Father confronted with claims he 'killed daughter after watching her in child sex abuse video'
Barrie Fellows finds himself having to deny the allegations, while attending court as a witness for the prosecution of Russell Bishop, who is accused of murdering nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in Brighton in 1986
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A bereaved father was confronted in court with allegations that he killed his own daughter after watching her in a child sex abuse video.
Barrie Fellows had been called to the Old Bailey in London to give evidence for the prosecution in the trial of Russell Bishop, 52, who is accused of murdering Mr Fellows’ nine-year-old daughter Nicola and her friend Karen Hadaway in Brighton in October 1986.
But defence barrister Joel Bennathan QC effectively turned the tables on Mr Fellows by asking him a series of questions about his movements on the night of the murder, and then confronting him over allegations that Nicola had been sexually abused two or three months before she was murdered.
Mr Bennathan asked: “Were you party to Nicola being filmed for a pornographic video?”
In a clear, firm voice, Mr Fellows replied: “No.”
Mr Bennathan received the same response when he then asked: “Were you and another man in your front room watching a home-made video of your own daughter?”
Finally, Mr Bennathan asked Mr Fellows: “Were you anything to do with her death?”
Mr Fellows appeared close to tears as he again answered: “No.”
In opening the case for the defence last month, Mr Bennathan had told the jury that Mr Fellows might have been motivated to murder his daughter because he “had a guilty secret: he had been complicit in the abuse of Nicola, [which] might mean he couldn’t let Nicola Fellows tell the world about what had been happening to her.”
Bishop is the only person on trial accused of sexually abusing and killing the two nine-year-olds. He denies two counts of murder.
Mr Bennathan, defending Bishop, has suggested to the jury that it was possible “the police and prosecution have spent 32 years building a case against the wrong man.”
After Mr Bennathan’s cross examination, Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said to Mr Fellows: “What is being suggested, you are being accused of having killed Nicola. You are being accused of having killed Karen.
“You are being accused of having sexually abused your own daughter and Karen in that den, and having punched Nicola in the face, do you understand that?”
Mr Fellows was emotional as he agreed that he understood.
He also confirmed that in 1988 he had complained about allegations made against him in court by Bishop’s original defence team during the 1987 trial.
In 1988, the Old Bailey heard, Mr Fellows had issued a statement in which he had said: “I want the police to say publicly I was not guilty of my daughter’s murder.”
He was asked: “That was what you wanted in 1988?”
Mr Fellows replied: “That’s what I want now.”
Mr Fellows was followed into the witness box by his former lodger Dougie Judd. He too denied abuse allegations, dismissing as “total lies” the claim that he had been filmed having sex with Nicola while a lodger in the Fellows family home.
Mr Bennathan asked Mr Judd: “Did you get mixed up with Barrie Fellows in a bad way? Did you get mixed up with Barrie Fellows and paedophilia? Did you ever have an improper relationship with Nicola?”
Mr Judd denied it, adding that the first time he heard the story he thought it was a “wind-up”.
The court heard he was interviewed by police in 2009 but no charges were ever brought against him or Mr Fellows.
Mr Altman, prosecuting, said: “It is not just you getting mixed up with Barrie Fellows in a bad way and paedophilia.
“It’s not just an allegation of improper relations with Nicola. The allegation is you were in a video with Nicola either completely naked or semi naked having sex with Nicola. Is there any truth in it?”
Mr Judd replied: “There is no truth in it whatsoever. Total lies.”
The jury has been told that this is the second time Bishop has been put on trial for the murder of Karen and Nicola.
He was acquitted by a jury at a Lewes Crown Court trial in 1987.
The Old Bailey, however, has heard that in 1990 Bishop grabbed a seven-year-old girl off the street, bundled her into the boot of a stolen car, and strangled and sexually assaulted her before leaving her for dead in gorse bushes at the Devil’s Dyke beauty spot in Sussex.
The girl, however, survived to identify her assailant, and Bishop was convicted of the 1990 attack.
Now a convicted sex offender, Bishop is being tried again for the murders of Karen and Nicola after new DNA evidence emerged which led to the Court of Appeal quashing his 1987 acquittal.
The Old Bailey has also heard pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary reject the claims that Nicola had been sexually abused two or three months before her death. He said all the injuries sustained by Nicola had occurred at the time she was murdered.
He saw none of the signs he would expect to see had Nicola been abused two or three months prior to the murder, Dr Cary told the court.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr Fellows broke down and sobbed as he told of having to identify his daughter’s dead body.
“It’s not nice,” he told the jury, “To have to go into this clinical white room. There was a sheet over my little girl...”
Mr Fellows said he had asked if he was allowed to give Nicola her “pocket money” before putting 50p into his dead daughter’s hand.
Later, through sobs, he told the jury: “They told me she had been sexually abused...”
Mr Fellows also told jurors how he took police to look around Wild Park after the girls were reported missing because it was his daughter’s “favourite” spot.
He had banned her from the park after dark, even telling her the “bogeyman” lived there, he said.
He denied knowing his daughter had a camp or “secret den” in the park, where the girls were eventually found.
Mr Fellows said he was cleaning a swimming pool and gardening at a house in Hove on the day the girls went missing.
He returned home on the bus via a butchers to pick up ham for supper and stopped by the nearby house of Theresa Judd with her brother-in-law Dougie Judd, he said.
Mr Bennathan suggested there was a missing hour in his alibi that evening but Mr Fellows denied it.
Suggesting it had taken Mr Fellows a long time to cover seemingly short distances, the lawyer asked: “You should be getting home at 6.30pm-6.35pm according to the account you gave to the police. You actually got home a whole hour later ... Did you go to Wild Park before you got home at 7.30pm?”
Mr Fellows said: “You are trying to mislead me, sir. It’s not happening. I believe them times were correct.”
Mr Bennathan asked about past incidents of violence.
Mr Fellows admitted giving Nicola a “thick ear” on one occasion and threatening to “chop her fingers off” when she was suspected at school of stealing.
He was asked about an incident in which his grandmother-in-law suffered a broken nose.
Mr Fellows said: “The police did not want to take it any further. I swung around and did not see her, seriously, sir.
“I do not deliberately punch old ladies on the nose.”
Mr Fellows was quizzed by Mr Bennathan on why he told Karen’s mother Michelle that her daughter had been “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
He told the court: “I probably did say that yes – so was Nicola in the wrong place at the wrong time. They should not even be in Wild Park. They had been banned from the park in the dark.”
The trial continues.