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Russell Bishop trial: Murder police 'destroyed' accused | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A man accused of murdering two girls in 1986 has told the Old Bailey how police bullied him into making a false account, "totally destroying" him. | |
Russell Bishop told the court he signed an incorrect witness statement as "it was the only way I was going to get out of there", the jury heard. | |
Bishop denies murdering Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, in October 1986. | |
The defendant also told the jury he was wrongfully arrested over the Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton in 1984. | |
The court has heard how the girls were found dead in Wild Park, near Brighton, on 10 October 1986, a day after they went missing. | |
In 1990, Bishop - formerly of Brighton - went on to be jailed for life for the kidnap, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke on the South Downs. | |
Two teenagers who initially discovered Nicola and Karen have told jurors Bishop never touched them. | |
But the court has also heard claims Bishop touched the bodies and checked for a pulse, which may explain the DNA evidence that has presented in the case, the second time he has been tried over their deaths. | |
'Totally sickened' | |
Giving evidence, Bishop told jurors how he had joined the search for the girl but was warned by his father - who had himself previously been wrongly arrested for murder - not to get involved. | |
He said when a man raised the alarm the girls had been found, he was told to go up the scene and and keep people away. | |
"I went straight to the victims, felt for a pulse, neck on Nicola and Karen on the right arm," he said. | |
Bishop told jurors he felt "shocked, totally sickened". | |
He went on to tell the court he was interviewed by police for 13 hours without a solicitor. | |
He said: "I started getting all frustrated, confused, tied up in knots." | |
He claimed officers showed him pictures of the dead girls and the area where they were found. | |
Defending, Joel Bennathan QC said: "By the end of this process, you signed a witness statement that said you did not take the pulse of the two girls." | |
Bishop said: "I was just telling them what they wanted to hear. It was obvious they were not going to believe me over what those two boys were saying. | |
"I was being called a liar. They had been downright nasty. I was being kept a prisoner. | |
"I was having two police officers bullying and totally destroying me in that room. | |
"I'm dyslexic and I could not read or write. I had poor problem-solving skills." | |
Mr Bennathan earlier told the court that if Bishop touched the bodies there is an explanation for DNA evidence on a Pinto sweatshirt linking Bishop with the girls. | |
The barrister said: "Did Russell Bishop touch the bodies of the girls when they were discovered on October 10 - because if he did take their pulses then there is an obvious simple explanation why he knew what they looked like and the DNA." | |
Bishop was tried for the murders in 1987, but acquitted. He now faces a second trial. | |
Over the attack on the girl he was jailed for, he told the jury he was "deeply ashamed" of what he had done. | |
The trial continues. | The trial continues. |