THE prosecutor at the Old Bailey trial said the similarities between the Wild Park murders and the abduction of another girl in 1990 were “striking and obvious”.

Russell Bishop was convicted in December 1990 for the kidnap, indecent assault, and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl from Whitehawk in February that year.

The girl had gone on her roller skates to a nearby shop when she was grabbed by Bishop and bundled into a red Ford Cortina.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, told jurors in the trial that ended this week that the girl had noticed the car.

He said: “As she passed, the defendant grabbed her and lifted her into the boot, telling her to be quiet and threatening her that he would kill her if she was not quiet.”

Bishop, now 52, drove 14 miles to Devil’s Dyke and strangled the girl on the back seat of his car. She was stripped naked and sexually assaulted.

Mr Altman said: “After sexually assaulting her, the defendant took the girl’s unconscious naked body from the car and dumped her in dense, gorse bushes in the woods, where he left her for dead.

“He threw the roller blades she had with her into the woods before driving away from the scene.”

But miraculously the girl survived and was able to identify Bishop, and said he had been wearing black trousers.

He fled to his parents’ home where he was seen carrying a bucket to his car. The boot lid and inside panels of the car were wiped clean with a cloth.

The next day, a taxi driver found black tracksuit bottoms near Devil’s Dyke Road, and a neighbour had seen Bishop wearing them on the day of the attack.

DNA from semen was found on the girl’s vest, and the chance it had come from someone other than Bishop was one in 19,000.

Mr Altman said the behaviour revealed Bishop’s “disposition” and showed he had “forensic awareness” to discard evidence.

He said: “We say the similarities between these offences and the 1986 murders are so striking and obvious... that they point to him and only him as Nicola and Karen’s killer.”