A man who sexually assaulted and then murdered two nine-year-old girls has died in hospital.
Russell Bishop lured killed Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway into a park before sexually assaulting and strangling them in 1986.
The shocking crime was dubbed the Babes in the Wood murder.
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The prison service has now confirmed to the ECHO that Bishop, 55, died in hospital yesterday (January 20). He had been serving his sentence at HMP Frankland.
His death will be referred to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman which is routine.
Bishop murdered the two girls in a secluded part of Wild Park, in Brighton, and the bodies were found the following day.
He was acquitted of their killings in 1987 when DNA evidence failed to stand up in court.
Bishop was later jailed in 1990 after he attacked a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke near Brighton.
He was convicted of the Babes in the Wood killings in 2018 following advancements in DNA identification.
Last October the families of the two girls said they believed Bishop was too much of a “coward” to make a full deathbed confession.
Both the girls’ families said in a joint statement given to the Mirror: “Russell Bishop has a chance to come clean before he dies unless he is a bigger coward than he has always seemed.
“And if he doesn’t have the guts to confess his crimes and admit his guilt, he will be the loser, so our message to him is simple.
“We don’t need your admission of what you did to our beautiful girls. Your refusal doesn’t matter to us.
“We are satisfied with the correct verdicts of the Old Bailey jury in December 2018. You are guilty on both counts of their murders and you are the creation of your own guilt-ridden demise.
"But your admission would show you have finally had the courage to take responsibility for your despicable crimes.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Frankland prisoner Russell Bishop died in hospital on January 20. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”
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