Chester ex-lap dancer on murder charge

Jan 28 2010 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

Niki Bishop

NIKI Bishop was full of laughter when she popped round to borrow tin foil from a neighbour to make a bacon buttie.

Just minutes later Fynn Western-Davey had been stabbed to death in her home.

The neighbour, who does not wish to be named, has known Niki since she was two and a half years old because she grew up in what was then the family home with her sister and parents, Gillian and Paul.

She said: “One minute Niki came in full of laughter and said she just fancied a bacon buttie. Within 15 minutes of that there is somebody lying dead.”

The neighbour is looking after Niki’s dog Sadie. She said German-born Niki, whose father Paul was in the RAF, had attended Upton High School and then Bishop Heber in Malpas with her sister.

She was studying forensic science at Staffordshire University where she would travel every day and is due to graduate with honours in just six months’ time.

The neighbour got on with Niki’s partner Jason, 34, with whom she had been living for several months. He moved to Chester from London about four years ago and has a young daughter by a previous relationship.

“During the snow he asked if he could do anything, like do any shopping,” said the woman, who said he was an unemployed gardener.

The neighbour also remembers seeing the victim as a child being carried in a pushchair by his mum in the Garden Lane area where he grew up.

Chester lap-dancing club Platinum Lounge has confirmed Niki Bishop worked with them from January until March 2008.

Spokesman Dan Phillips said: “She probably only worked 10 shifts. We hardly knew her. I don’t know if she carried on working in the industry.”

Niki worked at the Red Lion on Northgate Street, Chester, until June 2007.

Niki’s mum and dad were in court to support their daughter. They were shocked she had not been released without charge.

Her mother Gillian Stockton, from near Sandbach, told The Chronicle: “Last night she said she was having a shower and something to help her sleep and I would see her in the morning.”