years earlier by Bishop's former girlfriend, Marion Stevenson, and found to be completely baseless.
The 2009 claim was just a repetition of the earlier allegation and was again investigated and the case dropped but Fellows saw it as clear illustration of the police's lack of joined up thinking on the case and an example of his continued harassment by the police.
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