The mother of a murdered schoolgirl today described the panicked all-night search for her daughter who failed to return home from an afternoon playing with a friend.
Michelle Johnson, the mother of nine-year-old Karen Hadaway, said her daughter and Nicola Fellows, also nine, had gone to a park on the afternoon of October 9, 1986, but did not return.
Together with Nicola’s mother, she began scouring the area asking friends and strangers to help. “I went everywhere I could possibly think of,” she said.
“It was all night, I was back and forward to my house with various people.”
Nicola and Karen were found dead the next day in Wild Park, Brighton.
Russell Bishop, 52, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of sexually assaulting and strangling the two girls. He today claimed Nicola’s father Barrie Fellows, could have been responsible.
Bishop stood trial for the murders in 1987 and was acquitted. In 1990, he was convicted of the kidnap, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl. The Court of Appeal quashed his acquittal and ordered a fresh trial. He denies the charges.
