Babes in the Wood: Killer's ex-girlfriend jailed for perjury

Jennifer Johnson denied perverting the course of justice in 1987

The ex-girlfriend of Babes in the Wood murderer Russell Bishop has been jailed after being found guilty of lying at his original trial in 1987.

Jennifer Johnson "significantly undermined" the prosecution's case against Bishop, who was cleared of killing nine-year-olds Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in Brighton.

He was eventually convicted in 2018.

Mr Justice Fraser sentenced Johnson, who did not attend the hearing, to six years in prison.

Sentencing Johnson at Lewes Crown Court, the judge described her offences as being "at the most serious end of the scale".

He said he did not accept that pressure or coercion caused her to help Bishop saying "you were a willing participant in his dishonest offence".

He called Johnson "an accomplished liar", who "lied and lied again to the jury and to the court".

"In my judgement your prime motivation was that you could simply not face life without him... You wanted Bishop home with you, not in prison."

Karen Hadaway (left) and Nicola Fellows (right) were killed in Wild Park, Brighton, in 1986

The families of the two girls had campaigned for decades for justice.

Michelle Hadaway, Karen's mother, said Johnson's "web of lies" in 1987 left her "completely numb to the core".

Speaking after the hearing, she said: "I don't know if any sentence would have been good enough for her.

'Coward'

"But she will have to sit behind bars for the next three years and think about the awful lies she's told, the suffering she's been a part of causing - and think 'was it worth it?'."

"The pain I have had to endure over the loss of my beautiful daughter Karen over the last 30 years has been unbearable," she added.

Speaking of Johnson's refusal to leave her cell for the sentencing, the judge called it an example of her "refusal to accept responsibility" for her actions, and Ms Hadaway said it was "the coward's way out".

Russell Bishop faced a second trial in 2018 and was convicted

Chris Henley QC, for the defence, said Johnson had been "a vulnerable young mother in 1987" and was "in a relationship with a violent, abusive and coercive man".

She denied recognising a sweatshirt belonging to Bishop found in wasteland near where Karen and Nicola were found sexually-assaulted and strangled in Wild Park.

She claimed she had no choice to lie after being threatened by her partner, but was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice earlier this week.

Michelle Hadaway, Karen's mother, said Johnson's lies "left me completely numb to the core"

During Johnson's month-long trial, the jury was told she had lied "prolifically" and "significantly undermined" the original trial.

Libby Clark, senior crown prosecutor at the CPS, said the sweatshirt had been a "key part in the prosecution's case" in 1987.

"Johnson's actions played a part in the families of Nicola and Karen living in decades of despair as to whether anyone would ever be convicted of the killings of their little girls," Ms Clark said.

The parents of the girls lobbied MPs in 1988 and called for the reopening of the police investigation

Three years after Bishop was acquitted, he struck again, leaving a seven-year-old for dead at Devil's Dyke, near Brighton. He was jailed for life.

In 2014, after advances in DNA testing technology, the sweatshirt was re-examined and evidence was found linking it to Bishop's home and the girls.

"Double jeopardy" laws in the UK were scrapped in 2005, meaning Bishop's acquittal could be quashed and he was finally convicted of the murders 32 years after the girls died.

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