Today (5 February 2025) marks the 35th anniversary of a case that would become one of the most significant in my professional journey.
On this day, at 8am, I found myself on the wind-swept South Downs, specifically at Devil’s Dyke near Hove, camera in hand, ready to document a crime scene.
The day before, a seven year old girl had been kidnapped from a roadside in Whitehawk (a suburb of Brighton) wearing her roller boots and driven the 14 miles to this secluded area, indecently assaulted, strangled until she appeared to pass out, was stripped of her clothing, her body dumped in gorse and bramble undergrowth before her attacker sped off in his red car.
Luck would have it, the girl survived and was found by two walkers who raised the alarm, and that is how one of the most important cases I was ever involved in, started.
I was to be on the South Downs for the next five days with my colleague SOCO Nick Craggs, whilst police search teams scoured a wide area of the Downs finding her roller boots on day one.
It wasn’t until five days later, the Friday, just before weather turned that the little girl’s clothing was found buried in the bough of a tree. Police even found the £1 coin the victim had been given to buy sweets with at the local shop; the reason she was out in the first place.
Meanwhile Bishop had been arrested a few hours after the little girl went missing, due to the description of the car and the description she had given. She would go on to positively identify him in an ID parade.
Bishop had been alerted to ‘forensics’ after a double murder trial two years earlier so after the attack he had washed and cleaned his car.
Police knew from the outset that Bishop’s defence was going to be that the police had ‘fitted him up’ for this case, as he claimed previously, leading to his erroneous acquittal just over two years earlier for the double murder of two young girls, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway.
From a forensics point of view, this was impressive by any standard. I was grilled at Lewes Crown Court about the tyre marks found left at the scene, which had also been cast. These were subsequently matched to the tyres on Bishop’s car.
Red paint samples found on the toe caps of Rachael’s roller boots and clothes, where she had attempted to bash her way out of the car boot, matched the control sample taken from the car. Fibres from her clothing were found inside the boot of the car too. Early DNA techniques were applied to a pair of discarding jogging bottoms that had Bishop’s and the victim’s DNA.
What is the role and responsibilities of a police crime scene investigator?
The defence attempted to make great play on all the evidence being ‘planted’, but due to robust systems and evidential continuity, this was robustly rebuffed.
Bishop was convicted on 13 December 1990 and jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 14 years.
I believe Bishop’s acquittal from the double murder was instrumental in having the Double Jeopardy legislation changed (you couldn’t be tried for the same case twice), which was removed in 2005. So, after extensive work by a small team of Sussex Police investigators, forensic experts (Nick Craggs and others) and scientists, a reexamination of the exhibits from 1987 applying the latest DNA techniques, Bishop was brought back to Court in 2018.
He was found guilty for the murder of the two girls and received two life sentences to serve a minimum of 36 years in prison.
In 2022 Bishop died in prison from cancer aged 55. The victim Rachael Watts (now 42yrs) went public after his death.
Reflecting on
this 35 year old case, it reminds me of the power of perseverance in seeking justice and the importance of forensic evidence in solving complex crimes. It’s a testament to the dedication of police officers, forensic professionals and the resilience of survivors.
#CriminalJustice #ForensicScience #LawEnforcement #ColdCase #UKPolice #CSI
UPDATE: 29 May 2025
This case is now been made into a very moving Sky Documentary – The Girl Who Caught a Killer To hear Rachel tell her story is heart rendering. Rarely do we hear from the victim in cases like this. I hope this gives her some light at a very long tunnel she has been in.
I just hope Bishop is suffering in hell for an equally long time….
References
BBC Website – Rachael Watts – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63823214
Wikipedia – Babes in the Woods / Russel Bishop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babes_in_the_Wood_murders_(Brighton)#Russell_Bishop
BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour – Listen to Rachael’s story https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fmq8
Brighton Argus report on the case and references the forensic work on Bishop’s re-trial: https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16988391.live-russell-bishop-murder-trial-day-2/
If you want to read more about this case and the details, get this fantastic well written book by Graham Bartlett, a detective who was involved in the case.
Follow this link and support independent bookshops. https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/babes-in-the-wood-two-girls-murdered-a-guilty-man-walks-free-can-the-police-get-justice-graham-bartlett/3618270
It’s on Amazon too https://amzn.eu/d/corEqpv
Header image: Gorse and bracken on South Downs National Park adjacent to Devil’s Dyke Road, Hove [Photo credit: Google Maps / Street View]
