RACHAEL Watts was just seven years old when she roller-skated into the path of a murderous monster.
Now the brave survivor has opened up on her decades of torment after being sexually assaulted, strangled and discarded like “an old mattress” by Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop, who had mistakenly believed she was dead.
Rachael Watts was just seven when she was abducted and sexually assaulted by Russell BishopPA
PA:Press AssociationShe picked Bishop out in a line-up of possible suspects[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationJust a few years before the attack, Bishop had murdered Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows[/caption]
In 1990, Rachael had asked a man for directions near her home in the Whitehawk area of Brighton after her father gave her a pound to get some sweets at the local shop.
Reliving her ordeal for the first time on camera in Sky documentary The Girl Who Caught a Killer, Rachael, 42, says: “I saw a man, and he was fixing his car, and my dad was a mechanic. So, because he was a mechanic just like my dad, I asked him for directions.
“He didn’t even answer. Didn’t even think about it. It was just instant. He scooped me up, roller boots and all and threw me into the boot of his car.”
The monster behind the wheel was Russell Bishop, a man who had already slaughtered two schoolgirls, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, in the infamous Babes in the Wood murders four years earlier.
The callous killer had escaped justice after controversially being acquitted of the double murder in 1987, lapping up the publicity in TV interviews and painting himself as a traumatized scapegoat.
Now, he was about to strike again – but the cowardly attack would come back to haunt him.
As the car sped off, terrified Rachael spotted a can of WD40 and a hammer in the boot.
She started banging with all her might and even offered her kidnapper a pound coin her dad had given her, hoping it would save her.
“His only response was, ‘Shut up or I’ll kill you,’” Rachael recalls.
“I could see the lights when he braked, and I started to untie my roller boots and slipped them off.
“I thought that I might get the opportunity when he opened the boot of his car for me to jump out, and I’d stand a chance if I was running and not with the boot still on.”
She adds: “When we got to Devil’s Dyke, he took me out of the boot of his car and he strangled me. Then he just disposed of me like he was fly-tipping.
“Like I was an old mattress or something, just thrown into a bush somewhere. He left me thinking I was dead.”
But what Bishop had not banked on was the fact that Rachael would survive the horrendous attack.
PARachael bravely opens up about the harrowing ordeal she suffered in 1990 in a new documentary[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationKaren’s mother, left, and Nicola’s mum, right, were left heartbroken by their daughters’ deaths[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationThe infamous sweatshirt that would form the core of the case against Bishop[/caption]
Waking up alone in the cold, dazed and battered, Rachael stumbled naked through the undergrowth, terrified the attacker would return to finish the job.
Instead, she saw headlights and took a gamble on survival. David, a man who was nearby with his girlfriend, saw her emerge from the trees.
“There was blood in delicate places that I couldn’t care to mention,” he says. “She said to me, ‘Are you gonna kidnap me?’ and I said, ‘No, we are here to help you. You’re gonna be okay.’”
Incredibly, at the time of Rachael’s attack, Bishop had already been cleared of murdering Nicola and Karen, who were both nine years old.
The two girls were playing near their home at Moulsecoomb, Brighton, in October 1986 when they vanished without a trace.
Bishop was seen handing out leaflets to find the killer two years after he was acquitted
The vile killer pretended to help police in their search
PA:Press AssociationA team of forensic experts prepare to go into the wood where the bodies of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were found[/caption]
After a frantic search, the girls’ bodies were found at a makeshift den in the nearby Wild Park with obvious signs of sexual assault.
The horrific case became known as the Babes in the Wood murders, named after a children’s tale of the same title.
Bishop was standing nearby with a cop when two boys said they had found the bodies. Remarkably, he even followed the policeman to the scene of the crime.
Despite damning witness sightings and his infamous blue sweatshirt found near the scene, he walked free in 1987 after his partner withdrew key testimony and his lawyer pointed the finger at Nicola’s own father during his trial.
The acquittal led to a frenzy of suspicion and heartbreak for the girls’ families. Bishop even joined a public march demanding justice for the crimes he knew he had committed.
But Rachael would change all of that.
‘Outwitted by a child’
PA:Press AssociationEvil Russell Bishop was convicted of the horrific attack[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationRachael identified the colour of his car and described the contents of his boot[/caption]
From her hospital bed, Rachael gave a statement that would put Bishop under scrutiny. She recalled details such as the hammer, the WD40, and the colour of the car.
And while it was clear that she had been sexually assaulted, Rachael told investigators that she did not remember that part of the ordeal.
However, when asked to pick her attacker from a line-up just days after the attack, she never hesitated.
She says: “We went into a room and I asked if he would be able to see me, and they explained to me about the whole one-way mirror thing.
“I don’t think I let go of my mum’s hand. I’m pretty certain I was squeezing quite tight. I remember looking at him. I don’t think it took me long at all.”
When Rachael picked out Bishop, the cops were elated, knowing they were one step closer to putting him behind bars.
Paul Smith, a community police constable, says in the documentary: “Above me, five floors, you could hear people shouting, ‘Yes, yes, we’ve got him!’
“It was like a sudden jubilation that we got him. And everyone was saying Russell Bishop had been outwitted by a seven-year-old girl.”
Haunted by fear
Although she showed great bravery, Rachael was still tormented by the harrowing incident.
She says: “After the attack, I used to have nightmares that he would climb the ladder and get up to my bedroom window and would come and finish me.
“Nobody knew how much it affected me. I didn’t know how much it affected me.”
Bishop was charged with abduction, attempted murder and sexual assault and stood trial at Lewes Crown Court in December 1990.
When Bishop was asked about what he did to Rachael, he denied it all. But police had damning evidence against him – DNA that linked him to Rachael.
Bishop’s defence was that police were out to get him and had set him up.
After the attack, I used to have nightmares that he would climb the ladder and get up to my bedroom window and would come and finish me
Rachael Watts
His shameless theory was that they had gone into his bedroom, taken his used condoms, and spread them all over Rachael’s recovered clothing.
Rachael testified against Bishop in a courtroom packed with tension. Behind a protective screen, she calmly gave her account of what had happened.
The then seven-year-old said: “He took me out of the boot and he strangled me. He thought I was dead, but I wasn’t. He never strangled me long enough. He just put me in a deep sleep.”
The young girl even held her nerve as Bishop’s defence lawyer stepped up efforts to dismantle her account, suggesting she had only picked him from the line-up as she had seen his pictures in newspapers.
Rachael’s evidence helped convict Bishop of kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder. He was jailed for life in 1990.
But her nightmare didn’t end there.
Nightmare continues
PA:Press AssociationBishop was interrogated again for the murders of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows[/caption]
PA:Press AssociationHe was once again charged and finally convicted[/caption]
For years, Rachael kept what happened to her locked deep inside, even from her children.
In the documentary, she explains: “For God knows how many years, I lived what I would consider to be a perfectly normal life.
“I just assumed there would never have to be a reason why I’d have to tell anybody and give up my right to anonymity. I never had the intention of telling my children ever.”
But when Bishop came up for parole, the past came crashing back.
She says: “I was so scared that he was going to come and find me. I thought a life sentence was a life sentence. Then I found out life in Russell Bishop’s case meant only 14 years just because he didn’t actually kill me.”
Depression, agoraphobia (a fear of appearing in public), and a fresh fear for her family’s safety followed.
Desperate to keep Bishop behind bars, police reopened the Babes in the Wood case.
Previously, the double jeopardy defence meant that a person acquitted of a crime could not be put on trial for the same crime again.
But with the law changed in 2005, thanks to tireless campaigning by Stephen Lawrence’s family, Bishop could finally be retried.
New DNA tests on the sweatshirt linked him to both murdered girls.
In chilling interrogation footage, he answered “no comment” to questions and says the case “had nothing to do” with him.
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
During this time, Rachael says she continued to live in fear.
“There was also a journalist who turned up”, she explains. “This was while I was still under the right of anonymity, and my son was due home any minute, and it freaked me out.
“It was almost [like] if they can find me, anybody can. It led me back to Russell Bishop. What was to stop him from finding out where I lived?”
In 2018, Bishop was tried again for Nicola and Karen’s murder. This time, he was found guilty. He was sentenced to life again and died in prison in 2022, aged 55.
Shocking confession
One of the most shocking moments of the trial came when he admitted for the first time that he had attacked Rachael.
She says: “When he admitted it, he said the reason why he attacked me was to shame and belittle me because everybody was accusing him of murdering the two other girls.
“He thought, ‘Well, if I’m being accused of it, then I might as well do it.’ I was absolutely beside myself because I was so angry. I couldn’t understand why me.
“It was literally as if someone had taken a sledgehammer and full-forced it into my gut.”
Speaking of his death, Rachael says: “I heard of Russell Bishop dying via social media. I was scrolling, and it popped up. As soon as he was dead, there was nothing to be afraid of anymore.”
‘Exhausting’
Now, for the first time, Rachael is speaking publicly about the full horror of what was done to her, including the sexual assault she had never mentioned.
In the documentary, she says: “I don’t know when I remembered the details of the attack itself, but I was conscious when he sexually assaulted me.
“From the minute he grabbed me to the minute I woke up, it just plays through my head on high definition. I can see it, I can hear it, I can smell it. And it’s exhausting.”
How to report a sexual assault
Contact a doctor or practice nurse at your GP surgery.
Contact a voluntary organisation, such as Rape Crisis, Women’s Aid, Victim Support, The Survivors Trust or Male Survivors Partnership.
Call the 24-hour freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, on 0808 2000 247.
Speak to the rape and sexual abuse support line run by Rape Crisis England and Wales – you can call the helpline on 0808 500 2222 or use the online chat (both are free and are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year).
She hopes speaking now will help release her from the “mental roadblock” the trauma left her with.
Rachael, who is now a mum of three, says she is proud of her children and grateful to her husband, Jay, for showing her what love and respect feel like.
“I’m hoping that I can release myself of this secret that I’ve held for so long, that it would help remove this mental roadblock I seem to have hit.”
To help with her healing, Rachael opens photos showing her horrific injuries taken after the attack. It would mark the first time she had ever seen the images.
In an emotionally charged scene, she looks at a photograph of her around the time of the attack and says: “It’s like looking in the mirror and not recognising the person looking back at you.
She adds: “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to be a properly functioning individual again. I’m hoping that I will end up being able to get a job and get a proper career. Something with animals.
“I want to be able to go out and spend time with my family and have dates with my husband.”
When asked what she would say to Bishop if he were still alive, she says: “I’m still here. And I’ve got a fighting chance.”
The Girl Who Caught a Killer airs on Sky and Now on Sunday, May 25
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.
Rachael says she doesn’t recognise herself when she looks at old picturesAthena
PA:Press AssociationThe area where the girls’ bodies were found[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
