Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop won't be buried in Brighton

Any attempt to bury child killer Russell Bishop in the city would be "wholly inappropriate" and will "almost certainly be refused", the city council has ruled.

The murderer, who was 55, died in hospital after being taken there from top security HMP Frankland in County Durham where he was serving a life sentence.

Bishop killed best friends Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, both nine, and dumped their bodies in Wild Park near their homes in Brighton in October 1986.

After fears that his mother Sylvia would try to have Bishop buried in his home city, Brighton and Hove City Council has now ruled that any plea for his ashes to be interred here would be denied.

Russell Bishop died in prison

A council spokesman said: "We have not received any request for Mr Bishop’s ashes to be interred within the city.

"Our starting point would be that it would be wholly inappropriate for him to be buried in the same place as where his victims are buried. We would almost certainly refuse a request for this to happen.

"We are also very mindful of the strength of feeling that his murders have caused in the city, and hope that his family recognises this."

Bishop was cleared of the Babes in the Wood murders in 1987 after a series of blunders by police, forensic experts, and prosecutors.

Within three years he went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke.

• READ MORE: How Babes in the Wood murders were covered in 1987

While serving life for that crime, Bishop was ordered to face a fresh trial for Nicola and Karen's murders in light of a DNA breakthrough.

He was finally convicted of Nicola and Karen's murders in 2018 after his acquittals were quashed in 2017.

Nicola's uncle Ian Heffron said the decision to ban his burial in Brighton was a "relief to the community".

He said: "No commitment whatsoever will be granted, at all. She [his mother] will be told no if she decides to try and ask for permission, it will not be granted.

"That is in any cemetery in the city, privately owned or council-owned.

"We have had words with the appropriate bodies, and they are all of the same minds that there is absolutely no way that they will allow it.

Argus front pages

"I would assume it would be a big relief for the community as well. I would assume nobody wants to know the likes of his ashes are interred in a cemetery.

"That is very good news."

In 2020, it was reported Bishop had been diagnosed with bowel cancer, but this later spread to his brain.

Reacting to his death in January, furious Michelle Johnson, Karen's mother, said he should "rot in hell".

She said: "He put us through decades of pain and grief due to his evil actions. The suffering we have had to endure has been unimaginable.'

"He has gone. It was a bad day when that b***ard was born. I don't know whether this brings any closure for me but at least he is gone, that's all I can say."