Crime Documentary - The Rachel Nickell story
- 7 years ago
Viewer discretion is advised. Some may find this content disturbing. This is a documentary I found interesting.
The murder of Rachel Jane Nickell took place on 15 July 1992, on Wimbledon Common, south-west London, and resulted in a highly publicised and controversial investigation.
Nickell was walking with her son on Wimbledon Common when she was brutally stabbed and sexually assaulted. A lengthy, expensive, and controversial investigation ensued, during which Colin Stagg was charged and acquitted before the case went cold. In 2002, with more advanced and refined forensic techniques available, Scotland Yard reopened the case, and on 18 December 2008, Robert Napper pleaded guilty to Nickell's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Napper, who had already been convicted of a 1993 double killing, was told by the Old Bailey judge that he would be held indefinitely at Broadmoor High Security hospital.
At the time of her death, Nickell was living near Wimbledon Common with boyfriend André Hanscombe, a motorcycle courier, and their son Alexander Louis, who was born in 1989. After the birth of their son, Nickell became a full-time mother. She and Hanscombe had settled down to family life with their son and a dog, Molly. On the morning of 15 July 1992, Nickell and the then two-year-old Alexander were walking the dog on Wimbledon Common. Nickell was attacked; her attacker cut her throat, stabbed her and sexually assaulted her, with Alexander present.
A passer-by found Alexander clinging to his mother's blood-soaked body, repeating the words "wake up, mummy". Police were initially confused about a receipt stuck to Nickell's forehead, but soon found that her son had put it there.
Scotland Yard officers of the Metropolitan Police undertook the investigation. Although 32 men were eventually questioned in connection with the murder, the investigation quickly targeted Colin Stagg, an unemployed man from Roehampton who was known to walk his dog on the Common.
As there was no forensic evidence linking Stagg to the scene, the police asked criminal psychologist Paul Britton to create an offender profile of the killer. They decided that Stagg fitted the profile and asked Britton to assist in designing a covert operation, "Operation Ezdell", to see whether Stagg would eliminate or implicate himself. This operation was later criticised by the media and Stagg's trial judge, Mr Justice Ognall, as a "honeytrap".
During the committal hearing Britton claimed that "Operation Ezdell" was meant to present the subject with a series of psychological "ladders" to climb rather than a "slippery slope" down which a vulnerable person would slide if pushed. The defence argued that Britton's evidence was speculative and supported only by his intuition.
When the case reached the Old Bailey Mr Justice Ognall ruled that the police had shown "excessive zeal" and had tried to incriminate a suspect by "deceptive conduct of the grossest kind". He excluded the entrapment evidence and the prosecution withdrew its case. Stagg was formally acquitted in September 1994.
The murder of Rachel Jane Nickell took place on 15 July 1992, on Wimbledon Common, south-west London, and resulted in a highly publicised and controversial investigation.
Nickell was walking with her son on Wimbledon Common when she was brutally stabbed and sexually assaulted. A lengthy, expensive, and controversial investigation ensued, during which Colin Stagg was charged and acquitted before the case went cold. In 2002, with more advanced and refined forensic techniques available, Scotland Yard reopened the case, and on 18 December 2008, Robert Napper pleaded guilty to Nickell's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Napper, who had already been convicted of a 1993 double killing, was told by the Old Bailey judge that he would be held indefinitely at Broadmoor High Security hospital.
At the time of her death, Nickell was living near Wimbledon Common with boyfriend André Hanscombe, a motorcycle courier, and their son Alexander Louis, who was born in 1989. After the birth of their son, Nickell became a full-time mother. She and Hanscombe had settled down to family life with their son and a dog, Molly. On the morning of 15 July 1992, Nickell and the then two-year-old Alexander were walking the dog on Wimbledon Common. Nickell was attacked; her attacker cut her throat, stabbed her and sexually assaulted her, with Alexander present.
A passer-by found Alexander clinging to his mother's blood-soaked body, repeating the words "wake up, mummy". Police were initially confused about a receipt stuck to Nickell's forehead, but soon found that her son had put it there.
Scotland Yard officers of the Metropolitan Police undertook the investigation. Although 32 men were eventually questioned in connection with the murder, the investigation quickly targeted Colin Stagg, an unemployed man from Roehampton who was known to walk his dog on the Common.
As there was no forensic evidence linking Stagg to the scene, the police asked criminal psychologist Paul Britton to create an offender profile of the killer. They decided that Stagg fitted the profile and asked Britton to assist in designing a covert operation, "Operation Ezdell", to see whether Stagg would eliminate or implicate himself. This operation was later criticised by the media and Stagg's trial judge, Mr Justice Ognall, as a "honeytrap".
During the committal hearing Britton claimed that "Operation Ezdell" was meant to present the subject with a series of psychological "ladders" to climb rather than a "slippery slope" down which a vulnerable person would slide if pushed. The defence argued that Britton's evidence was speculative and supported only by his intuition.
When the case reached the Old Bailey Mr Justice Ognall ruled that the police had shown "excessive zeal" and had tried to incriminate a suspect by "deceptive conduct of the grossest kind". He excluded the entrapment evidence and the prosecution withdrew its case. Stagg was formally acquitted in September 1994.