West Ham hooligan ‘beat up little one killer in jail bathroom’ after lags requested him to

You can always rely on a notorious football hooligan for a completely bonkers story.

But while most brag about bashing up rival firms on the terraces – one bloke revealed how he targeted one of the most hated men in the country in a prison toilet.

West Ham fan Bill Gardner claimed he gave Russell Bishop – the Babes in the Wood killer – a “good hiding” after being encouraged by other lags.

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Bishop was a double child killer who murdered Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, both nine-year-old girls, in Brighton in 1986.

Bill claimed he encountered the beast inside HMP Brixton and he told the Anything Goes with James English podcast: “When I was there I did give the Babes in the Wood killer a good hiding in the toilet.”

Bill, who was arrested in 1987 as part of the Met Police’s Operation Fulltime where hooliganism was cracked down on, added: “When he was in there the first time he was on remand in Brixton in what they called Fraggie Rock where all the monsters are.

“But he had to come into our bit in the hospital because I was in the hospital bit to go and have a piss and all the boys in there were geeing me up (saying) ‘go on, give him one’. The coppers won’t go in because I was on crutches.

“So in the toilets they have like the top so you can look over and I’ve gone through the door like a western and I’ve done him on the pan, you know what I mean? And the coppers came in and pulled me away . Russell Bishop was his name – I copped him one.”

Who was Babes in the Wood killer?

Paedo Russell Bishop sexually assaulted and strangled best friends Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in woodlands in Brighton.

He was tried for the murders in 1987 but was acquitted but three years later he was convicted of abducting, molesting and attempting to murder a seven-year-old at Devil’s Dyke.

It wasn’t until 2018 when he was finally convicted of murdering Nicola and Karen. The judge told him: “I have no doubt that you were a predatory paedophile. The terror that each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable.”

Bishop, who never admitted to his heinous crimes, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2020 and died in January 2022.

Nicola’s cousin, Lorna Heffron, said at the time: “We’re pleased that he’s gone and he absolutely won’t be able to hurt anybody else in the future. The world is a better place without him.

“I think the biggest relief is the fact that we got justice for Nicola and Karen before this happened.

“It’s the satisfaction of knowing that we don’t have to worry now that he, at any point in the future, might be able to apply for parole.”

Who is Bill Gardner?

Bill Gardner is now a 70-year-old family man but back in the day he was one of the most feared men in the hooligan scene.

He had a tough upbringing where his mum abused him in “every shape and form” and even attacked him and his dad with a bread knife.

This led to him living in a church graveyard in Aldgate for 10 months before he fell in love with West Ham United aged seven – but it all could have been different.

Speaking to James English, he said: “My dad was a Spurs fan and used to take me to Tottenham in 1961, but I never felt comfortable there.

“We’d go Tottenham one-week West Ham another, I think he would only take me to West Ham to get me away from my mother.”

He later became a hooligan and said his toughest opponents were Millwall, recalling one particularly brutal 600-man brawl.

Bill said: “You know what I mean, when we went over there they used to all turn out and I’ve got nothing but respect for them, I think they are all alright.

“I used to always go for the one at the front who was the mouthy one. I used to go for that one because I believed that if you cut the tree at the bottom, the tree will fall.”

After his arrest in 1987, he vowed to quit the thuggery, saying he would end up either “dead or mad”.

His exploits later inspired the film the Rise of the Footsoldier.