IT TOOK 31 years to the day but justice was at last served at the Old Bailey and child killer Russell Bishop will spend the rest of his days behind bars.

Bishop was finally convicted of murdering schoolgirls Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway at Wild Park in Brighton in October 1986.

Having always denied the killings, Bishop was cleared at his first trial but the incredible advances in DNA technology in the intervening years ensured that he faced a second trial and this time the verdict was unanimous. Guilty.

Bishop was 20 years old when he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled the two nine-year-olds. He knew exactly what he was doing and it was purely for his sadistic gratification.

Having been cleared at that first trial, within three years he went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl, leaving her for dead at Devil’s Dyke. It was a crime for which he was jailed for life and quite rightly so.

As the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement following Bishop’s latest conviction: “There had been a shadow over Brighton ever since 1986.”

The Argus can only concur with that and hope that shadow has hopefully at least been partially lifted.

For many years afterwards, parents were understandably reluctant to take their children to play at Wild Park and who could possibly blame them?

Years may have passed but memories remain stark.

Bishop will almost certainly die in prison but it is doubtful he will care that his horrific actions devastated families and communities.

Depraved killers don’t tend to do that. May he rot in hell.