The former girlfriend of Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop has been found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice during his 1987 trial.

Jennifer Johnson, 55, was accused of having lied ‘prolifically’ and ‘significantly’ undermining the trial, which ended with Bishop being acquitted of murdering schoolgirls Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows.

The nine-year-olds were found sexually assaulted and strangled in a woodland den in Brighton in October 1986.

Jurors heard that Johnson from Brighton, first told police a blue sweatshirt found near the scene of the murders belonged to Bishop, but she later denied this in a witness statement and during the trial.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Libby Clark said Johnson’s decision to lie was a ‘nightmare’ for the prosecution at the time, and had a ‘fatal effect’ on the trial reaching justice.

She continued: ‘There was some limited scientific evidence in terms of fibre transfers but the evidence that Jennifer Johnson gave was really crucial potentially to establishing that that sweatshirt belonged to Russell Bishop.’

Bishop’s not guilty verdicts caused devastation for the girls’ families, but there was ‘another terrible consequence’, the jury was told, as he went on to attack another girl in 1990.

He wasn’t convicted for killing Karen and Nicola until 2018, when he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years.

Johnson had said she acted under duress more than 30 years ago and ‘had no choice’ but to lie during the trial. She also claimed she had felt ‘intimidated and frightened’ by Bishop’s family.

She was convicted by a jury on one count of perjury and one count of perverting the course of justice on Monday, and could now face prison time.

Mr Justice Fraser said Johnson was ‘infatuated’ with Bishop, but the relationship had been problematic. He went on: ‘Earlier in her evidence […] she said she was being treated like a murderer.

‘You must remember that the defendant does admit lying on oath in a crown court trial.’

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