“He can’t know I’m alive” | The case of Rachael, Karen & Nicola
– This is 7-year-old Rachael Watts, just hours before this footage was recorded, Rachael was found wandering alone by the side of the road with her clothes missing and covered in bruises. The woman on the right is Rachael’s mom. She was told by police not to show any emotion because it could cause Rachael to shut down and they need her to talk.
– Notice how for the first time, Rachael’s looking down, dangling her legs nervously. That’s because she’s hiding something, something she doesn’t want anyone to know. – For the first time, Rachael’s mom is hearing the details of what happened to her daughter, which makes keeping calm incredibly difficult.
Rachael, however, is too terrified to talk and what she says next is not the full story. – Rachael is afraid that the man who tried to kill her will come back for her. The problem is, she will have to face him again. February 7th, three days after the attack,
Rachael is standing behind a one-way mirror just a few feet away from a line of suspects. – But Rachael has no idea that someone in this lineup has already killed two other girls and if she can’t point him out, he will strike again. The year is 1990, in a suburb of Brighton called Whitehawk on the southern coast of England, 7-year-old Rachael is living a happy life with her loving parents, Jenny and Peter.
On that particular day, Rachael is out roller skating while her dad is working in the front garden. She asks him for money to go buy a chocolate bar at the local candy store. It’s around 4:00 PM when Rachael rolls away in her white roller skates. Just a little over an hour later, Rachael’s parents are beginning to worry that she hasn’t come home yet when suddenly there’s a knock at the door, it’s the police.
Rachael is in the hospital. – Before we continue, a quick thank you to today’s sponsor Incogni. Support from partners like Incogni helps us bring you more of the stories featured here on Unseen. A lot of the stories on this channel reveal just how dangerous the Internet can be with cyberbullying, cyberstalking, but also harassment and even kidnapping.
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com/unseen to protect yourself and your loved ones today. Thanks again to Incogni for sponsoring. And now back to the case of Rachael Watts. She was found by a couple on Devil’s Dyke Road over seven miles from her home. – I saw her come out from behind this bush. She was completely naked, kind of hands like this and crying.
Her hair was all disheveled. There was blood in delicate places that I couldn’t care to mention. I jumped outta the car and ran towards her and she said to me, “Are you gonna kidnap me?” And I said to her, “No, we are here to help you. You’re gonna be okay.” – It’s clear to the couple what happened to her and they’re horrified.
They rush Rachael over to the closest house and call the police. – When the police officer came, she just said, am I “Mum?” I said, “Yes.” That was when she said Rachael was in the hospital. Sorry, it’s still raw now, even after all these years. – Rachael’s mother, Jenny, rushes over to the hospital in Brighton where she’s met by police officer Debra Wood, before she’s allowed to go see her daughter, Jenny is asked to do the impossible.
She’s told she cannot show her daughter she’s upset or it may cause her to shut down and for now, police still need to interrogate her. – Debbie said to “Try and be strong. Try not to show any emotions.” She was sitting in bed with a coloring book and I just sat there with her while she colored. – Three days later, Rachael is asked to identify her attacker.
Police have arranged a lineup consisting of one suspect and nine lookalikes. One of them is a man named Russell Bishop, someone police have accused of murder before. But in 1987, after being acquitted of all charges against him, Russell Bishop walked free. It all starts on October 9th 1986. The day Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows go missing.
– Over 150 police officers and neighbors of the families have been searching the large wooded area near the girls’ homes. But after nearly 24 hours with no sign of them, people are beginning to lose hope they’ll be found alive. The story gains national attention, and Karen and Nicola’s parents go on television to ask the public for help.
– Has she ever run away from home before? – No she hasn’t. – So you don’t think that they’d just run away for fun? – No, the thought that they’re up to some mischief but what, I can’t think. – She’s just gone… and Nicky, them both. The only way they’ve gone is if someone’s picked them up. – Come home darling, please.
Daddy’s not gonna tell you off. Just come home, please, now. – It’s 4:00 PM, October 10th, police officer Paul Smith is walking towards Wild Park, just a few streets down from where the two girls live when he has the strangest encounter. – I was doing house to house inquiries and as a result of a radio message, I went across to the other side of the road, which is Wild Park.
This voice behind sort of shouted, “Oi, what are you doing?” – The voice is that of Russell Bishop, Russell lives in Moulsecoomb and is close to the families of the two girls. He’s part of the search efforts and has been walking around with his dog. – And he said to me, “We’ve been tracking all day but it’s getting late now and we’re gonna give up.
” So I said to him, “No, no, we’ve gotta keep looking.” And he said, “Well, if I find them and they’re dead, I’ll get nicked won’t I?” And it was quite strange. I mean why did he say that? What made him say that? – Bishop is known by the police for his petty criminal history. Car theft, shoplifting. Everyone around the estate considers him to be a bit of a joke, but his comment doesn’t go unnoticed.
As the men are walking back into Wild Park, they hear two boys screaming the words, “We found them, we found them!” Russell Bishop runs off toward the voice, faster than Officer Paul Smith can catch up. – I said to Bishop, “Look, you keep them away from the girls and you keep away from the girls.” I was right behind him and then I got there and stepped between him and the two girls and they were there as if they were sunbathing.
Nicola Fellows was on her back with one knee up and Karen Hadaway was laying on her stomach with her arm around as if she was asleep. They were arranged like that. I went across to them and I took their pulse, Um… sorry, it still gets me. I took their pulse and they were stone cold dead, like pieces of marble.
– One of the police officers come and tell me that, “Yeah, she’s been found.” And I said, “Oh great, great,” you know. And I said, “Has anything happened to her?” Saddest day of my life that I lost my daughter. – I was actually in the park when they were found and when I see the tapes come out, I just knew that’s something bad, you know…
I just collapsed in a heap on the floor. – The worst thing I ever had to do in my life was go down and identify her. – The crime has a devastating effect on the community. Everyone is terrified for their own children. Detectives interview over 10,000 people in what will become the largest murder hunt in Sussex.
One name keeps coming up. – Russell Bishop was always a person of interest. Everybody was saying, “Why is he doing this? Why has he done that?” – Bishop is known to both families, so the girls knew him very well, which means it wouldn’t have been hard for Bishop to convince them to follow him into the woods.
There were multiple sightings of Russell Bishop in and around the area at the time the girls went missing. What’s more, one witness says they saw Bishop wearing a blue sweatshirt that night. The description matches that of a blue sweatshirt which was found discarded on a trail close to where the bodies were found and that trail leads to Russell Bishop’s house.
– On the blue sweatshirt there were ivy spores that were consistent with where the girls had been found but inconsistent with where it had been dumped. There were traces of fibers from the girls’ clothing on the sweatshirt. It became very clear that whoever had murdered Nicola and Karen had been wearing the sweatshirt at the time they did that.
– In order to confirm they have the right suspect, detectives have to connect Russell Bishop to that sweatshirt. But in 1986, DNA science is still in its infancy. However, forensic analysis reveals the red stains on the sweatshirt are not blood, but a very specific type of paint. The same red paint Bishop was seen using on two of his friend’s cars.
This could indicate it was in fact Russell Bishop’s sweatshirt. But they need to be sure, as Russell Bishop is being interrogated by police at the station, officers take the blue sweatshirt to his house where they’re greeted by Russell’s girlfriend Jenny Johnson. The first thing she says when she opens the door is, “Oh, you’ve brought Russell’s sweatshirt back.
” Jenny has no idea that she has just incriminated her boyfriend. The two officers take a sworn statement from her, which she signs without hesitation, proving that Russell Bishop owned the sweatshirt that was worn by the girls’ killer. – And we thought, “This is it, he is guilty of having killed these two children.
” We thought that there was sufficient evidence to convict. – Bishop was the murderer, no doubt whatsoever. – On December 4th, Russell Bishop was charged with the murder of the two girls. Since that time, he’s continued to deny both killings. – I thought, “It can’t be him. Why would it be him? He comes to the house all the time, I played football with him on Sundays.
” – Never think somebody who you knew would actually come along and do such a terrible thing. – November 1987, more than a year after the murders, Russell Bishop’s trial begins. The entire country is watching. Everyone wants to see justice for the girls they call “The Babes in the Wood,” and the prosecution is convinced they have a strong case, but there’s one thing they couldn’t have accounted for.
When Jenny Johnson, Russell Bishop’s girlfriend takes the stand, she changes her entire story. – Jenny Johnson made a statement to the police that that sweatshirt was owned by Russell Bishop and then in court turned around and said, “Russell Bishop never owned that sweatshirt.” She said to the court that she was forced to sign this statement.
The police forced her to sign it. – The prosecution knows Jenny Johnson is lying under oath to protect her boyfriend, but they have no way of proving it. Because the blue sweatshirt can no longer be linked to Bishop, the defense argues that almost anyone could have killed the two girls. The case falls apart. After four weeks of trial, the jury is asked to deliberate.
– The man who had been accused of murdering two schoolgirls from Brighton has been found not guilty. – Not guilty, lads! – Yay! – Everyone was just stunned. What could possibly have gone wrong? We knew that it was Bishop. Everybody knew that it was Bishop, yet he’d walked free. – In 1987, there’s a law called double jeopardy which states that a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime.
Once acquitted, Russell Bishop can never be tried again for the murders of those two little girls, even if police could find irrefutable proof that he is the killer. As Bishop leaves the courtroom, he puts his hands in the air and shouts, “I’m innocent!” He then rushes through the line of reporters to go celebrate at the pub across from the courthouse with his brothers and his girlfriend.
The Hadaway and the Fellows families are devastated. They know they will never see justice for Karen and Nicola. – You feel like everyone’s laughing at you. You know, you feel like they’re looking at you and thinking that those little girls’ lives were worthless. – I was so angry, I thought, “Well then, who the hell could have done it then?” – It’s less than four months since Russell Bishop was cleared of murdering Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows.
Since the trial, Russell Bishop has been trying to readjust to family life. – As months pass, a wrongfully accused Russell Bishop takes the spotlight, while the country forgets about the real victims. The Sussex Police are convinced that Russell Bishop is guilty and that they had the right man, but with the double jeopardy law, there’s no use in them continuing the investigation.
This angers the public and everyone is demanding answers. – The parents of Nicola and Karen are determined that the case shouldn’t be dropped. – There’s two little girls in a cemetery up in Brighton and if only for them, we’ve got to get to the bottom of it. – 50 people set off in a march from Brighton’s Wild Park.
As part of the protest, a petition was handed to the police calling for the case to be reopened. – I’m adamant that my daughter’s killer should be found. I won’t rest till this man or people are brought to justice. – August 19th 1989, the parents organize a march to force Sussex Police to reopen the case. Among those who participate in the protest is Russell Bishop.
– I suppose some people might be surprised that you’re now linking up with the parents of the two murdered schoolgirls, having been accused yourself of their murder. – Everybody that knew anything about the case was sickened by seeing him behave like that, if he had any sense of decency, he would’ve shut himself away.
But he had to put himself front and center. – Everyone can see that Russell Bishop is using the protest organized by the families of the victims as a platform to improve his public image. – Seeing the smirking Russell Bishop, seeing the parents of the kids who had been murdered and knew that Bishop had done it, it was horrific.
– After his acquittal, Bishop received £15,000 from the tabloid News of the World to publish his version of the story as a victim of this miscarriage of justice. In the article, the Bishop family explicitly frames Barrie Fellows, Nicola’s father, as being a better suspect. – He said that during the police inquiry, nine people appeared to be suspects and Barrie Fellows was one of them.
He said it was not unknown for a father to kill his daughter. – Has it been more hard to stomach in the sense that you’ve been accused of possibly being involved in the whole affair? – Do you think that anyone could think that I killed my little girl? No way, no way, no way at all. I deny it emphatically, I love that girl.
– However, after a full investigation by Sussex Police, they find the accusations to be baseless. Barrie Fellows is completely innocent and cleared of all charges, but the damage is already done. – The house, it was covered in graffiti, “Murderer.” “We don’t want you here.” “Get away.” Despicable people. – Nicola Fellows’ father Barrie felt moved to make a statement as to rumors and suspicion about him.
– There are various people out there who have accused me of various crimes. This not only hurts me personally, but hurts my wife and son even more. – Russell Bishop got what he wanted. He’s no longer the villain of his community. And on February 2nd 1990, the Sussex Police send Bishop a letter confirming that the case of the Babes in the Wood is officially closed, which means someone has gotten away with murder.
February 4th 1990, two days after Bishop receives that letter is the day 7-year-old Rachael is kidnapped. – At around 4:00 PM, Rachael is out roller skating while her dad is working in the garden. – It was really sunny, it was really warm. My dad gave me £1 to go to the local sweet shop but because we’d been living there not very long, I got lost.
– I saw a man and he was fixing his car and my dad’s a mechanic so because he was a mechanic just like my dad, I asked him for directions. – Rachael has no time to react. Without a word, the man snatches her off the street and throws her in the trunk of his car. Then the car speeds off. Rachael is terrified but her mind remains sharp.
She looks around the trunk illuminated by the brake lights and finds a can of WD-40 and a hammer. She starts hammering on the lid of the trunk as loud as she can, screaming at the top of her lungs. – I screamed that I would give him money because I had the £1 that my dad gave me and his only response was, “Shut up or I’ll kill you.
” – She then starts to untie her roller skates and takes them off because she knows that without them, she stands a better chance of running away once the man opens the trunk. – With her mom sitting next to her in the interrogation room,
Rachael omits parts of the story, she says nothing about what happened in the backseat of the car, and to investigators, it means she doesn’t remember. – I have a big secret. It’s been in my head for the last 30 odd years. Everybody believed that he strangled me before he sexually assaulted me. I don’t know whether I knew at the 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.
When we got to Devil’s Dyke, he took me out and threw me on the backseat. He told me to take off all my clothes and I just complied. I was conscious when he sexually assaulted me. – The man then puts his hands around her throat. Rachael can’t breathe but before she can say anything, she blacks out. He then carries Rachael into the woods and abandons her, convinced that she’s dead.
When she comes to, Rachael is alone and unable to stand. She fumbles her way out of the bushes but she’s dizzy and keeps falling over. – I just remember it being really cold and knowing that I had to find help. I saw some headlights. My first thought was that it was him again and that he was here to finish me off.
– But she quickly realizes that if she doesn’t approach those headlights, she’s going to freeze to death. When she finally sees a shape in the dark, it’s a young couple offering a blanket and their help. After being admitted to the hospital, Rachael is reunited with her mom. – I was worried that she’d be cross because I’d lost my brand new jumper.
That’s what I was afraid of. – 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. It just doesn’t bear thinking about. – As a father you think that you can protect your family, your children, but you can’t. You can’t blame anybody except yourself because that’s what you’re there for as a parent, isn’t it? You bring them up, you protect them, and you’ve failed.
And that’ll go with me to the end. – At first light, over 100 officers began the most intensive search undertaken by Sussex Police since the Wild Park murder inquiry. – With the details given by Rachael, police are quickly able to start the investigation. They’re looking for a white male with a mustache driving a red car.
As the information is shared with the unit, detectives are informed that someone they know all too well was seen driving a red car that same night, Russell Bishop. – A couple of officers drove up to his house and saw him scrubbing as if his life depended on it, his car. – When we opened up the boot lid, we saw the WD-40, we saw the hammer, we saw the chip marks in the lid to the boot.
There was clothing fibers which later matched up to the ones that the little girl was wearing. There was blood and there was semen, immediately linking the little girl to Bishop. – Bishop is immediately put under arrest. In an effort to make sure Bishop doesn’t escape justice, Rachael is asked to face her attacker once more.
– I remember the lineup. I did ask, “Would he be able to see me?” – I don’t think I let go of my mom’s hand. – The man Rachael points out is in fact Russell Bishop. On December 13th 1990, Russell Bishop is found guilty of kidnapping, indecent assault, and attempted murder. – Here, a man who was acquitted of murdering two girls in Brighton three years ago has been jailed for trying to murder a girl of seven.
– A judge sentenced Bishop to life imprisonment for attempted murder, 10 years imprisonment for kidnapping and 10 years imprisonment for sexual assault. – And while everyone is relieved that he finally got what he deserved, there is no celebration in the courtroom, no cheers, because everyone in Brighton is convinced Bishop killed Karen and Nicola in 1986 and that he should never have been allowed to walk free.
– The parents of the two Brighton schoolgirls who Bishop had been cleared of murdering three years ago were among those in court. – It’s no less than what he deserves. And it don’t stop there. I’ll tell you that now, my fight for justice for my daughter don’t stop there. – Justice prevailed for that little girl.
But the unfortunate thing is, it wasn’t justice for Karen and Nicola. – They say life goes on but it don’t. It’s still there. It hasn’t gone away for me. Do you know what I still do? I still go in shops and look for clothes for her thinking, “Oh, that’ll look nice on her.” – And while the families of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows continue to fight in their daughter’s names, Rachael returns to her family life.
She’s granted anonymity by the court and is hoping everything will go back to the way it was. And for more than a decade, she has managed to live a normal life, until one day the phone rings, Russell Bishop is up for parole. – 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.
– It’s 2004, Rachael is now 22 years old and the news is terrifying. Bishop, who has been in jail for the last 14 years is due to be released at any moment. She’s convinced Bishop will come back for her. It’s 2005, and finally there’s hope for Rachael and for the Fellows in Hadaways, the double jeopardy law, an 800-year-old law preventing anyone from being tried twice for the same crime is repealed.
This means with new evidence, Bishop could be retried for the 1986 murders of Karen and Nicola, but they need to act fast before he gets out on parole. – The key thing that they need is new and compelling evidence and they only get one chance to present that evidence. – A new investigation is opened on the 1986 murder case, but gathering new and compelling evidence proves to be harder than expected.
– I used to have nightmares that he would climb up a ladder and get through my bedroom window and come and finish me. – Ever since that phone call, Rachael has been terrified of Bishop being released. She’s developed a condition called agoraphobia, which prevents her from ever leaving the house. As years pass, Bishop’s parole continues to be denied, but until he’s put away for good, Rachael will never feel at ease.
Finally, in 2013 there’s a break in the case. – The sweatshirt was still central to this investigation. Bishop had always denied any knowledge of the shirt at all and Roy Green decided that he would test the inside of a tear on the cuff of the sweatshirt and it came back with Bishop’s DNA. – The discovery is huge, but there’s just one problem.
Scientists can’t say for sure that the sweatshirt was not contaminated back in 1986. This means that any new DNA found on the sweatshirt is inadmissible. However, when the bodies were found, forensic pathologists had taken tapings from the girls’ arms and kept them under seal. Back then, they didn’t have the science to examine them for DNA.
– When we examined those tapings we recovered 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. – This could be the new compelling evidence investigators need to win this case. In May, 2016, Russell Bishop is taken out of his prison cell.
He’s convinced his parole has finally come. – After his interrogation, Bishop is arrested and sent back to his cell to wait for his third trial. With his DNA on the girls’ arms, the prosecution is convinced they have a strong case, but they have no idea that Bishop has a plausible explanation for that and it could destroy the case once more.
– Russell Bishop arrived in a prison van for the start of the second trial he’s faced accused of murdering two schoolgirls 32 years ago. Their families were in court for the start of the trial. – It’s been a long time coming, but I am smiling. We’re grateful for the first time that someone’s actually not slammed a door in our face.
– 32 years , ain’t it? – But then we did say that we’d come to this park every year until we got Justice. – That’s right, justice. – October 16th 2018, Russell Bishop’s retrial for the murders of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows begins. When the prosecution shows the evidence to the court, the defense insists the sweatshirt was not Bishop’s and they explain why his DNA was found on Karen’s arm.
According to Bishop, he claims that when the bodies were found, he went to check their pulse. Something apparently he had told Detective John Moreton back in 1986. – I got a call asking me to come to the park where some local lads had found the bodies of the two girls. They had their heads down and were absolutely deflated.
I was totally amazed when I saw the other guy who turned out to be Russell Bishop. It was strange because he was standing there shuffling his feet and whistling out loud. So I asked him what happened and he said to me, “I jumped over the tree and went to the girls and I felt both of their necks for a pulse.
” I thought, well that’s really strange because from what the other two had said, I knew Russell Bishop had not gone to within 15 feet of those girls on that afternoon. – Russell Bishop’s argument cracks in front of the courtroom. The truth is far more disturbing. After he strangled the two girls to death on October 9th 1986, Russell Bishop participated in the search the next morning.
He wanted to be the first on the scene to check their pulse so he could explain why his DNA was on the girls. The problem is he never got the chance to get close enough. Bishop is furious, he knows he’s about to lose. This is when the prosecution reveals one last bit of evidence against Bishop, letters written by Bishop while he was on trial in 1987 sent to a 13-year-old, the letters are read out loud to the court.
– And they were incredibly sexually suggestive and clearly he didn’t want those letters to be read out at court. And he started shouting from the dock that he wanted a retrial. But in fact, those letters were read out. – On December 10th at 12:30 PM, the jury is sent out to deliberate. In less than two hours they come back with a verdict.
– A convicted pedophile has been found guilty of murdering two schoolgirls found strangled and sexually assaulted near Brighton 32 years ago. – Russell Bishop is finally convicted for the murders he committed in 1986 and for which he escaped justice for 32 years. He’s sentenced to an additional 36 years. – This is a moment to remember the two girls.
We should also acknowledge the courage, persistence, and dignity of Karen and Nicola’s families, and I sincerely hope the families can now find some peace and move forward with the next chapter in their lives. – I said that I’d never stop fighting for justice and now them little girls can rest in peace. – I used to go into the bedroom where her stuff was in the chest, when I opened the chest and all her stuff was there and I can just smell her.
When the court case finished and we got the verdict, I said, “Well, now she can go to her angel bed and go to sleep. She hasn’t gotta worry about anything now.” And I know she’s around. You can’t see her and you can’t feel her, but she’s there in spirit. – “If I could have a wish come true, a dream that come to pass, I’d ask to spend a day with you and pray that it would last.
I’d run to you and hold you close, We’d laugh and smile again. We would talk about the old times and see how we’ve both been. My wish go ungranted, but it always will be true. I’d trade many of my tomorrows for one yesterday with you.” – Since the trial, Rachael has been on a journey to get back control of her life.
She has built a beautiful family with her loving husband. – The reason I fell in love with Jay, he made me realize what it was to actually be loved and he made sure that I felt it. 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’m hoping by telling my story, I will be able to put myself back in the now. I don’t wanna stay a prisoner of my past and I’m hoping that I can stop hiding. 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. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.
I’m still here and I’ve still got a fighting chance.
