I am happy I survived and was able to protect others

RACHAEL WATTS WAS SEVEN WHEN SHE WAS ATTACKED BY BABES IN THE WOODS MURDERER RUSSELL BISHOP. SHE REVEALS HER TERRIFYING STORY IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY. BY RACHAEL DAVIS

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ON October 9, 1986, two nine-year-old girls were murdered in a nature reserve near Brighton. Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were best friends who lived near each other, and they were murdered, it was found some 30 years later, by then-20-year-old local roofer Russell Bishop.

He was arrested and charged but initially acquitted on both rape and murder charges. Three years later, he attacked a seven-year-old girl in Brighton - Rachael Watts - but the little girl survived to tell the tale.

Now, in candid and harrowing Sky documentary The Girl Who Caught A Killer, Rachael breaks her 30-year silence to share her story of how she was kidnapped and brutally assaulted by Bishop in 1990, and of how she was able to identify her attacker in a police line-up, leading to his conviction.

"I don’t have many memories of my childhood, either before or after that day," says Rachael, now 42.

"However, that day itself is burned into my brain. I feel very numb and disassociated regarding the events on that day."

Seven-year-old Rachael was roller skating outside her home in 1990, when she was kidnapped by paedophile Russell Bishop.

She was bundled into the boot of his car and driven to a remote part of the South Downs where she was assaulted and left for dead.

Having been acquitted three years earlier for the murders of Nicola and Karen, Bishop was free to proclaim his innocence and ostensibly lead the hunt for the 'real' killer - so Rachael had a crucial role in bringing him to justice.

Bishop died in prison from cancer in 2022, aged 55, and his death is a key reason why Rachael has chosen now to tell her story.

"There are a number of reasons why I chose to share my story publicly now," she explains.