[News] Russell Bishop’s final victim speaks out

[Lenny Rider]

Rachael Watts shares her story after death of Babes in The Wood Killer

Like many a devoted parent, Rachael Watts has found her children's burgeoning independence a challenge.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Extremely brave speaking out publicly now, but also her courage as a little girl in horrific circumstances.

 

[Official Old Man]

So so brave, but at last there is no one to come after her. Perhaps getting this 'off her chest' so to speak, makes life a lot easier.

 

[Lenny Rider]

So so brave, but at last there is no one to come after her. Perhaps getting this 'off her chest' so to speak, makes life a lot easier.

Knew one of the CID at the time, now sadly gone himself in his 50s, after the conviction he was allowed to say a bit more, Bishop basically thought because of the Police mistakes in the first trial he was untouchable, had this little girl not survived and identified him, getting it to court could have proved extremely difficult, with cries of ‘fitting up’ from certain quarters.

Thankfully the Babes in the Wood case had the correct ending but not without a lot of collateral damage.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Knew one of the CID at the time, now sadly gone himself in his 50s, after the conviction he was allowed to say a bit more, Bishop basically thought because of the Police mistakes in the first trial he was untouchable, had this little girl not survived and identified him, getting it to court could have proved extremely difficult, with cries of ‘fitting up’ from certain quarters.

Thankfully the Babes in the Wood case had the correct ending but not without a lot of collateral damage.

Which quarters might they be?

 

[Lenny Rider]

Which quarters might they be?

The hundred or so locals, including Bishop, who went on a protest march, to ‘re open’ the original case after the Police had ‘failed’ to fit RB up the first time.

Harry old love I’m only recounting what Police (and media) have previously told me, if Rachael had died in the attack the chances of a conviction would have been severely decreased.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Surely the main thing is that the scum was eventually caught and now is dead.
DNA advancements finally got the turd, as has proved with other cases of that time.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

When the appeal went to the High Court, for Double Jeopardy, it had to be new evidence that was put forward. Modern technology and advances in DNA was the new evidence, which is why the appeal was granted.
The retrial was then successful.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The hundred or so locals, including Bishop, who went on a protest march, to ‘re open’ the original case after the Police had ‘failed’ to fit RB up the first time.

Harry old love I’m only recounting what Police (and media) have previously told me, if Rachael had died in the attack the chances of a conviction would have been severely decreased.

OK. I see. You always get a contingent of locals campaigning in favour of, or against, a suspect. Especially in such cases. Didn't a mob firebomb a paediatrician's in Portsmouth 20 odd years ago? I wouldn't have been inclined to bring this into the narrative, however. Foolish though these people may look now, there may well have been some sort of logic to their tomfoolery at the time, with a killer 'still at large'.

I think you'll find that prosecutions normally fail when there is insufficient evidence, not because 'certain quarters' take to the streets.

Most of us, also, don't have all the contacts and inside information you have, and the certain knowledge of who was guilty, at the time.

I'd like to think that due process, from the collection of evidence through to the construction of a case, have improved immeasurably in the intervening years.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

OK. I see. You always get a contingent of locals campaigning in favour of, or against, a suspect. Especially in such cases. Didn't a mob firebomb a paediatrician's in Portsmouth 20 odd years ago? I wouldn't have been inclined to bring this into the narrative, however. Foolish though these people may look now, there may well have been some sort of logic to their tomfoolery at the time, with a killer 'still at large'.

I think you'll find that prosecutions normally fail when there is insufficient evidence, not because 'certain quarters' take to the streets.

Most of us, also, don't have all the contacts and inside information you have, and the certain knowledge of who was guilty, at the time.

I'd like to think that due process, from the collection of evidence through to the construction of a case, have improved immeasurably in the intervening years.

It was graffiti not a firebomb.

 

[Da Man Clay]

The hundred or so locals, including Bishop, who went on a protest march, to ‘re open’ the original case after the Police had ‘failed’ to fit RB up the first time.

Harry old love I’m only recounting what Police (and media) have previously told me, if Rachael had died in the attack the chances of a conviction would have been severely decreased.

That’s true for any random attack though. Much easier to convict when you’ve got a victim picking someone out as the offender and you’ve got evidence in the inside of that persons car in the way of hammer marks she said she left.

Without any DNA / witness evidence it wouldn’t have made any difference who the offender was. They’d have likely got away with it.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

It was graffiti not a firebomb.

It is easy to get these cases confused. There have been other episodes of the same thing:

Paediatrician targeted after title taken for `paedophile'

Vigilantes vandalised the home of a prominent children's doctor in Wales after apparently confusing her title of paediatrician…

www.irishtimes.com

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I once had the pleasure of serving him in the bank post original trial. He actually pulled the 'do you know who I am' approach. Talk about basking in his notoriety!

 

[Cornwallboy]

I once had the pleasure of serving him in the bank post original trial. He actually pulled the 'do you know who I am' approach. Talk about basking in his notoriety!

If the Police hadn't made such a hash of the case when the two girls were murdered, Rachael wouldn't have suffered such an ordeal, some members of Sussex Police should be hanging their heads in shame.

 

[AmexRuislip]

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2024-04-17/sussex-police-issues-apology-for-historic-failings-in-murder-investigation

 

[Pondicherry]

I thought The Girl Who Caught A Killer 2 part documentary released on Sky 25th May was excellent and highlighted the impact crimes like this can have. Rachael Watts was an extraordinary 7 year old. Well worth watching.

 

[Chicken Run]

Bishop’s brothers celebrating outside LCC after the original trial soon went to ground and disowned their brother some years later (quite rightly of course)

 

[Lenny Rider]

Bishop’s brothers celebrating outside LCC after the original trial soon went to ground and disowned their brother some years later (quite rightly of course)

One of them still sits in 1901 East.

Thought Pt One was excellent, watching Part Two later tonight.

Thats one brave lady to give her anonymity all these years later

Re the Bishop family I do still have some degree of sympathy, he was a horrible c***, but it was at a time when fitting up was at times par for the course, and he was one of 9 suspects, so if he maintained his innocence then they probably felt at that time they couldn’t turn their back on him.

 

[Chicken Run]

One of them still sits in 1901 East.

Thought Pt One was excellent, watching Part Two later tonight.

Thats one brave lady to give her anonymity all these years later

Re the Bishop family I do still have some degree of sympathy, he was a horrible c***, but it was at a time when fitting up was at times par for the course, and he was one of 9 suspects, so if he maintained his innocence then they probably felt at that time they couldn’t turn their back on him.

I don’t doubt that

 

[Pondicherry]

One of them still sits in 1901 East.

Thought Pt One was excellent, watching Part Two later tonight.

Thats one brave lady to give her anonymity all these years later

Re the Bishop family I do still have some degree of sympathy, he was a horrible c***, but it was at a time when fitting up was at times par for the course, and he was one of 9 suspects, so if he maintained his innocence then they probably felt at that time they couldn’t turn their back on him.

Part two is stronger and the last 10 minutes in particular are pretty devastating.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Part two is stronger and the last 10 minutes in particular are pretty devastating.

Watched it, found myself at nearly 61 having to shut my eyes in front of the TV, Sky do put out of load of tripe at times, this was certainly not, I would hope there’s some kind of nod at the TV BAFTAs or the RTS awards.

Don’t wished to get carried away, (but it was that good) but isn’t their a documentary category at the Oscars?