Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

What it’s like to cover a murder trial as a reporter

Reporting on the Russell Bishop trial, much of the time my whole focus was on getting a good shorthand note of what was said in court, trying to shape it into copy that made sense, trying to tease out the best ‘line’ from that day’s evidence

Adam Lusher
Thursday 13 December 2018 03:04 GMT
Comments

Russell Bishop was already passing into newsroom folklore by the time I first heard his name. It was 1995. I was a trainee on my first local newspaper, the Brighton Argus.

Bishop was spoken about as something awful that happened nearly a decade ago: two girls dead and the paedophile who killed them never locked up; grieving parents with not even a successful conviction to help numb the pain; a seven-year-old girl subjected to a horrific attack in 1990 because no one could nail him at trial in 1987; a police force battling to defend itself from all those who, the moment Bishop walked free from court, became very wise after the event.

In Brighton, Bishop was the bogeyman – the warning that parents gave to their children: “Don’t be late coming home, or Russell Bishop will get you.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in