Babes in the Wood murder: BBC sorry as lost clothing search ends

"Little more can be done" to find the missing clothes of "Babes in the Wood" murdered schoolgirl Karen Hadaway, the BBC has said.

Karen's mother gave the clothes to then-BBC journalist Martin Bashir in August 1991 to have them DNA tested.

BBC director-general Tim Davie said the distress caused by the loss was "a matter of very deep regret".

Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows, both nine, were found sexually assaulted and strangled in Brighton in 1986.

In 1987, Russell Bishop was found not guilty of the two girls' murder.

On 15 August 1991, Karen's mother, Michelle Hadaway, gave her daughter's clothes to Mr Bashir so they could be tested as part of an investigation for the social affairs programme Public Eye.

In 2002 and 2004, Ian Heffron, uncle of Ms Fellows, contacted the BBC for the clothing, after changes to double jeopardy laws, which would allow Bishop to be retried.

However, BBC investigators were unable to find the clothing.

Bishop was convicted in a retrial in 2018.

Earlier this year, Mr Davie instructed one of his senior editorial executives to oversee a review of what steps had been taken in 2004 to find the clothes and "to ensure that there was no further action that we could take now that may help to locate them".

In his letter, the BBC confirmed the clothes were lost after being given to Mr Bashir, who signed a receipt for them, but "very regrettably" had no recollection of what had happened to them.

It said the review was "hampered by the passage of time" but it was "fundamentally wrong that better care was not taken of the clothing".

The outcome of the review, included in Mr Davie's letter, said: "This should never have happened. We are appalled that it did and extend our sincere apologies to the families, both that the clothing was lost in such circumstances and that we have been unable, both now and in 2004, to give them any answers about what happened to the clothing."

"We hope that it is some little consolation that the police have confirmed that all forensic evidence needed had been already obtained from the clothing in 1986 and stored separately and therefore the unavailability of the clothing had no material impact on the investigation or the 2018 prosecution which eventually brought Russell Bishop to justice," it added.

A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC is extremely sorry for the distress this has caused Ms Hadaway and we deeply regret we have not been able to give her any answers about what happened."