Child sex attacker Russell Bishop could be back on the streets of Brighton early next year.

Sussex Police confirmed today Bishop was due for parole. Sources said he could be freed from prison by February.

Detective Superintendent Alan Ladley, acting head of Sussex Police CID and the man who led the hunt for the killer of Sarah Payne, said: "It is possible he will be out soon. Of course, as a convicted offender we would be monitoring his movements whenever he is released."

Bishop, 35-year-old unemployed labourer, was jailed for life in 1990 for the kidnap, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl from Whitehawk, Brighton, at Devil's Dyke.

He is in a hospital wing at York Prison where he is recovering from heart surgery.

Three years before his conviction Bishop was acquitted of sexually assaulting and strangling nine-year-old playmates Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in the Wild Park, Brighton, in 1986.

No one has been brought to justice for the girls' murders.

Mr Ladley said: "Our investigation continues. We have new techniques, including DNA, which are helping us.

"As the law stands Mr Bishop could not be tried again, even if we came up with new evidence."

Mr Ladley agreed if Government plans for changes to the rule of double jeopardy, preventing a suspect being tried twice for the same crime, were introduced it could mean suspects in old cases like the Wild Park murders could face a second trial.