A MAN has been arrested in connection with the Babes in the Wood murders.

Officers from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team arrested a man in connection with the deaths in Brighton of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway after new evidence came to light.

It is a glimmer of hope for the girls’ families, who have been fighting for justice for almost 30 years.

The Argus cannot publish the name of the suspect for legal reasons.

Nicola and Karen, both nine, were reported missing on October 9, 1986.

More than 150 uniformed police, 30 detectives, relatives and friends, joined the search for the girls.

But less than 24 hours after they disappeared their bodies were discovered in the undergrowth at Wild Park.

Nicola’s father, Barrie Fellows, previously described their grief as “like someone wrenching my heart out and putting it back in the wrong way.”

Karen’s parents, Michelle Johnson and Lee Hadaway, were so distraught over their daughter’s death they decided they could no longer live in the house they had shared with their little girl, moving away to Walton-on- Thames, Surrey.

Ms Johnson’s health suffered over the years as she tried to come to terms with what had happened.

Mr Hadaway died in September 1998. His family said he never got over the death of his daughter and died of a broken heart.

Karen’s mother told The Argus on the 25th anniversary of their deaths: “It will always be like it was yesterday. It will never be gone from my mind.”

Nicola’s parents Barrie Fellows, 62, and Susan Eismann, 61, were left so devastated by their daughter’s death that their marriage did not survive.

Ms Eismann previously told The Argus: “It does not get any easier. People say that it does but it doesn’t.

“Every year, as the time comes nearer, it brings it all back again.”