Russell Bishop murder trial: everything said by the prosecution on afternoon of day 1

Here we publish in full a transcript of the prosecution case from the afternoon of day one at The Old Bailey in London.

Read the morning's transcript in full here.

PROSECUTION CASE IN FULL ON AFTERNOON OF DAY 1

Prosecutor Brian Altman QC said:

Michelle Hadaway recalled it slightly differently.

She had been getting up to leave because it was after 3.30 and she knew Karen would be coming home from school.

As she did so, she saw the defendant, Marion Stevenson and Tracy Cox coming down the path to the Fellows house. She heard one of them asking Nicola (who by now had gone to the door) whether Dougie Judd was in, to which Nicola replied, “No, he’s not!” and slammed the door shut, shouting after them through the letterbox, “Go away you slag!” The defendant left without entering the house.

The event is important because the lack of physical contact with Nicola or entry into the address is significant when we come to consider the scientific evidence that was later found to show a scientific connection between the defendant and Nicola.

After she came in from school at a little after 4pm, Karen went to a sweetshop on a parade of shops on Coldean Lane at Park Road with some money that she had been given by a school friend and she returned home about 20 minutes later.

Karen had been wearing her school uniform that day which was a green long-sleeved sweatshirt, a T-shirt, a kilt-type skirt, white knickers and school shoes.

By the time she came in from the shop that afternoon, her mother 9 noticed that she had discarded her school jacket and had changed out of her school shoes into a pair of pink trainers.

Michelle Hadaway washed the green sweatshirt every weekend, so it was clean on each Monday. Monday 6 October 1986 was no different.

In terms of her personal hygiene, Karen washed every morning and then had a bath or a shower every evening.

According to her mother, she would often bathe in the morning as well as the evening if she got up in time.

Having returned home from the shop, Karen went out again, even though Michelle had her tea in the oven.

Karen was still wearing her school uniform minus her school jacket and school shoes.

Michelle told her not to be long and Karen said she would not be.

That was the last time Michelle saw her daughter alive.

Susan Fellows remembers Nicola going out to play after the defendant had been to her house looking for Judd and after Michelle Hadaway and Theresa Judd had left.

Every now and then, Susan looked out and could see Nicola playing with a girl called Lisa Bowles and Lyndsey, Karen’s younger sister.

At about 5pm, Susan saw Nicola and Karen playing with a roller boot.

This, for Susan, was also to be the last time she saw Nicola alive.

When she was last seen by Susan Fellows, Nicola had been wearing red shoes, pink knickers, a brown and white chequered skirt and a pink and brown V-necked sweatshirt, but no socks or coat.

She had taken her long white socks off when she came in from school.

The clothes were clean on that day and had been washed since the last time that they had been worn. When Nicola was found dead the next day, she was wearing a pair of pink knickers, albeit they were inside out. Susan thought it possible that Nicola had put on a clean pair of knickers when she took her socks off, as she had a habit of holding herself for too long and wetting her knickers.

Nicola had no money on her that day.

Eventually, Michelle went out looking for Lyndsey, the younger sister, and found her in the Fellows garden.

Lyndsey told her that Karen and Nicola had run off down the road, but she did not take too much notice.

Michelle took Lyndsey home for tea, but by 5.20pm Karen was still not home, so Michelle went out to knock on the Bowles family house door to find her, but without success.

She then knocked on Susan’s door asking her if she knew where Karen was, but she did not know, so Michelle started looking around for her but by 6.30pm returned to the 10 Fellows home and joined up with Susan Fellows in order to find the girls, as they were understandably beginning to worry.

The two women bumped into a neighbour, 14-year-old Wayne Measor, who told them he had seen Karen playing in Wild Park some 20 minutes earlier talking to the park keeper.

By now Michelle Hadaway was beginning to panic as she had repeatedly told Karen not to go into the park and Wayne Measor made it sound as if she was not with Nicola.

As for Wayne Measor, he recalled walking into Wild Park at a little after 5pm to look for a friend.

As he did so, he said he saw around 25 to 30 yards to his right the park keeper dressed in his uniform talking to Karen who he saw was wearing her school uniform green top and grey skirt. He saw no one else with them at the time.

If it was at about 5pm he saw Karen in the park, then his estimate of seeing her 20 minutes before bumping into Michelle Hadaway and Susan Fellows at about 6.30pm that evening had to be mistaken and over an hour out.

Indeed, the park keeper, Roy Dadswell, recalled seeing the girls at about 5.15pm playing in a large tree near to the main Lewes Road and opposite the shops.

He walked over to them and told them to be careful not to hurt themselves. He was with or close to the girls for about five minutes and was also in the company of someone he knew as Bert. This was Albert Barnes who was walking his dog.

Mr Barnes remembered one of the girls putting a leaf in the park keeper’s pocket and one in his cardigan as a gift.

At what she estimated to be about 5pm, Dorrinda Brackenridge (now Burtenshaw) who was being given a lift home from work by her brother, Paul, saw the defendant, whom she knew, walking along the central reservation of Coldean Lane, walking eastwards near to the subway that goes under Lewes Road.

It was still light and he was wearing, according to her, what appeared to be a light blue top. As we shall see, a blue top bears a great deal of significance in this case.

Paul, her brother, recalled her saying, “Look, there’s Russell”, at which he saw the defendant stepping off the footway of the south corner of Coldean Lane by the subway entrance.

At around the same time the park keeper was dealing with Nicola and Karen, at 5.15pm, he also recalls the defendant (who he knew by sight but not name) coming up and speaking to him.

Mr Dadswell did not recall his clothing other than the belt he was wearing that stood out.

The defendant told Mr Dadswell that his car had broken down “up Coldean Lane”.

The car he was talking about was the red Ford Escort.

The defendant and Mr Dadswell discussed car repairs and the defendant said that he had not played football for a while because of an operation on his shoulder.

He showed Mr Dadswell his shoulder, pulling the neck of his clothing to one side.

Mr Dadswell saw him walking off towards the edge of Lewes Road and then Mr Dadswell walked to the pavilion in the park and sat down for 20 minutes or so, before walking back at about 6.30pm.

Brothers Kevin and Mark Doyle, apparently quite independently of each, say they saw the defendant around 6.30pm that same day.

According to Kevin, who was on foot, he saw him coming from what he described as a path running along the back of Wild Park that came out between the police box and the public toilets that were there at the time and out on to the west pavement of Lewes Road close to the railway viaduct that runs over Lewes Road.

He added that the defendant waved at him.

His brother Mark, who knew the defendant from playing football for Barrie Fellows’ team, says he was being driven home from work when he saw the defendant walking past the police box going in his direction as he was travelling under the same railway viaduct.

If they are both right about that, then the defendant was walking away from the scene around 6.30pm.

As we shall see, other evidence suggests the girls were still alive at about this time and, if they were still alive at the time the Doyles’ accounts suggest the defendant was heading in the general direction of his home, then the defendant must have turned back into Wild Park.

What is the evidence that shows the girls to have been alive around about 6.30pm? Let me summarise some of it.

Wendy Robertson, who lived at 60 Barcombe Road, decided that early evening to walk to the Fish and Chip shop in Barcombe Road.

As she did so, she saw both Nicola and Karen, she estimates at about 6.15pm, unwrapping a bag of chips outside the newsagent next to the Fish and Chip shop.

Mrs Robertson went into the shop and left around 6.25 to 6.30pm by which time the girls had gone.

Janet Reid, who lived at 66 Barcombe Road, saw Nicola and Karen on the kerb of Lewes Road, she estimated at around 6.25pm.

They were standing with their backs to the park and she recalls 12 Nicola, who she knew, waving at her.

She noticed that both girls were carrying small parcels of white paper, identical to those provided in the Fish and Chip shop for a portion of chips.

Kevin Carhart, who was driving north along the Lewes Road at about 6.30 to 6.40pm, saw two young girls on the central reservation of Lewes Road about to cross into Wild Park.

It was, he remembers, dusk and almost completely dark. The girls were crossing the road in line with the Fish and Chip shop on the opposite side.

Fourteen-year-old Michelle Tippett saw the girls, whom she knew, outside 34 Barcombe Road between the parade of shops and the subway on Lewes Road at what she thinks was about 6.30pm. She recalled Nicola telling her that they were going over to Wild Park.

She told them they should tell their mothers where they were going because they would get worried, but the girls ignored her. She particularly recalled Nicola repeatedly saying to Karen “Come on, let’s go over the park”. Michelle Tippett went on her way and did not see if they did go over to the park.

A Moulsecoomb Junior School pupil, Sean Nye, saw Nicola and another girl wearing a green jumper (obviously Karen) on the Lewes Road on what he calls the police box side of a bus stop at about 6.30pm.

Although Sean Nye saw no one else, his timing (if accurate) suggests the girls were in the area of the police box around the very time the Doyles saw the defendant walking past it.

There is also another piece of evidence I should tell you about, if only to make a comment about it. Beatrice Cooper, who lived at 3 Park Close, which borders Wild Park, says she heard the crying of a girl coming from the top of the steps at Highfields, the road above the woods where the girls’ bodies were found and recovered the next day.

The steps she was talking about are known locally as ‘Jacobs Ladder’ and they come out at the top by Highfields. Mrs Cooper was not clear about the timing.

All she could say was that at some point after 6.30pm, she and her husband went into their garden to do some gardening and it was while her husband was disposing of some dead foliage they had sacked up that she heard the sound of a child crying.

She said the sound of it was of the type one would connect with a child having been severely injured, although she said her first impression had been that it was the sound of a child that had been punished by its mother.

Mrs Cooper said the crying lasted two to three minutes and then stopped and she thought nothing more about it, returning indoors at about 7pm.

If the crying did come from the top of the Jacobs Ladder at Highfields then this could not realistically have been the sound of one of the murdered girls, given the distance from the scene; and if the other witnesses I have just mentioned were being accurate when they say they saw the girls were alive and well between about 6.30 and 6.40pm, then the crying this witness says she heard between about 6.30pm and 7pm may also have nothing to do with their murders.

FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER 1986

News of the girls’ disappearance spread throughout the Moulsecoomb community.

Yann Svenski, a past member of what was known as the Moulsecoomb CB (Citizen’s Band Radio) Emergency Group, heard the news too.

He assembled a group of individuals who decided to assist in the search for the girls and they began searching the local area.

The search continued through the night and into the early hours of Friday 10 October 1986.

At about 12.30 to 12.45, in the early hours of that Friday morning, Mr Svenski and a small group of men were searching in the area near to Moulsecoomb Railway Station, where there was an area of land between a footpath and the station platform.

It was dark and misty at this time.

The area of land was fenced off on either side of it and the grass was about 10 inches high.

The footpath alongside it led into the Hollingdean area where the defendant lived, so this was an obvious route for the defendant to take from Wild Park to his home address at 17 Stephens Road.

The group got to the area of land and were using torches to search.

It was not very long before Philip Upton, a member of the search party, saw with his torch a light-coloured object.

Peter James, another member of the group, recovered it by jumping over the fence.

They saw it was a light blue crew-necked sweatshirt bearing the ‘Pinto’ brand name; it was inside out.

The garment appeared to have been thrown to the ground, which suggests it had been taken off and discarded. It felt dry to the touch in contrast to the wet grass around it, which together with the fact it was a misty night, suggests the sweatshirt had not been lying there for very long.

Because the men were only searching for the missing girls, the blue sweatshirt did not fit the description of the clothing they were looking for, so they left the sweatshirt draped over the fence and left the area.

At around 2.30 in the morning of that Friday 10 October 1986, police officers searching for the girls visited the home address of the defendant and his partner, Jenny Johnson, at 17 Stephens Road.

Jenny Johnson opened the door and the officers asked if the defendant was at home. She showed them into a bedroom, where he was in bed.

The police officers asked him whether he knew the girls and he confirmed that he did.

He was asked when he had last seen them and he said, “When I was walking home from Moulsecoomb last night, I saw them at about 5 o’clock talking to the park keeper at the entrance to Wild Park”.

He was then asked to describe the park keeper, which he did.

He was asked if he was sure that it was the two girls and he said he was, as he recognised them. He said that he had been to Dougie’s house in Newick Road before seeing them.

The police officers then asked him if he had any idea where the girls might be.

Jenny Johnson who was then present in the room said the girls were friends of Marion Stevenson at 19 Barcombe Road and suggested the police try there.

Of course, Marion Stevenson was the girl with whom the defendant was in a sexual relationship. The police officers said they would call later to take a written statement from him.

Geoffrey Caswell (the defendant’s near neighbour in Stephens Road) and he had a common interest in sea fishing and would occasionally together go fishing and digging for bait.

Mr Caswell had gone fishing at about 2 o’clock that Friday morning and he returned home at around 7.30am.

He knocked on the defendant’s door between about 7.30am and 8am to tell him about his catch but got no reply so he wrote a note about it and put it through the door.

He then went off to the market to sell his fish and got back around 10am when he saw two detectives knocking on the defendant’s door.

He also saw Jenny Johnson answer the door to them.

Indeed, at 10am that day, just as the police had told the defendant would happen, other police officers attended 17 Stephens Road again to take a fuller account from the defendant.

He was in bed at the time of their arrival and then came to sit with them in the living room. The defendant said that he knew Nicola through her father, Barrie, because they played football together for about three years and that he had known Karen through her father, Lee, with whom he shared an interest in sea fishing.

He said he had known Karen for about seven months.

He said that on Thursday 9 October he had called at the Fellows home address to see Dougie Judd, who you will remember lodged there.

He timed the visit as being about 3.15pm.

He said 15 the door had been answered by a young girl.

He said he was unable to describe the girl but said he was definite that it was neither Nicola Fellows nor Karen Hadaway.

He said he recalled being told that Judd was not in and so he left. He said he walked back into Barcombe Road, he then crossed Lewes Road to the Wild Park side of Lewes Road and he walked along the path towards Brighton.

He said that on his journey he saw both Karen and Nicola playing on their own, just north of the entrance to Wild Park.

He said that the park keeper and another male who had a dog (a reference to Albert Barnes) were walking towards him.

He told the police that he saw the park keeper speaking to the girls.

The park keeper and the man continued to walk towards him and he spoke to the park keeper and talked about a football injury to his shoulder.

He said that after a short conversation he left and crossed Lewes Road and went to a newsagent on Barcombe Road where he intended buying the Evening Argus (a local newspaper) but discovered that he had no money and so he had to leave the shop.

He said he was embarrassed by this and was sure the shop assistant would remember the incident because of it.

He added after leaving the shop he could not recall if the girls were still playing around the tree where he had originally seen them.

He said he then walked home but could not recall what time he arrived there.

He said that his partner, Jenny, was at work that evening.

The police officers then took a formal witness statement from him, which he signed as true, reflecting the information he had just given them (BFE/6).

The defendant then provided the police with information about his car and clothing which was entered on to what is known as a personal descriptive form ‘PDF’ (DJP/6).

He told the police that he was the owner of a red Ford Escort, but said he could not remember the registration number, only that it had a ‘P’ suffix.

He said that he had gone bait digging on the morning of Thursday 9 October and that the car had blown up on his way back up Ditchling Road, just north of its junction with Upper Lewes Road.

He was also asked about the clothing that he had been wearing at the relevant time of the incident.

The PDF indicates that the time he was being asked about was 3.30 to 4pm. Jenny Johnson who was present interjected saying that he had been wearing a blue top and jeans and then she went into the kitchen and came back with a blue sweatshirt with a stripe across the chest.

The defendant said that he had been wearing the clothes Jenny Johnson produced from the kitchen.

Later that morning, the defendant who had received and read Mr Caswell’s note went over to Mr Caswell’s house to speak about his catch, which they spoke about, as well as speaking about the police visit.

The defendant told Mr Caswell that he was going to help look for the girls, as he knew them and their families.

We will see that the defendant did search for the girls with others over some time on the Friday, but it was all a pretence.

His effort was cynical and a deliberate attempt to divert attention away from himself.

Knowing full well that it was only a matter of time before the girls would be found dead in the very area he was helping to search, this was his way of deceiving others into thinking he was not responsible.

That same day, between about 12.45 to 1pm, Karen’s mother, Michelle, went out searching for her daughter with Kathleen Measor, her neighbour (and Wayne Measor’s mother) when she saw the defendant with his dog, Misty, his girlfriend Marion Stevenson and a woman called Belle Badger, but she did not recall speaking to them. They were at the entrance to Wild Park.

Kathleen Measor, however, recalls the defendant saying to Michelle something like, “I saw them last night. I was going out. I wish I hadn’t have gone now”.

Later, between about 1 and 1.15pm, Michelle Hadaway saw Dougie Judd and the defendant with the dog walking towards her.

At this time, the defendant spoke to her and asked her if she had an item of Karen’s clothing that the dog could get a scent from.

All she could think of was a white coat Karen had worn to school.

So, she told him to go to her home and ask the policeman there if he could have it and to say she had approved it.

She saw the defendant leave the park with the dog, Marion Stevenson and Belle Badger.

Michelle Hadaway was still in the park when Judd returned with the defendant who was carrying a Sainsbury’s bag inside of which he had Karen’s white coat.

At this point a man turned up in a car and she heard the three men saying they were going with the dog to a place known locally as ‘49 Acres’ to see if the dog could pick up a scent.

49 Acres is an area of land that extends from Hollingbury Golf Course by Ditchling Road and was not near the site of the woods where the girls were soon to be found dead.

Michelle Hadaway went with them in the car, driven by the third man. She did not see the defendant giving the coat to the dog to smell.

PC Christopher Markham was on duty in uniform at a little after 2pm in Moulsecoomb police box when as a result of instructions given to him by an Insp Brooks he accompanied the defendant and Dougie Judd on a search of Wild Park, ostensibly to find the two missing girls.

They headed to the park entrance.

At this time the defendant was wearing a pair of black/grey 17 trousers, a cream-coloured shirt, a patterned jumper and a pair of old training shoes.

The defendant had his dog with him, which he said had been trained by his mother (who was a dog trainer) to track.

The policeman saw he also had with him a plastic bag in which we know he had Karen’s coat.

The defendant explained to the officer that it belonged to one of the girls and, as they approached the park entrance, he placed the lining of the coat over the dog’s muzzle and then produced a dog lead from the carrier bag and attached it to the dog’s collar.

The defendant said the dog would now have the scent of the child whose jacket it was.

They headed northwards into an area of the park towards Woburn Place with the defendant shouting instructions at the dog, which, according to PC Markham, behaved as if it were tracking.

Eventually they came out on to Jacobs Ladder, the steps leading from the park entrance up to Highfields in Coldean.

PC Markham could see they were about 150 yards north of the pavilion.

At this point, the dog appeared to lose concentration; the defendant said the dog had lost the scent.

PC Markham was doubtful the dog had been tracking at all and suggested returning to join an organised search.

The defendant accepted the advice, but then said, quite suddenly, that he would not like to continue searching on his own in case he found anything, adding he would “hate to find the girls, especially if they had been messed up”.

PC Markham was taken aback by this, as it simply had not occurred to him that the girls might be found dead; he had assumed they would be found alive.

This was not the only time that day the defendant would say such a thing, revealing, we suggest, the knowledge that only he then had of what had become of the girls.

At about 3.30 that afternoon, Robert Gander, an engineer for the South Eastern Electricity Board, went to the electricity sub-station which was by the footpath by Moulsecoomb Railway Station leading to Crespin Way and into the Hollingdean area and the area of land where the Pinto sweatshirt had been discovered the night before.

Mr Gander noticed a woman who was walking along the footpath and had stopped to look at what appeared to him to be a jumper on the grass verge, but then she carried on.

So, Mr Gander went over and picked up the item which he saw was a blue sweatshirt with the word Pinto written on it.

He also noticed that it smelt of body odour and had some form of red staining around the chest area and the right sleeve.

He knew about the disappearance of the two girls and thought that the item might be of interest to the police, so he took it to the electricity sub-station, where he called the police.

They asked him to take the item to their incident post at the edge of Wild Park.

The incident post had been set up in a Major Incident Van.

It was there, shortly after 4pm, that Mr Gander handed the Pinto 18 sweatshirt to PC David Edwards who was on duty in the post. He put it in a brown paper bag and attached a note to it with the details of the finder pinned to the sweatshirt.

After the finding of the bodies, the Major Incident Van was moved to a forward position closer to the pavilion in Wild Park.

Later at around 5 to 5.30pm, Insp Verrion who was supervising the post, took the Pinto sweatshirt to Brighton Police Station at John Street, still inside its brown paper bag.

On arrival at the police station, the Inspector left the packaged sweatshirt in the Exhibits Store, next to the Major Incident Room. Later, you will hear detailed evidence about the handling and storage of exhibits in this case, and this is important when you come to hear the scientific findings that were made.

That Pinto sweatshirt (which bears PC David Edwards’ initials and so it bears the reference ‘DE/1’) was a crucial finding, because, after 30 or so years since 1986, it has now given up its secrets and those secrets not only provide scientific links between it and the defendant and his home environment, but also it provides several scientific links to the girls, supporting the prosecution case that this man is guilty of their murders.

At about the very time that Mr Gander was handing in that Pinto top, an 18-year-old hospital porter by the name of Kevin Rowland decided to join in the search for the girls after finishing work, together with his 18-year-old friend, Matthew (‘Mac’) Marchant.

The boys walked along Lewes Road, in the direction of the old bowling green and entered Wild Park. They followed various paths, looking into overgrown areas, eventually taking a narrow path running alongside Highfields.

At one point, Mr Rowland found an old kitchen knife, which he held on to as they carried along the path.

They crossed over the path at the top of the Jacobs Ladder steps. As they did so, they saw the defendant who was with his dog and another man.

He, the defendant, shouted from the bottom of the steps, “Any luck yet?” to which one of them shouted back, “No”.

They found their way through dense brambles to a track going uphill, where Mr Rowland saw some broken branches, as if someone had gone through them.

He said to his friend, “Let’s go up there”.

There were overhanging branches in the way.

The track then went off to the left.

As he turned, Mr Rowland saw one of the two girls lying in front of him, he estimated some 15 feet away. He thought straight away that she was dead.

He stopped and sat down because he did not want to go any further.

He called for Matthew Marchant who was a few yards behind him, saying, “Shit, I’ve found them”. Mr Marchant walked a few paces further and looked to his left, where he saw the top half of the body of one girl only. He could see her top half and was able to make out part of the side of her face and a hand. He says he saw one body and did not get any closer.

At about the same time, PC Paul Smith was on duty in uniform searching through the lower line of trees.

He was known to locals as ‘Smudge’.

As he was searching in the park he met the defendant who was walking with his dog and another male. The defendant also had a walking stick.

The defendant asked the policeman if he had been searching long, to which PC Smith replied he had been there since 8am.

He asked him, “What about you?” to which the defendant said “Me too.

I came down earlier and even gave a statement”. The other male then walked off, but the defendant asked PC Smith, “Do you think the kids are around here?”

PC Smith said that he did not know, to which the defendant remarkably responded, “I reckon they’ve either gone north or if they’re here they’re finished”.

PC Smith replied, “Well Brighton has some strange people in it”.

The defendant then said, “Yeah, anyway I’m not searching anymore” and, when asked why not, said, “No, I mean the Old Bill wouldn’t believe it would they … well if I found the girls and if they were done in I’d get the blame, I’d get nicked”.

Unsurprisingly, PC Smith said, “No, obviously you would have to give a statement, but it doesn’t follow”. They started to walk back out of the trees northwards together.

What he said to PC Smith was not very different to what he had said to PC Markham that same afternoon.

If the defendant had nothing to do with the girls’ disappearance and was innocent of their murders, you might well wonder why, even before they had been found, he was the one raising the prospect that they might be found dead and that if he found them he would get the blame for it.

Of course, when the defendant was making these pre-emptive, semi-confessional statements, only one person knew the girls were dead and that their bodies were lying in the woods not very far away and that was their murderer; and that is the very reason why the defendant said what he did.

As the defendant and PC Smith were talking, Mr Rowland sent Mr Marchant off to get help.

Mr Marchant ran back down the path and towards the defendant and PC Smith, saying words to the effect, “We’ve found them, somebody has found them”.

PC Smith and the defendant ran 20 towards the pavilion, but PC Smith, who thought the defendant would be faster, told him to run on ahead, warning him and the boys who had found the girls to keep away from them.

Mr Marchant saw the defendant with his dog running from the direction of the entrance of the park. The defendant asked Mr Marchant what was up and then went with Mr Marchant back to the track, where they joined Mr Rowland, who shouted to them to go and get help.

Mr Marchant went off for help.

Mr Rowland stayed where he was together with the defendant until PC Smith arrived.

At this point, the defendant made to step over Mr Rowland to get closer to the bodies but was told by him not to go near them and to sit down, which he did.

Mr Rowland recalled that PC Smith was the first person to approach the bodies to see if either had a pulse.

This evidence is important when we come to consider what the defendant said later about the position and appearance of the girls’ bodies at this time.

PC Smith’s recollection about his arrival at the scene was that he followed after the defendant into the undergrowth.

He recalled hearing a voice, which he took to be the defendant’s, saying, “I’m up here, keep coming up”. PC Smith asked, “How are they, how are the girls?” to which the defendant replied, “They’re fucking dead”.

The policeman then saw Mr Rowland sitting on the path and asked where the girls were. Mr Rowland pointed west along the path and PC Smith stepped over Mr Rowland to look to see where he was pointing.

He saw one small clothed figure some 15 to 20 feet away at the end of the path. He recalled the striking pink colour of the top the girl was wearing. This was Nicola who was lying closest to the entrance to the clearing.

It was, PC Smith remembered, very hard to see the girls in the undergrowth, despite the fact that a path led up to them, so PC Smith crawled through an opening in the bracken and realised that he could see the figures of two girls lying on the ground.

One, he recalled, was lying on her back with her legs up.

She was wearing a pink top and had a bruise to her face.

This, as I have indicated, was Nicola.

He noticed that the blood on her nostrils was frothy. Importantly, given what the defendant was later to claim, PC Smith could only see this when he was close enough to touch the bodies.

He saw that the other girl was lying across Nicola, with her head in her lap.

This was Karen. Both appeared to be sleeping and both of their hands were close together.

PC Smith went forwards and checked each girl’s neck for a pulse. There was no response and they were very cold, both clearly dead.

PC Smith noticed that Mr Rowland had a kitchen knife and asked him where it had come from.

Mr Rowland told him. PC Smith told the defendant to go down the path and to stop anyone coming up and to show other policemen where to come.

He recorded the time of the terrible discovery as 4.21pm and radioed for assistance.

Supt Tomlinson arrived shortly afterwards and was directed by a woman who was standing on the grass bank to where PC Smith had gone.

Mr Tomlinson clambered through the undergrowth with the woman and came to the site where he saw the scene for himself.

The woman who had gone with him started to become distraught which was affecting Mr Marchant and Mr Rowland but not the defendant who Mr Tomlinson felt was not unduly affected by the situation.

Mr Tomlinson remained with PC Smith and directed the three men to make their way back down through the undergrowth and to the grass area of the park where another police officer was waiting. PC Smith waited with the bodies until the Scenes of Crime Officers and other detective officers arrived.

At 5pm, Mark Baynes, a police photographer arrived at the scene and, wearing a forensic oversuit and carrying his camera equipment, walked and then scrambled up the steep grassy bank into the wooded area leading to where the girls were, before finding their location to the left of the path.

He recalled that the undergrowth was so dense it was like crawling under a table to get to it.

There, effectively in night-time conditions, although there was some ambient light and, using a flash gun, he took a series of photographs of the approach to the scene and then the scene itself containing the bodies of the two girls (MLB/1).

Mr Baynes recalls also there was no other way into the den.

Dr Isaac, a police doctor, attended the crime scene and between 5.45 and 6pm conducted a brief examination of the bodies, although he recalls it being impossible to get close to them.

He was, however, able to see that both girls were clothed and had signs of injuries to the face and neck areas.