The former girlfriend of Babes in the Wood murderer Russell Bishop has appeared in court charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Jenny Johnson, 54, who had a child with Bishop and lived with him in Hollingdean, Brighton at the time of the murders, appeared before magistrates today.
Bishop was originally arrested in 1986 for the murders of nine-year-olds, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, but was acquitted after a bungled police and forensic operation.
Jenny Johnson, pictured left on the steps of Brighton Magistrates’ Court today, appeared in court having been charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice
Karen Hadaway, left, and Nicola Fellows, right, were murdered by Russell Bishop in October 1986. He was acquitted of the murders the following year but was found guilty in October 2018 after new DNA evidence was discovered linking him to the crime
Jennifer Johnson, pictured in December 1990 along with Russell Bishop leaving Lewes Crown Court, is accused of lying during the trial of her former lover who was later jailed for the murder of two schoolgirls
He was later jailed after he throttled and sexually molested a seven-year-old girl in Brighton.
Bishop was rearrested in 2016 for the Babes in the Wood murders and faced a second trial in 2018 for the sexually motivated murders of the girls who were strangled to death in Wild Park, Brighton.
The families of the two girls cheered as he was found guilty at the Old Bailey on the anniversary of his original acquittal. He was sentenced to 36 years behind bars.
Now, almost 34 years after the murders, Johnson has appeared at Brighton Magistrates today to answer the charges.
In the first count she was charged with perjury in that she wilfully made ‘a false statement in judicial proceedings’ in that during the first trial in 1987 she claimed her entire statement to police was untrue.
Russell Bishop, pictured, was jailed for 36 years after he was eventually convicted of the girls’ murders
In the 1987 trial she told the court she had not seen a blue Pinto Sweatshirt October 31 1986, that it was not Russell Bishop’s sweatshirt and that she had never seen it before, the statement being material in the judicial proceedings.
In the second count she was charged with perverting the course of public justice in that she made two false statements to Russell Bishop’s solicitor claiming he had never owned a blue sweatshirt with a ‘Pinto’ motif and that you had never seen him wearing one.
In the original trial Mr Justice Schiemann directed jurors to acquit Bishop if they were unsure of any one of three statements – that the girls were dead by 18:30; that Bishop had worn a Pinto sweatshirt on the night they went missing; and that the Pinto sweatshirt was worn by the murderer.
Wearing a black top and blue jeans and a face mask, Johnson, from Brighton appeared in the dock charged with the two offences.
She was supported in court by two family members and spoke only to confirm her name and address.
The case was committed to Lewes Crown Court next month and she was released on bail.
Johnson, pictured, was ordered to reappear at Lewes Crown Court next month
Source: Daily Mail – Articles
