A lawyer for a convicted paedophile accused of murdering two schoolgirls has told jurors he would “shine a new light on the whole case”, shifting the focus onto one of the victim’s fathers.
Russell Bishop, 52, is on trial for the second time for the “Babes in the Wood” murders of nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway.
The girls were sexually assaulted and strangled in a woodland den in Wild Park, Brighton, in October 1986.
Former roofer Bishop was cleared of their murders in 1987 but within three years had kidnapped, molested and tried to kill a seven-year-old girl.
He was ordered to stand trial at the Old Bailey for the killings of Nicola and Karen in light of new forensic evidence.
Bishop’s legal team has cast suspicion on Nicola’s father Barrie Fellows, suggesting he had a gap in his alibi, watched a video of his daughter being abused, and been violent in the past.
Defence barrister Joel Bennathan QC said he would call evidence to suggest that Nicola’s father was a suspect in the murders.
He told jurors he would be calling a woman called Marion who would say she was at the Fellows house smoking “dope” and saw him watching a video of “his own child Nicola being abused”.
He said: “We suggest that shines a new light on the whole case.”
Fellows, who was called to give evidence during the trial, wept as he denied the suggestion he was party to the sexual abuse and murder of his daughter and her friend.
Lawyers for the prosecution told the court that forensic evidence taken from a Pinto sweatshirt discarded along Bishop’s route home links the defendant and the two girls.
But defence barrister said the prosecution had tried to “batter” the jury with science “to the extent you forget other normal straightforward evidence”.
He asserted the Pinto was not in a sealed bag at the police station after it was handed in along with clothes belonging to Bishop.
At the time, police were unaware in the “dangers of DNA”, he said.
In his first account to police Bishop claimed he had taken the girls’ pulses when they were found.
But the teenagers who initially discovered the bodies have told jurors he never touched them.
Bennathan said: “Did Russell Bishop touch the bodies of the girls when they were discovered on October 10 – because if he did take their pulses then there is an obvious simple explanation why he knew what they looked like and the DNA.”
He added: “Russell Bishop admittedly committed awful shameful offences in 1990. He’s not trial for them.”
Bishop, formerly from Brighton, denies two charges of murder.