Original subtitles

The following programme contains descriptions of sexual violence

which some viewers may find distressing.

(BIRDSONG)

WOMAN: "He put me in the boot.

He went about 90 miles an hour!

When we got to Devil's Dyke,

then he strangled me

and I fell into a deep sleep."

Nobody prompted me to write this...

..but it was just... a way of my seven-year-old self

trying to...

..make sense of it,

in my own way. (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

It was just a reminder

that it wasn't all fabricated in my head.

I don't want to stay a prisoner of my past...

..and I'm hoping that

I can stop...hiding...

the reasons why I am the way I am.

(SINISTER MUSIC)

(SIREN WAILS IN DISTANCE)

REPORTER: The seven-year-old was snatched as she was roller-skating

towards her home on the Whitehawk Estate in Brighton.

NEWSREADER: The police are making an urgent appeal for anyone

who was near the girl's home or the Devil's Dyke

between 3:00 and 5:00 yesterday afternoon

to contact them immediately.

They particularly want to speak to the driver

of a red car seen in the area.

(SIRENS WAIL)

The first 24 hours in any major investigation is just so important,

particularly when you're looking at forensics.

When Rachael was found,

all the troops were called in.

We had our first briefing.

We had from Rachael:

the red car, single male,

in Whitehawk, in Brighton.

Then information came through

that Russell Bishop was seen driving a red car

in the Brighton area.

Action needed to be taken.

It was only a few years since those two little girls

had been murdered in Wild Park

and Russell Bishop was around Brighton

proclaiming his innocence

and how he was being harassed by the police.

We knew that, if he WAS involved, it was a matter of importance

that we got to him as soon as we possibly could.

(SIRENS WAIL)

So myself and a DS drove out there around midnight.

He opened the door shouting and screaming,

talking about he had been fitted up, about police harassment...

..and, at that point, he picked up a poker

and he sort of brandished it at us.

But there's four policemen there.

We got hold of Russell Bishop, so I arrested him.

We got hold of the car.

We opened up the boot.

We saw in there a tin of WD-40

with a little hammer.

We saw beat marks on the lid of the boot and we thought...

.."Think we're on a winner here."

You can always remember that day, weather-wise,

cause you are just thankful it was a nice day.

Because, had it not been such a nice day,

I don't think she would've survived.

I mean, the thought of walking through all those brambles,

it just... doesn't bear thinking about.

But Rachael just didn't want to go to bed when she came home.

And I remember...

Rachael was sitting on the sofa

picking the thorns out of her feet.

(POIGNANT MUSIC)

(SEAGULLS CRY)

Why?

WOMAN: The following day, I conducted the full interview

with Mum present.

It's all about trying to make her feel

as comfortable and as relaxed as we possibly can

in really difficult circumstances.

'We've got the information that we got the day before

and then you start going into the detail.'

(GENTLY) OK.

I can.

OK, good.

Rachael never disclosed

what had happened to her.

She had obviously been sexually assaulted, because she was naked.

So that, by its sheer nature,

was an assault with indecency.

Everybody believed that...

he strangled me

before he sexually assaulted me,

that I wouldn't have been conscious

and I wouldn't have known that side of the attack.

DEBRA WOOD: 'Rachael talks about the fact

that there were hands around her throat and she "went to sleep".

She didn't speak about anything

that happened to her in the car...

..and therefore you have to take that as...her truth.'

Whether she did or she didn't remember anything subsequently...

..only Rachael knows.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

REPORTER: At first light, over 100 officers

began the most intensive search undertaken by Sussex Police

since the Wild Park murder inquiry.

The police said they are going to dot every i and cross every t

so he didn't get off...

..and everything was done so meticulously.

They were very good to Rachael...

..and they were very good to us.

The Chief Superintendent, he said,

"Whatever you need, you got it."

A budget was never mentioned to us.

It was, basically, "Get it done."

We closed down the Dyke...

..and, slowly but surely, from the attack site,

that was the central point,

and everything moved out from there.

All the bushes that made up, if you like, the character of the Dyke,

they were all cut down

and we just methodically worked our way along,

literally checking every blade of grass!

And it paid off.

In one of the hawthorn bushes, before it was chopped down,

was the discarded roller boots.

They'd just been thrown into the bushes,

as well, obviously, at the same time that poor Rachael

was being deposited there, as well.

(BIRDSONG)

NEWSREADER: The search has been extended

to cover an area some six square miles wide.

They're hoping tyre tracks, now hidden under these plastic canopies,

may yield further clues.

Casts were made of those

and they matched completely the four separate tyres

of Bishop's car.

On the fourth day,

they were really reaching the edge of the search parameters.

It ran about ten yards away from the end of the search area.

A PC stopped the line,

cos he could see in the bowl underneath a tree

what appeared to be clothing.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

Slowly, surely, everything was extracted from there

and we could then see that it was the little girl's clothing,

all been wrapped inside out.

It sealed everything into a little forensic bundle for us to work with.

REPORTER: Police have now confirmed

that clothes found in dense scrub

are the seven-year-old's black leggings, jumper and jacket.

Right at the last knockings, that treasure trove of evidence

was found hidden in the bowl of that tree.

It didn't start raining

until we'd actually finished the search.

Then people were sent out to try and find some lookalikes,

people who fitted the same description as Russell Bishop,

to put together an identification parade.

(SEAGULLS CRY)

People who were of similar age,

height, hair colour...

Moustache, if possible.

RACHAEL: I remember the line-up in the police station.

We went into a room...

and I did ask,

would...would he be able to see me?

And they explained to me about the whole one-way mirror thing.

Just days ago, she was attacked by this monster,

and now she's being asked to confront him

and to see if she can identify that person.

RACHAEL: I don't think I let go of my mum's hand. (BITTER CHUCKLE)

I'm pretty certain I was squeezing quite tight.

(TENSE MUSIC)

I seem to recall them saying, you know, "Take your time."

RACHAEL:

POLICE OFFICER:

(MENACING MUSIC)

RACHAEL: I remember looking at him.

I don't think it took me long at all.

Over the radio, on talk-through, it came:

something like, "Number Nine is alive,"

which meant she'd pointed out Russell Bishop

as being the person that snatched her,

and above me, five floors,

you could hear people shouting,

"Yes! Yes, we've got him!"

It was amazing.

There was, like, a sudden jubilation

that we got him...

..and, of course, everybody was saying,

"Russell Bishop's been outwitted by a seven-year-old girl."

At 8:15pm this evening,

Russell Bishop, aged 23 years,

from Brighton,

was charged with the kidnap,

indecent assault and attempted murder

of a seven-year-old girl

in Brighton

on Sunday 4th February 1990.

He definitely did not expect me...

..to end up picking him up out of a line-up.

After the attack, Mum and Dad

treated us all...just like normal.

JENNIE: We didn't talk about it,

of what happened to her.

We were trying to sort of...

keep it very quiet and keep it out the way.

JENNIE: Rachael got anonymity.

Nothing was ever in the papers.

We've avoided it all.

She didn't need to be pointed out

all the time, saying, "Look, there goes that...person

who was attacked by Russell Bishop."

It's a secret you wanted to keep, in a sense, and...

you didn't want to broadcast it to the world,

that you were bad parents, you hadn't looked after your child,

and everything else.

As a father, you think that you can protect

your family, your children...

..but you can't.

You feel as though you let the side down.

(POIGNANT MUSIC)

You can't blame anybody except yourself,

cos...that's what you're there for, as a parent, innit?

You bring them up, you protect them...

..and you failed.

(VOICE BREAKS) And that will go with me till...the end.

(CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER)

RACHAEL: A few days after the attack,

a friend at school - it was her birthday party...

and I desperately wanted to go.

I wore a turtleneck top, very long sleeves,

to cover all the bruising across my neck...

..and to cover up as much of the scratches, and stuff, as I could.

(CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER)

(PARTY BLOWER BLARES)

I actually got a little tin

of Ghostbusters "ghost in a can".

The idea was that you opened it

and it let off, like, this glow-in-the-dark vapour.

All I was interested in was this little ghost in a can,

staying close to my sister

and...eating.

(PLAYFUL SHOUTS)

(UNSETTLING MUSIC)

Mum still took me to school.

Mum picked me up from school,

but after the attack...

..I used to have nightmares...

..that he would climb up a ladder

and get through my bedroom window...

..and come and finish me.

Nobody knew just how much

it had actually affected me.

Ididn't know how much it had affected me.

(UNSETTLING MUSIC)

(SEAGULLS CRY)

NEWSREADER: Russell Bishop had been asked to be tried at Lewes,

the court where he was acquitted three years ago

of the murder of two Sussex schoolgirls.

A man of nationwide notoriety...

and to see him back on trial

for yet another paedophile-linked attempted murder

was a massive story.

REPORTER: Bishop, who arrived in court in a prison van,

denies charges of attempted murder, kidnap and indecent assault

and a further charge

of attempting to choke, suffocate and strangle the girl

with intent to commit indecent assault.

Arriving on the first day of the trial at Lewes Crown Court,

exactly the same courtroom, exactly the same dock,

there was a real sense of treading on eggshells.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

Russell Bishop cut a very different figure in 1990

than he did in 1987.

This time was as if he felt he was an old hand,

that he'd seen all this before.

He'd got away with it before.

Nothing was going to faze him.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK FRANTICALLY)

JENNIE: We went in the side entrance in Lewes Court.

We were pretty much inconspicuous,

because everybody was at the front of the court.

I remember making this weird, abstract necklace-type thing

and it was going to be, like, my lucky talisman

for the court case.

PETER: We were in a room where we were cut off from everybody,

out of the way,

looking after Rachael.

I do remember that Daddy and I played,

cos we were put in this really huge room

with beams,

so we were making paper aeroplanes

and trying to get them up and over these beams.

(SINISTER MUSIC)

After nearly an hour in the witness box,

Russell Bishop was asked by his defence counsel:

"Did you abduct the little girl,

strangle her half to death,

strip her naked and sexually assault her?"

Bishop replied, "No, Sir, I did not."

His defence had a mishmash of,

"Oh, the police are out to get him. It was a complete vendetta."

Ann Curnow QC said the most damning piece of evidence

against Russell Bishop

was a pair of tracksuit bottoms,

on which scientists found forensic evidence

linking Mr Bishop to the little girl.

We realised that the only defence he had was,

the police had fitted him up.

He said that I went into his bedroom

and took a used condom

and I used that to sprinkle his semen

all over the recovered clothing from Rachael.

Mr Bishop has claimed the tracksuit bottoms do not belong to him

and he has said police fabricated the evidence.

JENNIE: Russell Bishop was only as close as...what, 12 feet to us?

Whatever question they asked him, it was always,

oh, the police framed him and the police did this...

You think to yourself, "You...piece of dirt."

My main concern

was that Russell Bishop would be able to see me.

It was agreed that we would put a screen up

between her and Bishop,

so she couldn't actually see him

and he couldn't see her,

but, obviously, she needed to be seen by the jury

and she needed to be seen by the judge and the...

the defence and the prosecution.

(UNSETTLING MUSIC)

If the young girl somehow got confused,

if she did not deliver the evidence,

then the potential was that it could go horribly wrong.

There was a big weight resting on Rachael's shoulders.

I went in...with my little talisman hanging around my neck.

Sat on this...

what seemed like, I suppose, for a seven-year-old, massive chair!

Felt more like a throne than a chair.

It was huge!

I couldn't see him...

so, in my head, he couldn't see me.

I remember looking at the judge.

The first question he asked me was,

"Do you know the difference between right and wrong?"

And I said yes.

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC)

JENNIE: While Rachael was giving evidence,

you could hear a pin drop.

It was so deathly silent!

Deathly silent.

REPORTER: Speaking clearly and confidently,

the little girl told the hushed courtroom

how, on an afternoon in February this year,

she was crossing a road near her home

when a man working on a car nearby

suddenly grabbed her around the waist,

put her in the boot of his car and drove off at high speed.

The little girl said,

"I started banging on the boot because there was a hammer in there.

The man said, 'Shut up.'"

Prosecutor Ann Curnow QC asked,

"What about your roller boots?"

The little girl replied, "I took them off,

because if he opened the boot I could have got away quicker."

DEBRA WOOD: She was...remarkably calm.

Her level of recollection

up until the point

where the hands were put around her throat

erm, was really...incredible.

REPORTER: She added, "He took me out of the boot and he strangled me.

He thought I was dead,

but I wasn't.

He never strangled me long enough.

He just put me in a deep sleep."

(UNSETTLING MUSIC)

Russell Bishop's defence lawyer

tried to trip me up

and somehow...put words in my mouth.

It was his job to try and prove

that what I was saying couldn't be reliable.

REPORTER: Anthony Thwaites QC defending

then asked the girl if she could have made a mistake

when she picked out Russell Bishop at an identity parade.

The defence tried to say that...

I only picked out Russell Bishop from the parade

because I had seen a picture of him in the newspaper.

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

(BIRDSONG)

(SIREN WAILS IN DISTANCE)

On the day of the verdict...

..I was there with Rachael's mum.

We sat together in the public gallery.

The court was full - full to the brim.

The whole place was absolutely heaving.

NEWSREADER: The jury at Lewes Crown Court

took almost four-and-a-half hours to consider its verdict.

The families of two nine-year-old girls

murdered in a local beauty spot

were also in court.

The jury came back

with a unanimous guilty verdict.

The judge, Mr Justice Nolan,

told Bishop, "You've been found guilty

of the attempted murder of a young child

in circumstances almost as dreadful as can be imagined."

The right verdict came.

Well, there was cheers there all around.

Cheers all around.

REPORTER: The judge sentenced Bishop

to life imprisonment for attempted murder,

ten years' imprisonment for kidnapping

and ten years' imprisonment for sexual assault.

JENNIE: She did it.

He was behind bars.

He could have been out on the street.

We've always told her...

"By doing what you did,

you stopped it happening to other children."

# (STRINGS PLAY POIGNANT MELODY)

REPORTER: The Fellows Family,

whose daughter was one of two girls murdered in 1986,

left court without comment.

REPORTER: Three years ago this week,

Bishop had left Lewes Crown Court a free man.

Tonight, he was taken away to begin a life sentence.

MAN: That little girl showed so much gut and determination.

All I've got for that little child

is nothing but admiration.

But we knew that Russell Bishop had murdered my niece.

I had to carry on the fight.

RACHAEL: For God knows how many years...

..I lived what I would consider to be a perfectly normal life.

I had my first daughter

when I had just turned 22.

She's turned out to be absolutely beautiful.

All my children have.

I'm very proud of each of them.

I just assumed

that there would never have to be a reason...

for me to tell anybody

and give up my right to anonymity.

I never had any intention

of telling my children - ever.

I thought I was going to take it to my grave.

The reason I fell in love with Jay

and why I chose to get married

is because he made me realise...

what it was to actually be loved...

..and he made sure that I felt it...

..and he made me realise

that I was respected and appreciated.

(SEAGULLS CRY)

Then, completely out of the blue,

the home phone rings...

(RINGS) ..and it's the Victim Support team.

Bishop was up for parole.

I was just so scared that he was going to come

and find me...

..and that's when little hints of depression

and the agoraphobia crept in.

I thought a life sentence is a life sentence.

Then I found out that "life",

in Russell Bishop's case,

meant only 14 years...

..just because he didn't actually kill me.

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

(BIRDSONG)

NEWSREADER: Builder Russell Bishop was jailed for life

for attempting to murder a seven-year-old girl

on the outskirts of Brighton.

He was described by the judge as "a danger to children",

but will be eligible for parole in February.

PAUL CHESTON: Bishop had been jailed for a minimum of 14 years

for the attack on Rachael,

but he was still considered innocent

of the attacks on Nicola and Karen.

The closer he was getting towards a position

where he could appeal successfully to the parole board for release,

the greater the danger was to the public.

The best way to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life

was to put him back on trial again

for the murders of Nicola and Karen,

and there was a race against time to do this

before he found a way of getting released from prison.

REPORTER: Floral tributes still mark the spot in Brighton's Wild Park

where the bodies of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were found,

always remembered by their families.

If Russell Bishop had got parole after 14 years,

within two or three years of release,

you'd be reading a story of another child being murdered

under horrific circumstances...

..so we needed to get Russell Bishop back to court,

but the big hurdle was double jeopardy.

After the 1990 trial

and for probably the next 10, 15 years,

I was aware of a campaign by Nicola and Karen's families

to try and somehow get Russell Bishop back on trial.

At that time, I thought nothing would come of it,

because no person who has been cleared of a crime

could ever be re-charged with that same crime.

It's known as the "double jeopardy" law.

Double jeopardy is an 800-year law

and if we're going to get justice for Nicky and Karen,

that law had to change.

REPORTER: It was the chairman of the inquiry into the murder

of black teenager Stephen Lawrence

who recommended a review of the centuries-old principle which says,

"a defendant, once acquitted, cannot be retried on the same charge."

The collapse of the criminal case against three of the men

accused of killing Stephen Lawrence

and the realisation that they could not be retried,

even if new evidence came to light, caused outrage.

NIGEL: I started campaigning.

I was working outside the House of Commons as a coach guide.

I finished at 2 o'clock,

and then I would spend my afternoons

in the central lobby of the House of Commons,

to talk to MPs about double jeopardy

and getting it off the books.

I got fobbed off several times. Even got told, on many occasions,

"You've got more chance of walking on the moon (!)"

One afternoon, in the House of Commons

I saw David Blunkett, the Home Secretary.

I walked over to him and introduced myself to him, who I was.

And I mentioned about the "Babes in the Wood" murders.

He said, "I'll be honest with you right now: I agree with you.

Double Jeopardy needs to be repealed."

We will do anything to get justice.

MAN: There was lots of accusations thrown around

that the 1986 investigation hadn't been handled properly.

Not guilty, lads! Yay! (CHEERING)

And when Russell Bishop was found not guilty,

it was a massive issue for Sussex Police.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

The family had campaigned from 1987

that Bishop should face justice for what he'd done

and they were very vocal

in their quite high media profile

and, understandably, they wanted justice for their daughters,

so they were putting pressure on Sussex Police,

but it was right that they did so.

The Bishop case,

because it was such a high-profile case, over the years

we did submit various items

for additional forensic work.

The big change came

when the Criminal Justice Act changed the law on double jeopardy.

REPORTER: From today, as many as 35 major cases

could soon be sent back to the courts

and legal history will be made.

A retrial will be possible in serious cases,

including murder, rape and armed robbery.

The families believe they now have a new chance for justice,

almost 20 years after Nicky Fellows and Karen Hadaway

were killed here at Wild Park in Brighton.

There were a lot of people involved in getting double jeopardy repealed.

About 29 to 30 cases.

It wasn't easy, but we had done it!

Now we can go after Russell Bishop.

JEFF RILEY: The key thing about double jeopardy is, you get one go.

You get one shot at it,

so if we've tried and then failed, that would be it.

When you pull that trigger for a double-jeopardy investigation,

you have to be sure you've got a really strong case.

In 1986, '87, the kind of late '80s,

DNA wasn't used in police investigations.

It just wasn't developed enough,

but by the time we got to 2012,

the scientific evaluation around DNA

was much greater than before.

The sweatshirt was the key garment in the whole inquiry.

This was a garment that linked to the girls

and, we believed, linked to Bishop,

but that link to Bishop was what was challenged at the original trial.

So we took the view, "Let's go back to the Pinto sweatshirt.

Let's send that off for analysis."

In 2013, we were contacted

by the laboratory

to say, "We've got a profile of Russell Bishop

from within that sweatshirt,"

and it was a significant profile.

It was a massive moment. That was the kick-off point.

I was approached to set up a new investigation.

We were determined to get justice for the family, Karen and Nicola.

When the day of the arrest came,

Bishop didn't know where he was going.

POLICE OFFICER:

(BIRDSONG)

Bishop initially tried to say "no comment" to the questions,

but he couldn't help himself, so every now and again

he'd come up with an answer about something or other.

POLICE OFFICER:

RUSSELL BISHOP:

POLICE OFFICER:

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

RUSSELL BISHOP:

POLICE OFFICER:

(FOREBODING MUSIC)

RACHAEL: I knew it was happening.

I knew Russell Bishop was being retried,

because that's when the police liaisons turned up.

I asked them, "So are you going to be taking him out of prison, then?"

And they said yes...

and...then I was told

that it was going to be going to court.

There was also a journalist who turned up.

This was whilst I was still under the right of anonymity.

My son was due home any minute...

..and it freaked me out.

It was almost as if, "Well, if they can find me, anyone can..."

..which then led me back to Russell Bishop.

What was to stop him from finding out where I live?

I don't remember when I remembered

the details of the attack itself,

that I was conscious when he sexually assaulted me.

(NO AUDIBLE SPEECH)

RACHAEL (AS AN ADULT): I don't know whether I knew at the time,

or whether it's something that I've remembered over time.

I do know the reason why I didn't talk to my parents

and tell them about it earlier

was because I was ashamed.

There's been a massive cost

to keeping the secret for as long as I did,

with my relationships with my children, to my health.

(NO AUDIBLE SPEECH)

I'm hoping,

if I can release myself of this secret

that I've held for so long,

that it will help remove this mental roadblock

that I seem to have...hit.

When we got to Devil's Dyke...

..he took me out...

..and threw me on the back seat.

He told me to take off all my clothes...

..and I just complied...

..which is when he...

..penetrated me.

I remember it hurting...

..and I remember reaching down,

cos it felt wet...

..and I lifted my hand up

and I said, "Oh, there's blood.

Is this mine or yours?"

And then...

..he put his hands around my throat...

..and...

..I started trying to say to him I couldn't breathe...

..and then I blacked out.

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

(GRAVEL CRUNCHES)

From the minute he grabbed me...

..to the minute I woke up,

it just plays through my head on repeat...

..in high definition.

I can see it and I can hear it

and I can smell it...

..and it's exhausting.

(DISTANT SIREN WAILS)

REPORTER: Russell Bishop arrived in a prison van

for the start of the second trial he's faced

accused of murdering two school girls 32 years ago.

Their families were in court for the start of the trial.

(NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE)

I didn't think we'd ever get him to court again,

but when we did, then...

..I just thought, "Yeah, we gotta get him this time."

They say, "Life goes on," but it don't.

It's still there.

It hasn't gone away for me!

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC)

Do you know what I still do?

I still go in shops

and look for clothes for her,

thinking, "Ooh, that'll look nice on her."

You know...

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS)

The trial in 2018 was very much

old and new brought together.

There was an overwhelming wealth

of forensic evidence.

We could see a two-way transfer

between the Pinto and the girls' clothing.

The forensic scientist was able to say,

"These fibres don't exist

in hundreds of different jumpers across the country

worn by thousands of people.

Those fibres were unique to those garments."

The paint was also really interesting.

We were able to show the chemical compound

and its composition

couldn't have been the same as any old paint

sprayed in 1986, 1987, when it was readily available,

because there was this layering of paint

from a particular car that he'd worked on.

We had tapings from the postmortem taken in 1986...

..so it sat in a freezer for 30-odd years.

When we examined those tapings,

we recovered a mixed profile of DNA

of Russell Bishop and Karen Hadaway.

This was massive for us. This was Russell Bishop's DNA

on Karen Hadaway's arm.

As part of the reinvestigation

to the Karen and Nicola murders,

we looked at the offence on Rachael.

(TYRES SCREECH)

I could use it as a chance

to set side by side

Karen, Nicola and then Rachael

and I could walk through...

what happened in 1986

and what happened in 1990.

That, then, built a picture

of how similar these two offences were.

I was the same age as Rachael.

We grew up in the same town.

Then, in one of the exhibits, was a picture of a white roller boot,

which was the same pair that I had when I was little.

The key moment was

Russell Bishop entering the witness box

to be questioned about

what had happened to these two girls at his hands

in Wild Park.

He completed his evidence

by surprising everybody.

It was a stunning moment. He admitted for the first time

that, "Yes, it's true, I did attack Rachael."

I couldn't believe it.

During the trial,

I happened to see something

come up on my phone

about the fact that he'd admitted to...

abducting me

and that when he admitted it,

he said that the reason why he attacked me

was to shame and belittle me,

because everybody was accusing him

of murdering the two other girls...

..and he thought, "Well, if I'm being accused of it,

then I might as well do it."

TERRI O'SULLIVAN: It sent an electric wave through the court.

The press stand went nuts.

He said something so key that he'd denied over all those years.

I was absolutely beside myself,

because I was so angry.

To shame and belittle a seven-year-old girl

that you don't even know!

I couldn't understand. Why me?

And it was literally as if somebody had taken a sledgehammer...

..and...full-forced it into my gut.

Unfortunately, in my 30s

I developed agoraphobia,

along with major depressive disorder

and acute anxiety.

(TYRES SCREECH)

I was a dinner lady...

..and couldn't ultimately

stay on at the job,

because every time I tried to leave the house to go,

I would have a panic attack and have to go back in.

It was like I was just in... in this war zone in my head.

My agoraphobia means

I am unable to leave the house at all.

(UNSETTLING MUSIC)

(SIREN WAILS IN DISTANCE)

2 hours 30 minutes or so,

on the 10th of December,

the jury walked in and called him guilty.

Bang! "Guilty." Bang! "Guilty."

I physically broke down.

I broke down in that court... and cried my eyes out.

We were all emotional.

We were literally crying...

because we had done it.

No other child is going to be hurt by him.

REPORTER: Today, as at the second time of asking,

justice finally caught up with their killer, Russell Bishop.

REPORTER: Finally, justice was theirs,

but they'd had to wait 32 years for it.

Being in court and hearing the verdict

made me very emotional, you know,

to know that he was guilty.

We got him and he's gonna do time.

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

JEFF RILEY: Hearing that verdict,

there was just an amazing feeling of elation for the family.

They've waited years and years and years!

This is a moment to remember the two girls.

They died at the hands of a predatory and vicious killer

who has refused for 32 years

to face up to what he did.

We should also acknowledge the courage, persistence and dignity

of Karen and Nicola's families.

Throughout the years they, too, have never given up,

always seeking justice.

I sincerely hope the families can now find some peace

and move forward to the next chapter in their lives.

(BIRDSONG)

I used to go into the bedroom, where her stuff was in the chest

and I can still smell her.

When I opened the chest

and all her stuff was there

and I could just smell her...

When the court case finished

and we got the verdict the second time,

I said, "Well, now she can go to her angel bed

and go to sleep.

She hasn't got to worry about anything now."

And... (VOICE BREAKS) But I know... I know she's around.

You can't see her and you can't feel her

but she's there, in spirit.

(SEAGULLS CRY)

NEWSREADER: I've got some breaking news to bring you here.

The so-called Babes in the Wood killer, Russell Bishop,

has died of cancer at the age of 55.

I heard about Russell Bishop dying

in...2022,

er...via social media.

I was scrolling and it popped up.

As soon as he was dead...

..there was nothing to be afraid of any more.

I was in the midst of my depression.

Tried various antidepressants, anti-anxieties...

Nothing seemed to be working...

..and so, I decided to waive my right of anonymity...

..in a thought that maybe

it would help me to recover...

..and to finally deal with my past.

I would like to see the photographs of my injuries...

..and finally get...

..the full picture.

So what I have here is

er, the photos that...

Some were taken on the night that I was found,

um...in the state that I was found.

I believe these were, actually, the photos

that were given to the jury

in the actual court case

as evidence for them to view.

I have a police liaison officer

and it was her job

to personally bring these pictures to me...

..so this is the first time

that I've actually been allowed access to them.

OK.

So...

There's only one picture in this book.

(SIGHS)

(VOICE BREAKS) It's me, the night that I was found.

My face is covered in blood...

..and I know why,

cos it's around my mouth...

..and my hair is just all over the place.

(SIGHS) Otherwise, I'm just staring directly at the camera.

And then there is a second set of photos

that were done a few days later,

after I'd been cleaned up and had a bath.

You can see all the thorns in my feet.

It's like looking in a mirror

and not recognising the person looking back at you.

I've been accused of lying... (BITTER CHUCKLE)

..but...

..I wasn't lying, I was telling the truth.

Bye. (CHUCKLES)

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

(BIRDSONG)

I'm willing to do whatever it takes...

..to be a...

properly functioning individual again...

..and I'm hoping that I will end up

being able to get a job...

..and have a proper career.

Something with animals.

That would be nice.

I want to be able to go out

and spend time with my family

and have dates with my husband

and go to a pub and sit in a beer garden in the sunshine

and do what normal people do.

If...he was here in front of me now,

I don't think I could repeat the words on camera,

but...

..it would basically be along the lines of,

"I'm still here...

..and I've still got a fighting chance."

(POIGNANT MUSIC)

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