THE York family of a nine-year-old girl murdered in one of Britain's most notorious child murder cases today mounted a determined campaign to bring back the death penalty for child sex killers.

Nicola Fellows and her best friend Karen Hadaway, aged ten, were abducted from outside Nicola's home in Brighton in 1986, and found sexually assaulted and strangled in a nearby park, in a case dubbed the "Babes in the Woods" murders.

Child sex fiend Russell Bishop, who last week was still in York District Hospital being treated for a heart problem, was cleared of killing the pair in 1987. No one has ever been convicted of the murders, and Sussex police said, at the time that Bishop was acquitted, that they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the case.

Bishop, 36, currently an inmate at Full Sutton jail, was jailed for life in 1990 for snatching a terrified seven-year-old girl and subjecting her to an horrific sex attack before leaving her for dead at Devil's Dyke, a Brighton beauty spot.

In the wake of the murders of ten-year-old Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, Nicola's aunt Gillian Chambers, who moved to York seven years ago, has broken her public silence for the first time in 16 years in a heartfelt bid to get the law changed.

She told the Evening Press: "It has crippled me watching it all on the news. It brings back all sorts of awful memories. I know exactly how Holly and Jessica's families are feeling because I have been there and it's something I don't want anyone else to go through."

She told how Nicola and Karen's disappearance and the discovery the next day of their bodies in Wild Park, Brighton, left her family devastated. She said the strain it put on her brother Barry - Nicola's father - and his wife Sue led to the break- up of their 22-year marriage. She also blames the death of her brother Kevin - who died from cancer aged 37 - on the stress of Nicola's death.

Mrs Chambers, who was living in London at the time but rushed to Brighton to join the search when she saw television news of the girls' disappearance, said: "It was an absolutely horrendous time. It never really hit any of us until we buried Nicola."

That was four months after her death, as further post-mortem examinations were requested for Bishop's court case.

Now Mrs Chambers and members of her family across the country are calling for people to back them in their fight for a referendum on the laws surrounding child killers and a national debate on bringing back the death penalty for such offenders.

She said: "These people are truly evil and I am sick to death of them being able to continue murdering and maiming. This vicious circle has got to be broken and it's got to be broken now. Paedophiles have got to know that if they commit these crimes they are not going to be treated with kid gloves, as they are now, they are going to be hung."

She is backed by her daughter, Tia, 25, who was the same age as Nicola at the time of her cousin's murder.

Tia said she felt robbed, not only of her cousin, but of her childhood, as her mother would not let her out of her sight after Nicola's death. Even today she rings her mother every night to let her know she is home safe.

She said: "It really angers me that it is still happening - that children are still going missing and being found murdered and nothing has come into law to deter these people. I know there will be people out there who do not agree with what my family are proposing, but I think this should be supported by a public debate and followed by a referendum so the people have their say."

The family are calling for people across the York area who back their call to start circulating petitions among their families, friends and workmates.

They ask that the petitions state: "We the undersigned demand that this Government take action to protect our children. We support a public debate followed by a referendum on the resurrection of the death penalty for child murders. On completion this petition will be handed to our local MP."

Anyone wanting to start a petition should call Mrs Chambers on 01904 330667 or 07884 450539.

Mrs Chambers said: "When Nicola was murdered, we, her family, all held hands and swore we would put things right. At the time we couldn't but now we can. Hopefully the law will be changed before any more children have to die."

Updated: 10:47 Friday, August 23, 2002