Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows disappeared while out playing 
 
 A convicted paedophile has been found guilty of murdering two schoolgirls who were found strangled and sexually assaulted near Brighton 32 years ago. 
 
 Russell Bishop, 52, had protested his innocence since the bodies of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were found. 
 
 Cleared of their murders in 1987, Bishop went on to attack a seven-year-old girl within three years, leaving her for dead in 1990, but she survived. 
 
 He was convicted of the double murder in a second trial at the Old Bailey. 
 
 After Nicola and Karen were found dead, the case became known as the Babes in the Wood. 
 
 The guilty verdicts came exactly 31 years to the day of Bishop's original acquittal in 1987. 
 
 Families of the girls wept in court earlier as the jury delivered the verdicts after two-and-a-half hours. 
 
 Image copyright BBC News Image caption Bishop was found guilty exactly 31 years on from his first acquittal 
 
 Afterwards, Karen's mother Michelle Hadaway described Bishop as an "evil monster". 
 
 "We finally have justice for Karen and Nicola," she said. 
 
 "Time stood still for us in 1986. To us, them beautiful girls will always be nine years old. They will never grow up." 
 
 Speaking outside the Old Bailey, she said: "What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death. 
 
 "They take the lives of children but they also take the lives of the families left behind." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Barrie Fellows, who has epilepsy, says his daughter Nicola was always there for him 
 
 The Fellows family said in a statement that the two families had been "united in grief", and while the verdicts did not bring the girls back, other children were now safe from Bishop. 
 
 They added: "He is a monster. A predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified. 
 
 "During the past eight weeks, we have endured reliving the horrific details of their murders and we have learned an awful lot about the true meaning of heartbreak all over again." 
 
 The two girls, aged nine, who were scared of the dark, went missing from their homes after they had gone out to play on 9 October 1986. 
 
 They were found in Wild Park the next day, lying together in a woodland den as if they were sleeping. 
 
 The trial heard former roofer Bishop had spotted the girls playing in the park near their home and attacked them. 
 
 On 10 October, he had joined the search for Nicola and Karen, claiming his dog was a trained tracker, and was nearby when two teenagers spotted the girls' bodies. 
 
 Image copyright PA Image caption A memorial tree stands in Wild Park, where the girls died 
 
 Afterwards, Bishop gave conflicting accounts to police and produced a series of fake alibis. 
 
 But he described details of the murder scene which only the killer could have known, jurors were told. 
 
 Judge Mr Justice Sweeney said Bishop would be sentenced on Tuesday, and must be present at the hearing. 
 
 Bishop chose to give evidence in his defence, but not to return during cross-examination, and then did not attend for the rest of the trial. 
 
 A DNA breakthrough led to the fresh trial taking place under double jeopardy laws. Bishop's 1987 acquittal was quashed and the second trial ordered. 
 
 The DNA came from a blue Pinto sweatshirt that was initially identified as belonging to Bishop by his former partner Jennifer Johnson, who then denied it in the first trial. 
 
 Senior investigating officer Det Supt Jeff Riley refused to rule out a perjury investigation. 
 
 Image copyright PA Image caption The Babes in the Wood case still affects people in the city 
 
 After Bishop's conviction, Nigel Pilkington, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the verdicts marked the end of a long fight for justice by the families, praising their "remarkable resilience". 
 
 He described Bishop as an "extremely dangerous" man who had been convicted on "overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence". 
 
 Mr Pilkington also said Bishop had tried to blame Nicola's father to create the "most havoc" possible, adding: "There is not a shred of evidence against Barrie Fellows." 
 
 Calling Bishop a "wicked" paedophile, Det Supt Riley said the murder case was one of the most "high-profile and complex" in Sussex Police history and one that still affected people in the city. 
 
 "We have never forgotten or given up," he said. 
 
 "This is a moment to remember the two girls that died at the hands of a predatory and vicious killer that refused for 32 years to face up to what he did and still does." 
 
 Det Supt Riley added: "I sincerely hope the families can find some peace and look forward to the next chapter in their lives." ||||| A convicted paedophile has been found guilty of the “babes in the wood” murders at the end of a retrial that drew on scientific advances in forensics 32 years after two schoolgirls were killed. 
 
 Russell Bishop had been accused of sexually assaulting and strangling Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in October 1986 in woods about half a mile from Moulsecoomb, the area of Brighton where both girls lived. 
 
 The guilty verdicts were described as marking the end of a 32-year fight for justice for the girls’ families, who hugged each other and wept in court on Monday as the jury delivered its verdict. 
 
 “Time stood still for us in 1986. To us them beautiful girls will always be nine years old. They will never grow up,” said Michelle Hadaway, Karen’s mother, who described Bishop as an “evil monster”. “What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death,” she added. 
 
 Lee Hadaway, Karen’s father, died in 1998. 
 
 In a joint statement, the Fellows family said: “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Russell Bishop. Photograph: Sussex police/PA 
 
 After demonstrating that there was new and compelling evidence against Bishop in the form of scientific material, the prosecution had shown the jury how he attempted to conceal his crimes through lies, said the Crown Prosecution Service. 
 
 This included DNA evidence which provided what the CPS described as a “one-in-a-billion” DNA match linking Bishop to a sweatshirt which was at the scene of the murders. 
 
 The case had never been closed and had become the largest and longest-running inquiry in the history of Sussex police. A retrial was made possible after Bishop’s 1987 acquittal on the same charges was quashed at the court of appealin light of new evidence. 
 
 Bishop, who was not present to hear he was being convicted on the 31st anniversary of his original acquittal, will be required to appear when he is sentenced on Tuesday after the eight-week trial. 
 
 It also emerged on Monday that Bishop’s former partner could face a perjury investigation over her conduct at his murder trial at Lewes crown court in 1987. Jennifer Johnson had initially identified the sweatshirt which was found discarded along Bishop’s route home in Brighton as belonging to him, but then denied it in court. 
 
 
 
 She was not called by the prosecution in the second trial but another of Bishop’s former partners said he had been violent towards Johnson. 
 
 Nigel Pilkington, a CPS lawyer, suggested the result of the 1987 trial could have been “wholly different” if Johnson had not changed her story. 
 
 “Obviously if somebody has not told the truth in a case which has been a miscarriage of justice for 32 years, that’s a serious matter, if it turns out to be so. But we will wait to see if police make a decision to investigate,” he added. 
 
 Both Karen and Nicola had been afraid of the dark and the latter’s father had banned her from playing in an area known as Wild Park, even saying the “bogeyman” lived there, the court was told. 
 
 However, Bishop spotted the two nine-year-olds playing in the park near their home at around dusk on 9 October 1986 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, suggested Brian Altman QC. 
 
 The court heard that as well as the DNA evidence, fibre transfers linked the sweatshirt to the girls, the murder scene and Bishop’s home. Dried red paint on the sleeve was matched to a flake on Nicola’s neck and Karen’s T-shirt, providing “very strong support” they had recent contact with the garment. 
 
 There were also hundreds of ivy hairs on the sweatshirt like those at the scene of the murders. As well as the evidence from the sweatshirt, a DNA match to Bishop was found on Karen’s left forearm, jurors heard. 
 
 Bishop had returned to live in the Brighton area after his acquittal, but less than three years later, in February 1990, committed offences involving the attempted murder, kidnapping and indecent assault of a seven-year-old girl in the Whitehawk area of the city. 
 
 She survived and identified Bishop as her attacker, the jury was told. This, together with other evidence, led to his conviction for that crime in December 1990. 
 
 During the trial this year, Bishop tailored his defence to the new evidence and claimed he had touched the girls to feel for a pulse on the day after the killings, when he had joined the search for them and was nearby when they were found. However, two teenagers who had spotted the bodies insisted that he could not have come close. 
 
 Acting on instructions, Bishop’s defence team had also cast suspicion on Nicola’s father, Barrie Fellows, suggesting that police spent decades investigating the wrong man. The 69-year-old was reduced to tears during the trial by the claims against him. 
 
 The defence team also cast doubt on the new evidence, suggesting it could have been contaminated. 
 
 Det Supt Jeff Riley described Bishop as a “wicked” paedophile. 
 
 He said: “I still feel it’s a shadow over Brighton to this day. I’m very proud of the investigation we have put together. We have been meticulous. We have never given up on this investigation.” ||||| Paedophile Russell Bishop has been found guilty of the Babes in the Wood murders more than 30 years after a bungled police and forensic operation saw him walk free from court. 
 
 The 52 year-old was finally convicted of the sexually motivated murders of nine-year-olds Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows, who were strangled to death in October 1986. 
 
 The families of the two girls cheered members of the jury as the verdict was handed down at the Old Bailey on the anniversary of his original acquittal. 
 
 Bishop was not in court having refused to leave his cell and attend. He will be sentenced on Tuesday. 
 
 Bishop was initially charged with shocking crimes in 1987, but was cleared by a jury at Lewes Crown Court after a catalogue of forensic mistakes torpedoed the prosecution case. 
 
 Tragically, three years later, when Bishop should have been languishing in prison, he struck again, attacking a seven-year-old in almost identical circumstances.
– Nothing can bring back Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows, 9-year-old girls murdered in the UK in 1986. "But we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop," family members said Monday as the 52-year-old convicted pedophile was found guilty of sexually assaulting and strangling the schoolgirls in a wooded area half a mile from their Brighton neighborhood on Oct. 9, 1986. Based on what prosecutors described as a "one-in-a-billion" DNA match linking a discarded sweatshirt to Bishop, the girls, and the murder scene, the convictions came exactly 31 years after Bishop's acquittal on the same charges, reports the Guardian. An ex-girlfriend had initially said the sweatshirt found discarded along Bishop's route home in Brighton belonged to him, but she denied that claim in court in 1987. "Certainly, if she had not changed her story, it might have been a wholly different thing," a prosecutor tells the Telegraph, raising the possibility of a perjury investigation. Not only was Bishop's DNA found on Karen's left forearm, but dried paint on the sweatshirt matched flakes found on her shirt and Nicola's neck, according to prosecutors. They described Bishop attacking the girls at a park around dusk, though defense attorneys instead suggested the involvement of Nicola's father, who was brought to tears during the trial. Afterward, the family had harsh words for their daughter's killer, serving life for the 1990 attempted murder, kidnapping, and indecent assault of a 7-year-old girl, per the BBC: "He is a monster. A predatory pedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified." He'll be sentenced Tuesday. (A podcast might've helped solve a 1982 murder.)