THE trial of Russell Bishop started at The Old Bailey this week.

He is accused of killing nine-year-olds Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in a den in Wild Park, Brighton, on Thursday, October 9 1986.

The original trial at Lewes Crown Court acquitted Bishop of the murders in 1987, but thanks to advances in DNA and forensic science, there was enough evidence to quash his acquittal.

It sparked the largest and longest running inquiry in Sussex Police’s history.

On Monday, the 52-year-old former roofer spoke only to confirm his name.

He seemed relaxed as arrangements for the jury were made. The court was told the trial is expected to take up to eight weeks.

Then on Tuesday Brian Altman QC began the case for the prosecution.

One of the first things he told the jury was: “The killings were entirely intentional and they were carried out in the woods by a man who sexually assaulted them for his own gratification.

“That man was this defendant, Russell Bishop.”

Mr Altman told the jury Bishop had known the families of the missing girls and that witnesses had seen him in the area on the day. He wore a light blue Pinto jumper which was later found by search parties, thrown over a fence near Moulsecoomb Railway Station on his “obvious” route home.

He said Bishop made early slip ups, telling police he was afraid of becoming a suspect, and telling them he would “hate to find the girls, especially if they had been messed up”, just hours into the search.

On Wednesday, Mr Altman catalogued some of the “lies “made by Bishop, who told Nicola’s father Barrie he had been cleared by police.

He said Bishop invented false alibis, lied about his movements, and changed his story to police.

But “crucially, he told police about the position of the girls’ bodies, and the blood froth from Nicola’s mouth”.

Mr Altman said at first he claimed he knew this because he had checked the girl’s for a pulse, but witnesses disputed this, so Bishop said he had made a mistake.

Mr Altman said this was “quite some mistake” and said only the killer could have known those details.

The jury was also told about Bishop’s conviction in 1990 for attempted murder, indecent assault, and kidnap of a seven-year-old girl from Whitehawk who survived. Mr Altman noted the similarities to the Wild Park murders.

On Thursday, the jury was taken to Brighton on a coach, to understand the setting. Then yesterday, Mr Altman finished his opening. He reviewed the forensic evidence which “linked Bishop to the girls and the crime scene”. Bishop’s blue Pinto sweater was linked to his home, his work, the crime scene, and the girls. Thanks to scientific advances, his DNA was found on Karen’s body, he said.

Mr Altman said the evidence in the case was “overwhelmingly compelling and powerful”.

Bishop denies murder. The trial continues next week.