Babes in the Wood by Graham Bartlett with Peter James
Genre: True crime
Read: 20th April 2025
Published: 24th February 2020
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Babes in the Wood by Graham Bartlett with Peter James takes us to the heart of a murder case that shocked the nation. Both gripping police procedural and an insight into the motivations of a truly evil man, it is a unique account of what became a thirty-two year fight for justice.
On 9 October 1986, nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway went out to play on their Brighton estate. They would never return home; their bodies discovered the next day concealed in a small clearing in a local park. This devastating crime rocked their close-knit community and the whole country.
Following the investigation moment by moment, drawing on exclusive interviews with officers charged with catching the killer, former senior detective Graham Bartlett and bestselling author Peter James tell the compelling inside story of the murder hunt and the arrest of local man Russell Bishop. The trial that followed was one of the most infamous in the history of Brighton policing – a shock result sees Bishop walk free. ‘Not guilty.’
Three years later, Graham is working as a junior detective in Brighton CID. A seven year old girl is kidnapped and found wandering naked on the freezing South Downs. When Bishop’s name comes up as a suspect, it’s clear history had come close to repeating itself. With the law and science against them, the police are frustrated that, still, he would escape justice for the double murder.
Decades later detectives are handed a surprise second chance. Can Bishop finally be made to answer for his horrendous crimes?
MY THOUGHTS:
Two girls murdered...a guilty man walks free...can the police get justice...?
I was just 14 at the time when nine year old Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were cruelly taken from their lives and their families. I was also on the other side of the world and international crimes rarely made headlines in the 1980s as they do now. It was the age before the internet, mobile phones and social media. A time when children played on the street and their curfew were the streetlights coming on. A time of innocence.
Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway
I knew nothing of the Babes in the Wood murders at the time and even now, only recently heard of it when I came across a copy of this book. I like true crime and have read a couple of Peter James' Roy Grace novels (as well as watched the TV series) so the fact that he collaborated on this book piqued my interest.
I liked the fact that this book is written by someone who actually knows what they are talking about. He's a retired police officer himself, having headed up Brighton Major Crimes and was a Detective Superintendent, but at the time of the girls' murders he was just another young police officer on the periphery working his beat at Gatwick while the others did the hard yards. But having made the transfer to Brighton prior to the 1990 attack, Bartlett gained a deep understanding of the facts of not only the case he worked but that of the one their suspect was also suspected of but had since been aquitted.
Bartlett's account from start to finish is empathetic to the victims and their families and yet shrouded in the depth of his knowledge of both cases and that which lead them all the way from Lewes Crown Court to the Old Bailey some three decades later, make him a solid authority of all involved and all that these cases entailed. The justice system is by no means always fair and yet it is the only one we have so therefore we must respect it and Bartlett did so in his respect of the barristers, solicitors and the sitting judges overseeing each trial.
What this story is is incredibly sad. I cannot for one minute imagine the depth of heartache these families felt at the loss of their daughters and the subsquent failure of the system. While it is primarily an account of the behind-the-scenes look at the investigation process, the gathering and the elimination of evidence, the statements, the arrests, the trials and the long long process it all took to finally get justice for these two innocent little girls.
It's the story of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway. Two nine year girls from Brighton's Mouselcomb council estate who were best friends. They stayed out longer than they were allowed on this tragic night and had they returned when the lights came on, they may well have still been here today. But they were children. They were innocents. They were just out playing and having fun, eating chips and crossing into the forbidden Wild Park. Despite disobeying their parents' instructions none of that was their fault. What ensued beyond the time they left the chip shop, walked through the railway underpass at Mouselcomb station and up into Wild Park was all down to their depraved killer. A man who, for all intents and purposes, purported assistance in the search for the missing girls before the gruesome discovery. A man who, for three decades, continued to claim his innocence despite evidence to the contrary. A man who showed no remorse or guilt for his actions, thinking only of himself when cross-examined.
Russell Bishop in 1986 and in 2018
I mist admit I found this hard going. Not just because of the crime but the procedural aspect as I felt bogged down by all the facts and the entire process that I was finding myself getting befuddled and had to re-read various excerpts because I found it hard to take in. Bartlett is a retired police officer so his account is written as such, which I did struggle to digest at times. That is not to say that it isn't well-written - it is. Very much so. I found the account almost endless so I cannot imagine how the police and the families felt at the entire drawn-out process for justice. That is not the fault of the author but rather the system, as it were. And the killer who lead authorities on a merry chase until they were finally able to corner him with irrefutable proof and evidence that he indeed was the killer of those girls. And even then, bowed out of proceedings like a coward. I was speechless.
I was moved throughout the entire account but none moreso than reading Nicola's father Barrie Fellows' cross-examination in court at the retrial. The harrowing allegations made of him was relentless and insensitive and I admit to shedding tears. As Bartlett said in the documentary (which I watched a couple of days ago), no one present could be unmoved by his evidence. I wasn't there and I was moved.
Barrie Fellows with Michelle Johnson, formerly Hadaway (left) and Susan Eismann, formerly Fellows (right)
As difficult a read as this book is, I highly recommend it as it highlights the failures of the system as well as the changes made since the 1980s to a more technological and scientific age where investigators have far more tools at their disposal to prosecute such crimes. At the time of Niola and Karen's murders, DNA was in its infancy and not used in criminal cases and forensics was limited to fingerprinting and blood-typing. We have come a long way since then and sadly it took three decades to finally get justice for two girls who would be in their forties and have families of their own now, had they still been alive.
Banner displayed on entrance to Mouselcomb after Bishop was found guilty in 2018, ending a three decade pursuit for justice
MEET THE AUTHORS:
His debut non-fiction, Death Comes Knocking, written with Peter James, was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and Peter and Graham followed this up with the critically acclaimed Babes in the Wood. Since then, Graham has had three solo crime novels published; Bad for Good (Sunday Times Top Ten Best Seller, Winner of Crime Fiction Lover Editors’ Choice Award 2022 and Nominated for Specsavers Debut of the Year 2022), Force of Hate, and City on Fire.
As a police procedure and crime advisor, Graham works with over 150 authors and TV writers (including Peter James, Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, Ruth Ware, Mark Billingham and the BBC), helping them inject authenticity into their work. He runs live and online crime writing courses and is a regular speaker at crime writing festivals.
Graham lives in Sussex.
Social Media links:
Peter James is an international best-selling crime thriller novelist who has had his books published in 36 languages. His series featuring Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has sold 17 million copies worldwide and has given him eight consecutive UK Sunday Times number ones.
Much loved by crime and thriller fans for his fast-paced page-turners full of unexpected plot twists, sinister characters, and accurate portrayal of modern day policing, he has won over 40 awards for his work including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award and Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger.
During his childhood Peter attended Charterhouse School and then, in later years went on to study at Ravensbourne Film School. As a result of his training there, he travelled to North America, and spent several years as a screenwriter and film producer. It was in 1994 however, that Peter’s name became known worldwide due to the controversial publication by Penguin of his novel, Host, officially “the world’s first electronic novel” on two floppy discs (a far cry from a Kindle!). Peter has since become a media spokesperson for electronic publishing. When he’s not writing his international bestselling stories of Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, Peter has many hobbies, one of which means that Peter holds an international racing licence and often competes in the Britcar Racing Series!
Peter currently divides his time between his Sussex home, a Victorian Rectory, and his apartment in Notting Hill.
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