POLICE have apologised for their failings in the Babes in the Wood case after a double child killer escaped justice for 30 years.strangled nine-year-old Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in Brighton in 1986 but was cleared of the double murder a year later.Just three years after he walked free, the monster was sentenced to life for the kidnap, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke on the South Downs.
"The impact on the community, however, pales into insignificance against the lifelong impact these crimes had on Karen and Nicola's parents and families. "I have further apologised to Nicola's father, Barrie Fellows, for his unjustified arrest in 2009 and for the distress and the long-lasting impact this had on him and his family.
Karen was discovered lying across Nicola with her head in her friend's lap and their hands close together following the murder in Wild Park. "When our two families jointly raised this complaint with the Chief Constable of Sussex Police in May 2019, it was shortly after we had deliverance of the two guilty verdicts for the terrible murders of Nicola and Karen.
"It will help with our reconciliation of aspects that we had never fully understood, things that we always suspected but had never been addressed.