The ex-girlfriend of Babes in the Wood murderer Russell Bishop told a court she had “no choice” but to lie about the murders.
Nine-year-old Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows were found sexually assaulted and strangled in a Brighton park in 1986 in one of the most notorious cases of the decade.
Bishop, then 20, killed the girls but was cleared in a 1987 trial.
In 1990, he was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting another girl and leaving her for dead.
Finally, in 2018, using the latest DNA techniques on a crime scene sample that yielded a “billion match”, he was jailed for murdering the girls.
Ex-partner Jennifer Johnson, 55, denied perjury and perverted the course of justice during Bishop’s 1987 trial.
She is accused of lying about a piece of vital evidence found near the scene, a sweatshirt, but says she was acting under duress.
On Thursday her defense began at Lewes Crown Court and when asked if she had anything to say she said: “I had no choice but to lie, I’m sorry I have raised my hands but I had no choice. “
She added: “I’m sorry for the families, I wouldn’t know what it’s like to lose a child and I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.
“But I’m sorry, I didn’t commit the crime, but I’m in this court being treated like a criminal, I didn’t kill anyone.”
“I had to live with this my whole life, no one will know what I went through,” she said.
The court heard from the defense that Bishop had abused Johnson.
“He forced me to do things I didn’t want, strangled me, hit me and I couldn’t get help, I was stuck,” she said.
“I used to call the police but they weren’t doing anything, they said he was a servant …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-29 17:18:00