An evil killer who murdered two young girls was given a taxpayer funded funeral, it has been claimed.
Russell Bishop, the so-called 'Babes in the Wood' killer, died in January at the age of 55.
He passed away in hospital after being after being taken there from HMP Frankland, a high security prison in Co Durham.
Bishop was watched closely by two prison officers as his life ended.
But The Sun claims almost £3,000 in taxpayers' money was used to lay him to rest after his cremation
A total of £2,800 was paid for his funeral “package”.
This included “the collection of his body, his coffin, the transportation of the body to the crematorium and a short blessing”.
No family or friends were at his funeral, according to a Freedom of Information request.
Bishop's victims' families pleaded with the killer his final weeks to reveal why they had been murdered.
He escaped justice for 32 years after nine-year-old girls Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were killed in 1986.
The notorious attack, resulted in a prosecution but Bishop walked free from court in 1987 because of series of blunders.
DNA evidence led to him being jailed in 2018, but last year he was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
The disease quickly spread despite surgery and he received palliative care by October.
Bishop, of Brighton, East Sussex, had persuaded the girls to go with him to secluded den where he sexually assaulted and strangled them.
The nine-year-olds' bodies were then found the following day.
He escaped justice in 1987 because of errors by police, forensic experts and prosecutors.
The killer went on to abduct and sexually assault a seven-year-old girl in a near identical attack and received a jail sentence for attempted murder in 1990.
Conviction for the 'Babes in the Wood' murders followed in December 2018 after advances in DNA analysis.
Any opportunity to investigate him over any other attacks ended when he died.
A spokesperson for The Ministry of Justice said: "Prisons must offer to pay a contribution towards reasonable funeral expenses of up to £3,000.
"The only exceptions where the family has a pre-paid funeral plan or is entitled to claim a grant from other government departments e.g. Department of Work and Pensions."
In October last year The Mirror reported Bishop had has just weeks left to live with terminal brain cancer.
Bishop, 55, killed Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway after luring them into a park before sexually assaulting and strangling them in 1986, in what became known as The Babes in the Woods murders.
But because of initial errors in the investigation and prosecution he escaped justice for 32 years.
He had surgery that was not able to get rid the cancer before he died.
