A woman has reached a settlement with the BBC over claims that Martin Bashir failed to return her murdered daughter’s clothing that he had borrowed for DNA testing. Michelle Hadaway said she gave the clothes to Bashir in 1991, for the investigation of a documentary on the rapes and murders of nine-year-olds Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in Brighton in 1986. The BBC has apologised to Hadaway and conducted a new search in 2021, but the clothes have not been found. The settlement terms have not been disclosed.
In a statement, the BBC said that in 1991, Mrs Hadaway gave the broadcaster the clothes with the understanding the garments would be examined forensically. However, the BBC never returned the clothes and was unable to find them during searches in 2004 and 2021. “We should have taken better care of Karen’s clothes and we did not,” the statement said. “We accept that we had a duty of care to Mrs Hadaway and we fell well short of that, and we have previously apologised to her privately.”
Martin Bashir has been embroiled in several scandals recently, including for securing an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, by falsifying documents and acting “deceitfully” during his reporting. Bashir left the BBC in 2021. In September of that year, the BBC investigators spoke to Bashir, who said he did not know where the clothes were.
Known as the “Babes in the Wood” murders, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway’s killings saw their killer, Russell Bishop, initially cleared in 1987. After double-jeopardy laws were altered, Bishop was tried again, and he was eventually convicted in 2018. However, despite repeated appeals from the families, the clothes have never been found.
The BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, has stressed his aim to reform the corporation’s methods to regain viewers’ trust in it. Among the changes is the opening of a new unit to enhance BBC coverage of the UK nations and regions, and an update regarding the corporation’s complaints and investigations processes
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