BBC responds to Babes in Wood mother over Martin Bashir claims

The grieving mum said BBC reporter Martin Bashir took away her clothing for DNA testing in 1991 but never returned it.

Michelle Hadaway said Mr Bashir in 1991 signed a note to say he was taking clothes.

She says the items were what Karen was wearing when she died.

The nine-year-old was murdered along with her friend Nicola Fellows in Wild Park, Brighton, 1986.

Karen Hadaway (left) and Nicola Fellows (right) (Image: PA)

The BBC has responded after Ms Hadaway called for an investigation similar to the Lord Dyson report into Mr Bashir's interview with Princess Diana and claimed she was considering the prospect of legal action.

A BBC spokesperson told The Argus: "We appreciate how distressing this must be for Ms Hadaway and we will of course discuss this matter with her if and when she wishes to do so."

Ms Hadaway says not having the clothing may have hindered her pursuing her daughter’s killer in court and she called for an apology from Mr Bashir.

In an interview in The Sunday Times, Mr Bashir was asked about the potentially crucial piece of evidence and replied: “I may have lost it but I don’t remember.”

Karen and her friend Nicola, also nine, were found sexually assaulted and strangled in a woodland den in Brighton in October 1986 in what became known as the Babes in the Wood murders.

Michelle Hadaway wants an inquiry into how she was treated by Martin Bashir

The families of the two girls spent decades fighting for justice after their killer, Russell Bishop, was initially found not guilty of their murders in 1987.

Speaking to Woman’s Hour, Ms Hadaway says Mr Bashir went to her in 1991 and asked to have Karen's clothing DNA tested, saying that science had advanced in the five years since the murders, but he never returned the clothes.

She said Mr Bashir told her he was working on a programme called Public Eye for the BBC.

READ MORE: Russell Bishop convicted of Babes in the Wood murders

“Over the years I’ve been so angry with the fact that this man has never apologised to me, never contacted me, the denials have been going on for quite a long time.”

“So he took the clothes, gave me a signed piece of paper, said to me not to worry it would probably be a few months before the programme had come out.

“It was then a few more years.

“I couldn’t remember who he was, I couldn’t remember the name of the programme, all I know is he had taken the clothes but he hadn’t returned them.”

When she eventually found the receipt she said she contacted Mr Bashir, who told her he did not remember and had not taken the clothes.

Asked if she thinks not having the clothes returned may have delayed her decades-long quest for justice, she said: “Well I don’t know because I think to myself had he have DNA tested it then maybe we could have taken a civil court case out against the perpetrator.

“So to not give them to me back or not have them DNA tested is a bit shameful, don’t you think?”

After Bishop was controversially found not guilty in 1987 it took more than 30 years, DNA advances and a change in the law before he was finally convicted at a retrial in 2018.

Last week, Bishop’s ex-girlfriend Jennifer Johnson was jailed for six years for committing perjury at his first trial.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “We are aware of this matter but it had no material impact on the investigation then or later, or on the 2018 prosecution.

“All forensic evidence needed had been already obtained from the clothing in 1986 and stored separately, including DNA evidence which only became accessible many years later due to advances in forensic technology and which was crucial in securing Bishop’s eventual conviction.

“The families have also been told this.”