A MUM has described how the community went into shock after the girls’ bodies were found.

Sharon Packer had run the Coldean Pharmacy from 1984 to 1988 and lived in The Roundway near Wild Park.

Her daughter Rosie played with Nicola Fellows during the school holidays with a childhood friend called Diane.

She said her daughter, who was eight at the time, had only just started walking to school on her own, and that this immediately changed in the wake of the sickening crime.

Mrs Packer, who now lives in Perth in Australia, said: “It was an awful shock to everyone and in the days and weeks following I had many conversations in the pharmacy with customers regarding the terrible crime. It had a palpable impact on the children of Coldean.

“It was as if the whole suburb just closed their doors, hardly a person to be seen.”

The Argus reported that events such as the Wild Park bonfire were not as well attended that year, as parents were not willing to let their children go out to the park on their own.

Meanwhile Mrs Packer, who was 33 at the time, was among those to become more cautious with her children.

She said: “I had started to let them walk by themselves to school. They would walk from the Roundway up towards Reeves Hill and meet other children there and then walk to school.

“After the murders I reverted to taking them by car again. This represented a backward step in their independence but a necessary step for their safety.

“The whole community was of similar mind in this regard. There was a lot more caution applied and much education around 'stranger danger'.

“It meant that local children could no longer have the freedom I enjoyed as a child to go to the park with friends and climb trees, make daisy chains or make dens without adult supervision.”

Rosie was deeply shocked by the murders, and helped by donating her school jumper in the Crimewatch reconstruction.

Mrs Packer said: “She has vivid childhood memories of the murders and we have both always kept up to date with developments in the case.

“Nicola and a friend called Diane played with my daughter during the school holidays. Naturally my daughter was very upset about the murders. She was a very sensible mature child for her age and I could explain the events in adult terms.

“The murders changed the way I was with my daughter, I became perhaps more overprotective.

“I recall that Nicola was a nervous child who bit her nails and when I offered her some cordial to drink she became a little agitated which was quite strange, as when the girls played she seemed a vivacious child.”