- 5/28/2025
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00:00You
00:31We had identified Robert Knapper as the suspect in the murders of Samantha and Jasmine Bissett.
00:39They decide to put a surveillance operation on him.
00:44And what's quite striking about this is that they describe him as six foot two, but they say he has a stoop.
00:52So in actual fact, his height is more akin to five foot seven, five foot eight.
00:59And this was the description given by some of the victims of the Green Chain Rapist.
01:07A dedicated surveillance team was following him around London where he visited various knife shops.
01:14It confirmed the suspicion that they were following a man with an unhealthy interest in weapons.
01:20A decision was taken that he was so dangerous an arrest had to be made as soon as possible.
01:40Knapper was arrested at his home on Friday.
01:43He was living in Plumstead High Street, half a mile from where the killings took place.
01:49The investigation team searched Robert Knapper's flat.
01:54This revealed a red toolbox.
01:57The toolbox is so distinctive. It's pillbox red.
02:03And inside there were knives.
02:06It didn't match the stab wounds on Samantha.
02:10But there were receipts for two other knives.
02:13There was a piece of paper attached to the toolbox.
02:16And on the reverse side of that was a shoe mark which matched a mark left at the crime scene.
02:30When they look again in his flat, police find that there's not just one A to Z, there's another A to Z as well.
02:37They go through that and they find a dot.
02:44And that dot was Heathfield Terrace, the murder scene of Samantha and Jasmine Bissett.
02:51Everything was now pointing towards Robert Knapper as the man who killed Samantha and Jasmine.
03:00The A to Z had markings that were relevant to the Green Chain rapes.
03:06And relevant obviously to Samantha Bissett.
03:09But there were others.
03:11Some in North London. Majority in South East London.
03:16And if you just study this map, here's a man who loves the open spaces.
03:21Maybe looking for people to harm in these less populated areas.
03:27Each of those markings was a place where he was choosing to stake out.
03:32And they were viewpoint areas really.
03:35This guy was watching people.
03:37He knew where to go to watch people.
03:41The markings showing where to sit and watch.
03:45And where he could see into a number of addresses.
03:49Because people have got their lights on and their curtains open.
03:54The chilling thing is he was obviously planning these crimes for some time.
03:58And who knows how many times he'd been standing there staring into somebody's home.
04:04Quite chilling.
04:06Quite chilling.
04:12Having been arrested, at last we have Robert Knapper's DNA sample.
04:18And that DNA sample confirmed that he was responsible for the Green Chain rape series.
04:26In relation to Knapper, you had him charged with four rapes on the Green Chain walk series.
04:33You had him charged with the murder of Samantha Bissett and Jasmine.
04:39If you look at the timeline and the dates for the rape series.
04:43And when Samantha Bissett and Rachel Nakel were killed.
04:47You would ask yourself the question.
04:50Is there a possibility that he was responsible for all those offences?
04:56He did fit the timeline for the Rachel Nakel murder on the comment.
05:06Officers involved in Samantha Bissett's case.
05:10Went over to Wimbledon and spoke to the Rachel Nakel team over there.
05:15They said, well Knapper's never, not an assistant, never heard of him.
05:19Don't know what you're talking about.
05:21He lives miles away. You're in South East London.
05:23And we know who's done it. It's Stagg.
05:38By the time the Rachel Nakel case came to trial at the Old Bailey.
05:42Colin Stagg had now been on remand for over a year.
05:48Colin had been mostly at Wandsworth for 13 months.
05:52We turned up at the Old Bailey ready for the legal argument.
05:57Colin passed forward a note to me saying, what chance have I got?
06:01And at the end of the day I said, I'm going to hand this back to you.
06:05On the day you're acquitted at the Old Bailey.
06:08The reality was the prosecution's case.
06:11Rested entirely on the Lizzie James correspondence.
06:14These incredibly sexually explicit letters from an undercover officer.
06:18Were clearly the product of the investigative team.
06:22In the hope that Colin would break down and confess all.
06:26If the correspondence was admissible, psychological profiler,
06:30Paul Britton would be allowed to give his opinion on it.
06:33Everything else was insufficient.
06:37The judge reviewed the evidence in chambers before the court sat that day.
06:42He called the prosecuting and defense councils in front of him.
06:45And said, this case is nonsense.
06:50He was scathing.
06:52He called it deceptive conduct of the grossest kind.
06:56In terms of judicial language, it could not have been more excoriating.
07:01About the conduct of the operation and the nature of the operation.
07:06He said that this case is built on sand.
07:09There's no evidence here to put this man on trial.
07:12I'm not going to put him in front of a jury.
07:13There's not a shred of worthwhile evidence in this bundle here.
07:18I'd never been at a case where a judge had said such a thing.
07:22Or had been so critical of the police.
07:25And with that, he basically terminated the trial there and then.
07:30In his ruling, Mr. Justice Ognell described the police operation as
07:35misconceived, unjust and manipulative.
07:38As the judge was delivering his judgment,
07:40I stood up and walked across and handed Colin's note back to him.
07:44And he said it wasn't until that moment when Jim handed me the note back
07:48that I realized I'd won.
07:52I do remember going outside court very vividly.
07:56He'd been in custody for 13 months.
07:59He had no money.
08:01He wanted to see his dog.
08:03And the police wanted him to go out the back door.
08:06And Colin said, I'm not going out the back door.
08:08I'm going out the front door with my head held high.
08:11And he was coming out of the old Bailey to what was in those days
08:16an absolute madhouse of press interest.
08:20All there to condemn him, not to cheer him.
08:29And Colin read a short press release.
08:32My life has been ruined by a mixture of half-baked psychological theories.
08:36The judge recognized that there was never any evidence against me.
08:38No forensic evidence, no confession evidence, nothing at all.
08:42And then we bundled him into a taxi and took him off.
08:48So Rachel's father makes an emotional speech outside the old Bailey
08:53after the trial has been thrown out.
08:56The law has been upheld, but where is the justice?
09:00I understand that the police will now keep the files on my daughter's murder open.
09:05But they are not looking for anyone else.
09:08Utterly tragic that Andrew Nickell believed what he was saying
09:12because he had been fed a complete falsehood as to who was guilty.
09:19The police were never going to say at this stage,
09:22we're sorry, we got the wrong guy.
09:24Because as far as they were concerned, they didn't get the wrong guy.
09:27Certainly the police that I spoke to afterwards all said to me,
09:31we think Colin Stagg's a very lucky guy, he's got away with it.
09:41There was a huge sense of betrayal, really.
09:46Everybody felt really let down.
09:48We had the man who did it, everybody was convinced he did it.
09:52And of course, people blamed the police then.
09:56I mean, the big scapegoat was the woman police officer,
09:59everybody felt she'd overstepped the mark.
10:02I think she got thrown under a bus
10:04because she was only doing what she'd been instructed to do.
10:07But everybody thought, well, the police have blown it,
10:10they've completely blown it.
10:13There was a blame game going on between the various parties.
10:17But at the end of the day, the killer of Rachel Nickell was still free.
10:30In the autumn of 1995, Robert Knapper goes on trial at the Old Bailey,
10:36charged with the murder of Samantha and Jasmine Bissett.
10:40And he pleads guilty to manslaughter,
10:44but not guilty to murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
10:50And the reason for that is that when he was on remand,
10:54he would have been assessed by a psychiatrist
10:56who determined that he had paranoid schizophrenia.
11:01So clearly what he was saying was that he was mentally ill,
11:06not in control of his faculties at the time.
11:11There was some indicators in his background when it was dug into.
11:16He had a long history of psychiatric illness.
11:21He was brought up in an atmosphere of domestic abuse.
11:28His father was aggressive and violent towards his mother.
11:33He was sexually assaulted by a family friend while on a holiday.
11:42And this led to a striking change in behaviour.
11:46He became very withdrawn. He became obsessively tidy.
11:51In a sense, his personality changed almost overnight.
11:59Knapper is convicted of the manslaughter of Samantha Bissett and her daughter Jasmine.
12:08He is also convicted of a couple of the Green Chain rapes.
12:13And instead of going to prison, he was sent to the world-famous
12:17secure psychiatric hospital at Broadmoor in Berkshire.
12:23Broadmoor is not a prison. It's a psychiatric hospital.
12:27He is a patient. He is not an inmate.
12:31When I heard that he was being sent to Broadmoor,
12:35I guess that I felt that it was case closed,
12:38and at least there was a chance that he would be released.
12:41Case closed, and at least there was some justice for this poor woman and her child.
12:48Thank God that man's off the street.
12:51But it's not going to bring Samantha back.
12:54And whatever sentence he was given wasn't enough.
12:59Scotland Yard have announced the reopening of the Rachel Nickell murder investigation
13:04almost a decade after her death.
13:08When Rachel Nickell was killed, DNA analysis was still in its infancy.
13:13They did have some material, but they couldn't link that to a killer.
13:19The DNA analysis was still in its infancy.
13:22They did have some material, but they couldn't link that to a killer.
13:29When technology moved on and low-copy DNA became available,
13:34in other words, be able to identify someone from much less genetic material,
13:39the police went back and looked at the Rachel Nickell case.
13:45The review team discovers another identity within the DNA.
13:49We had a mixed profile, we now had Rachel's profile,
13:54but there is another, a male identity.
13:59In fact, police were able to look through the DNA samples of more than 500 suspects.
14:06All were eliminated, apart from Robert Knapper.
14:11Detectives are apparently keeping an open mind over whether Robert Knapper
14:15was in any way connected with the murder of Rachel Nickell.
14:19If we had gone to court with the enhanced DNA profile in the state that it was in,
14:25the defence would have beaten us to death with a big stick.
14:30He has an alibi because he didn't work that day,
14:34and they only have a possible suspect.
14:36He has an alibi because he didn't work that day,
14:39and they only have a partial DNA match,
14:42and that's not enough to stand up in court.
14:45They desperately need more evidence.
14:49They had taken samples from Rachel Nickell's son Alex's hair,
14:55and they included tiny flecks of red paint.
15:00When they look again at the case, they find some photographs
15:03that they'd taken when they searched Knapper's bedsit.
15:07Having looked at the photographs of the room,
15:12I could see a very bright red toolbox.
15:17The toolbox was analysed to see if we could find a match.
15:22They send the paint off for testing,
15:26and the results come back,
15:29and it's a match with the flecks in Alex's hair.
15:34So, therefore, Knapper's at the crime scene.
15:41There was also a shoe mark found at Wimbledon Common near the murder scene.
15:46The police had taken Knapper's shoes,
15:49but it looked like those shoes were too big.
15:52However, the scientists were asked to go back to the scene,
15:57recreate similar marks and similar conditions.
16:00They found out there was a suction effect,
16:04and the mark itself contracted by one size.
16:08And, therefore, the mark and Robert Knapper's shoes matched.
16:14We now have two strong pieces of physical evidence against him,
16:19and now we move on to the alibi.
16:23Robert Knapper stated he was at work on the day of Rachel's murder.
16:28The foreman, who kept a very detailed year planner of staff movements,
16:34had moved on.
16:36I received a phone call from him,
16:39in which he basically said,
16:41you'd better come and get this year planner,
16:43otherwise I'm going to throw it in the bin.
16:47When we recovered the year planner,
16:50we immediately looked for July 15, 1992.
16:54Much to our delight,
16:55we could see that Robert Knapper had been marked up as being sick
16:59on the day of the Rachel McHale murder.
17:04And, therefore, he didn't have an alibi.
17:09We decided we were now in a strong enough position
17:13to go to Broadmoor Hospital and interview him,
17:15in the hope that he would confess.
17:18This is the first time I had sat down face to face with Robert Knapper.
17:24I spoke to him briefly.
17:28He was quiet.
17:30He wasn't aggressive.
17:32He avoided eye contact.
17:35I presented all of the evidence that we had,
17:38and he declined to comment.
17:44A file was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service,
17:47and they agreed that there was now sufficient evidence
17:50to charge Robert Knapper with the murder of Rachel McHale.
18:01The day of the trial,
18:03it was a full house at No. 1 Court at the Old Bailey.
18:07You had to have almost a ticket to get in.
18:13The public gallery was full.
18:15We were expecting a trial that would last for weeks.
18:18So there was no indication
18:20that Robert Knapper was going to plead to anything.
18:24The moment came where he came up the steps.
18:30There was a gasp from some of the people in the court.
18:36His barrister said that there had been a change of plea,
18:40and that his client had now decided, on all the evidence,
18:45that he was guilty.
18:46And he wished to plead guilty to the crime which he did.
18:56Robert Knapper does confess to the Rachel McHale killing,
19:01and he is found guilty of manslaughter
19:05on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
19:09Mr. Knapper has been found guilty of Rachel's murder.
19:12We sincerely hope, whatever the court says,
19:15that he will spend the rest of his life
19:18in a totally secure environment to protect all other people.
19:23There was a sense of relief
19:25that he had at last been convicted of this horrendous murder.
19:32He's in Broadmoor for life,
19:35and that's only place for him.
19:37When Knapper eventually did plead guilty,
19:40it didn't receive one-tenth of the publicity
19:43that Colin Stagg's acquittal for the killing of Rachel received.
19:47So there'll be many people who didn't even notice
19:50that Knapper pleaded guilty.
19:52And so I think many newspapers were embarrassed
19:56if they'd been very anti-Colin.
19:58The Daily Mail, still to this day, says they championed him.
20:02That's just abominable.
20:03The Daily Mail, still to this day, says they championed him.
20:07That's just absolutely ridiculous.
20:12It's funny that Robert Knapper's name
20:15isn't nearly as prominent in the public mind as Colin Stagg, unjustly.
20:19But Colin Stagg is a name that you always remember.
20:22Somehow Robert Knapper isn't quite so memorable.
20:24I don't know why that is.
20:26There are other cases where more could and should have been done.
20:30Had more been done,
20:31we would have been in a position to have prevented this
20:34and other very serious attacks by Knapper.
20:41After Knapper was convicted in 2008 for the Nickell murder,
20:46that gave me added confidence.
20:48Because having read several books and numerous newspaper reports
20:52covering these cases,
20:54and studying these A-Zs for quite some time,
20:56I believe there's unfinished business as regards Knapper and his activities.
21:02There are far more markings than they have reports.
21:07And the simple question you ask yourself is,
21:10what else has he done?
21:26Well, I personally had just been involved in a murder on the Isle of Sheppey.
21:32And I was conducting a debrief of the team that evening.
21:37During the course of that debrief,
21:39all the crime officers' pages were going off.
21:42And I knew then, something's happened somewhere in the county.
21:48It was dark. It was January the 18th.
21:51There is a 16-year-old schoolgirl
21:54called Clare Tiltman.
21:56She'd just turned 16, four days earlier.
21:59She'd been to college with her friends.
22:01She'd undergone her mock exams.
22:04She lived about a mile from Greenhithe in Kent,
22:07up near a corner shop, just off the London Road.
22:11She'd arranged to go and visit her friend,
22:14an award she'd done many times.
22:16A well-used road, reasonably well lit,
22:20not an isolated area at all.
22:24She had to walk through this alleyway
22:26towards the estate where her friend lived.
22:28Normally, it should have been lit.
22:30There should have been street lighting.
22:32But at the time, it was dark. The lights were not working.
22:35Someone, unknown at this stage,
22:38confronted her and stabbed her, multiple times.
22:43She staggered back out of the alleyway
22:46and fell over at the side of the road.
22:49A motorist who was driving past
22:51with a colleague from work
22:54spotted what they thought
22:56was just this black package on the pavement.
22:59They went to investigate.
23:01And Clare was gasping.
23:05She was gasping for breath.
23:07They tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
23:10She sadly, tragically died in their arms.
23:15It was an awful crime, a dreadful crime.
23:21Sixteen-year-old Clare Tildman
23:23had been stabbed repeatedly
23:25in a vicious and apparently motiveless attack.
23:28We heard about the murder on the news
23:32and we were shocked.
23:34We didn't know straight away who it was.
23:36And when we did find out,
23:38we were absolutely horrified because we knew the family.
23:40We knew her mum and dad.
23:41And we knew Clare.
23:45It was the following day or a couple of days after,
23:48and they said the request went out from the police.
23:51You know, if you were in the area, can you let us know?
23:54As, you know, people who were in the area,
23:57that's what we did.
23:59One such person who came forward
24:01was a man called Colin Ash Smith
24:03who was the son of the local mayor, Diane Smith,
24:07and her husband, Aubrey Smith,
24:08My son Colin and I were in Greenhive
24:11that previous evening
24:13and that's why we gave witness statements.
24:18More than 200 friends, well-wishers and family members
24:22packed Eltham Crematorium in south-east London today
24:25to pay their respects to Clare Tildman.
24:28Clare's funeral, there was so many people there.
24:31It was quite a good turnout
24:35to sort of honour her.
24:36It was a good turnout to sort of honour her memory
24:39and support her mum and dad.
24:41That was mainly what it was for.
24:43And we were aware of the press being there and cameras,
24:46but we just ignored them and, you know,
24:49we paid our respects.
24:54Really, of course, it was one of those cases
24:57where, forensically, the evidence was difficult.
25:01The scene is compromised in terms of potential forensic
25:04because there would have been dozens, if not hundreds,
25:07of people walking through this alleyway
25:09having decamped from the trains that call at Greenhive.
25:12Lots of people brought in, lots of people being interviewed,
25:15but nothing of any significance that we could say,
25:19that's our man, so...
25:25It's a fatal stabbing at Greenhive.
25:28Unfortunately, there'd been another stabbing
25:31not very far away in the Swanscombe area
25:34in 1988.
25:36The victim and her husband lived in a bungalow.
25:40She goes in the garage and there's this man
25:43covered in balaclava.
25:45And he drags her off to a local area
25:49where he tried to rape her.
25:51He then tried to strangle her with a tie.
25:55And this tie had broken, it snapped,
25:58so half of it's around her neck
26:00and the other half disappeared.
26:02She was stabbed five times in the back
26:05and had been left for dead.
26:08The DNA database wasn't created
26:10until some seven years after this event.
26:13So the main line of inquiry on that investigation was
26:17that this school tie had been used
26:20and it was a school that was local in the Gravesend area.
26:24That case was still open,
26:27but there was nothing to connect to the Claire Tilghman case
26:31at that stage.
26:33I was aware that a young girl had been killed in Greenhithe
26:37and that case went on for quite some time.
26:41We had descriptions of the potential attacker.
26:44There had been an eyewitness account.
26:47It was a boy who had seen somebody
26:49fitting Robert Knapper's description at the train station
26:53and that the train from Plumstead
26:55would have got in just after six.
26:58Greenhithe railway station is probably
27:01a 20, 25 minute direct route
27:04from where Robert Knapper was living at the time in Plumstead,
27:08just a few stops down the line.
27:11Operation Artists for the Claire Tilghman murder
27:14were aware of Robert Knapper.
27:16I think common sense would tell you that.
27:19But the Police National Computer told them
27:22he was in prison serving this sentence
27:24with a firearm charged
27:25for which he was arrested in October 92.
27:28Claire murdered on the 18th of January.
27:31Couldn't have done it.
27:33Thank you very much, move on.
27:35You never stop trying,
27:37but the issue is unless you get witnesses come forward,
27:40we're in a very difficult position.
27:51It was two years, nine months after Claire's death
27:54phone goes in the car
27:56and we've had another stabbing
27:58about 300 yards away from where Claire was killed.
28:03An innocent young woman, she was 21,
28:05a health worker just about to go on her way home,
28:08attacked out of nowhere.
28:11She saw a man, a young man
28:13walking towards her on the same footpath.
28:15When he was 10 foot away,
28:17he seemed to drop something.
28:19He bent over,
28:20he seemed to drop something.
28:22He bent down to pick something up
28:25and as he stood up he pulled a knife
28:27and held it against her throat.
28:30I remember her saying to me
28:32every time he stabbed me I screamed
28:35and every time I screamed he stabbed me.
28:37So I thought if I collapse on the floor
28:39and stop screaming he might stop,
28:41which actually happened.
28:44She was stabbed multiple times.
28:46Fortunately in this case
28:48it was not fatal.
28:51There was a guy
28:53who had left the Pier Hotel
28:55where this woman had been herself
28:57with a friend earlier
28:59and he'd seen a car parked up
29:01under the bridge,
29:03a very distinctive white Ford Capri
29:05and he knew instantly whose car that was.
29:07He said he saw
29:09what was the local milkman,
29:11a man who turned out to be
29:13the son of the local mayor,
29:15Colin Ash Smith.
29:17It was from that point on
29:18that Colin Ash Smith
29:20suddenly came to the forefront
29:22of the investigation.
29:26The following morning
29:28Colin's girlfriend was banging on the door
29:30wanting to be let in.
29:32Colin's been arrested
29:34and we said what for?
29:36Couldn't understand what it was for.
29:38We couldn't think of anything he'd done wrong.
29:41We went to where they were living
29:43and the police were there
29:45and they wouldn't let us in.
29:46They said what?
29:48This is a crime scene.
29:50What crime?
29:52They said a woman had been attacked
29:54and Colin had been arrested.
29:57I couldn't believe it.
29:59I just kept thinking
30:01this is like a nightmare.
30:03It'll be over.
30:05He'll be home soon.
30:07I thought he'd be coming home
30:09because I couldn't understand
30:11because my son attacking a woman,
30:13I just couldn't believe it.
30:14I thought he'd been assaulted.
30:17During the course of the search
30:19of his premises we find
30:21taped underneath a table
30:23where there was a drawer
30:25a diary.
30:27Obviously he didn't want
30:29anybody else to see it.
30:31I've seen the entries in that diary.
30:33There's four assault plans.
30:35The first entry on this attack plan
30:37was making a recce
30:39what he could do
30:41to a young girl at a railway station
30:42where he describes
30:44how he was going to attack her
30:46perhaps rape her, kill her
30:48but it never came to fruition.
30:50Nothing happened.
30:52I think in his mind
30:54at that stage of his life
30:56he wanted to have control
30:58over women.
31:00He wanted to be seen
31:02and respected or
31:04in inverted commas
31:06by women.
31:07In reality he wasn't.
31:09The one he describes
31:10is the 1988 attack
31:13in the Swanscombe camp.
31:16He has written about
31:18the stabbing in 1988
31:20with the old school tie
31:22giving comprehensive details
31:25of how he did it
31:27including listening the next morning
31:29about how the police had said
31:31it was this attempt murder
31:33in the Swanscombe area
31:35and he'd written in this diary
31:37damn it she survived
31:38I better do a better job next time.
31:42During the course of the search
31:44of his car
31:46we find the other half
31:48of the old school tie
31:50from the 1988 attack.
31:54Physical jigsaw match
31:56exactly the same tie
31:58and he kept that in his car
32:00for something like
32:02seven years.
32:04These people get satisfaction
32:06out of knowing that they've got
32:08something they can touch
32:10or get another kick out of
32:12or whatever for whatever reason.
32:15Colin Ashmith had been
32:17remanded in custody
32:19had been charged with both
32:21stabbings.
32:23They'd sent him to
32:25one of the prisons in Sheppey.
32:27We had to go down there to see him
32:29and I just said did you do it
32:31and he said yes mum
32:33and that was it really.
32:38I just couldn't understand it
32:40it was the sight of him
32:42I just didn't know
32:44but even now I look at him
32:46and I just think
32:48I can't believe that you did
32:50something like that
32:52but he's my son
32:54and I love him very much
32:56and he's all I've got you know.
33:01It's fair to say that
33:03Colin Ashmith made unequivocal
33:05admissions to both offences
33:06but my attention
33:08was very quickly
33:10as you'd expect drawn
33:12to the murder of Claire.
33:14Two, three hundred yards
33:16of where this current victim
33:18had been stabbed.
33:20Very similar MO
33:22in terms of upper body stabbing
33:24and I'd be neglecting my duty
33:26if I didn't think it was
33:28worth investigating.
33:30Now obviously at this stage
33:32you're thinking this is the guy
33:34who's attacked Claire too
33:36I can't believe it.
33:38Where were you on the night
33:40of Claire's murder?
33:42Say I was in that area
33:44dropping my mum off
33:46who's delivering council leaflets
33:48by six o'clock
33:50I was in my house in Milton Street
33:52with my mother, with my father.
33:54He came in from work
33:56about four or five o'clock
33:58and he took me
34:00about quarter to six, six o'clock
34:02down to Greenhithe
34:04and we drove back
34:06and I keep saying
34:08and I will always keep saying
34:10that I was with Colin
34:12the night Claire was murdered
34:14and he didn't do it.
34:18Colin Ash Smith was convicted
34:20for the two attempted murders
34:22serious assaults on the two girls
34:24in the general location
34:26of the Claire Tilghman murder.
34:31Well we had a situation
34:33where although Colin Ash Smith
34:34was suspected and I was convinced
34:36had committed the murder
34:38of Claire Tilghman
34:40absolutely nothing was found
34:42whatsoever forensically
34:44to connect him with Claire Tilghman.
34:46There was nothing
34:48there was no forensic
34:50there was nothing, absolutely nothing
34:52they had it in their minds
34:54that he did it but he didn't.
34:56Claire's case was still open
34:58but in terms of potential
35:01for anyone being charged
35:02or arrested and charged
35:04unfortunately it didn't go anywhere
35:06at that time.
35:21Kent police got some information
35:23from a cellmate of Colin Ash Smith
35:25apparently Colin Ash Smith
35:27had told the cellmate
35:29that he remembers attacking a young girl
35:30that he'd seen crossing the road
35:32on a zebra crossing.
35:36The fact that in that statement
35:38he uses the zebra crossing phrase
35:40that's what switched the lights on
35:42with certain officers
35:44well that ties in with
35:46what we think happened.
35:48He saw Claire near the zebra crossing
35:50parked his car in the legion
35:52followed her down the hill
35:54stabbed her in the alley.
35:58But also before 2003
36:00juries were not allowed
36:02to know things about
36:04what they call bad character evidence
36:06about the man or the person
36:08standing in the dock in front of them
36:10being tried.
36:12From 2003 onwards
36:14if it was thought to be relevant
36:16or germane to the case
36:18that they were about to hear
36:20what they'd done previously in life
36:22could be put in front of a jury.
36:24And what that meant
36:26was that they could introduce
36:28his past to attacks
36:30with this cell confession.
36:32So therefore
36:34they charged Colin R. Smith
36:36with the murder
36:38of Claire Tiltman.
36:43The jury were hearing evidence
36:45about two previous
36:47brutal stabbings
36:49along with the
36:51stabbing and the murder
36:53of Claire Tiltman
36:55and it's hard to see
36:57how they wouldn't somehow
36:58be influenced.
37:01That notion of
37:03previous bad character
37:05should be used to support
37:07real evidence.
37:09In this case
37:11against Colin R. Smith
37:13from my perspective
37:15that's all they have.
37:17There is nothing else.
37:19No forensics
37:21no eyewitnesses
37:23his own bad character
37:25and the fact that he had
37:26killed Claire Tiltman's
37:28murderer
37:29that's it against him.
37:33Colin Ash Smith
37:35was eventually convicted
37:37of the murder of Claire Tiltman
37:39but what stood out
37:41was that his defense
37:43highlighted the fact
37:45that on the night
37:47of her death
37:49a young boy had seen
37:51somebody who fitted
37:53the description of Robert Knapper.
37:56Operation Artists
37:58the Claire Tiltman murder
38:00were aware of Robert Knapper
38:02and their record showed
38:04that he was in prison
38:06for other offences
38:08at the time of the Claire Tiltman murder
38:10so his best alibi in the world
38:12he was locked away
38:14so he's not your man.
38:19I did some research
38:21on the details of Knapper's
38:23conviction and sentencing
38:24back to 1992
38:26because of the time served on remand
38:28he was eligible for early release
38:30and he was released
38:32on the 18th of December
38:34a month later
38:36Claire Tiltman was killed
38:38so he should have been
38:40a red hot suspect early on
38:42really.
38:45The nine knife wounds
38:47inflicted upon Claire
38:49five alone would have been fatal
38:51as single blows
38:52would have cut him into
38:5414, 15 centimetres deep
38:56so the two attacks
38:58that Ashmith rapidly
39:00put his hands up to
39:02neither of those were
39:04as brutal as that
39:06inflicted upon Claire
39:08Colin Ashmith's diary
39:10wasn't found until
39:12nearly three years after
39:14Claire's killing
39:16and there is no reference
39:18at all to Claire's murder
39:20in that diary.
39:22It would have been
39:24all over the papers
39:26the police would have been
39:28waving it around
39:30look, look, look
39:32this is what he's written
39:34he didn't write anything
39:36about Claire Tiltman.
39:38Colin Ashmith
39:40born and bred in the area
39:42very well known
39:44and yet of all the witnesses
39:46from the night Claire
39:48was killed
39:50there was not a single
39:52described a man
39:54coming towards them
39:56from the Riverview
39:58end of Station Road
40:00as if he was race walking
40:02was the phrase
40:04the strange walk
40:06the loping pronounced gait
40:08the physical descriptions
40:10of the suspects
40:12at Wimbledon
40:14Green Chain
40:16at Claire Tiltman
40:18in all of those cases
40:20there is a suspect
40:22Colin Ashmith
40:24committed two offences
40:26Crown says he's committed a third
40:28but even if he hadn't committed a third
40:30it doesn't make any difference
40:32in a humanistic way
40:34for me it does
40:36because it's not the truth
40:38look, there's two guys
40:40who have both attacked women
40:42they're both locked away
40:44why bother?
40:46I turn it around and say
40:48if it was your daughter
40:50would you be satisfied
40:52to have her put away?
40:58what's so tragic
41:00is that all those murders
41:02a catalogue of terrible crimes
41:04could have been prevented
41:06if only there hadn't been a catalogue
41:08of tragic missed opportunities
41:11it's accepted
41:13there were mistakes made
41:15the fact of Knappert not turning up
41:17when he should have done
41:19to have his DNA test
41:21perhaps the first time
41:23the ATZs were found
41:25the fact that you don't get DNA
41:27and you don't go chasing the guy for it
41:29is wrong
41:31Knappert should have been chased
41:33when Robert Knappert was detained
41:35in the Samantha murder
41:37his mother disclosed to the detectives
41:39three or four years ago
41:41my son told me
41:43that he'd raped a woman
41:45on Plumstead Common
41:47and I felt so bad about that
41:48that I came and told you
41:50all about it
41:52they looked into this incident
41:54but could find no record of it
41:57and the reason for that
41:59was it wasn't actually
42:01on Plumstead Common
42:03it was at a property
42:05backing onto Winds Common
42:07and this was
42:09where the first
42:11green chain rape occurred
42:13the officers investigating
42:15the South West London crime
42:16don't appear to have looked
42:18at the links
42:20to the South East London crimes
42:22and if they had
42:24perhaps Robert Knappert
42:26would have been arrested
42:28before Miss Bissett was killed
42:30Samantha's daughter was present
42:32when she was attacked
42:34some of the green chain rapes
42:36children have been present
42:38Rachel's little boy was present
42:40I had experienced
42:42homicide investigators saying
42:44do you know how
42:46rare it is
42:48for a woman to be attacked
42:50when she's with a child
42:52how can you possibly
42:54rule out
42:56the likelihood that these
42:58two cases are linked
43:01if they'd have had the systems
43:03they had in place now
43:05I think it wouldn't have got
43:07as far as losing
43:09Samantha Bissett
43:11I think they would have caught him
43:13because everything would have been
43:14they would have been taken
43:16and things would have been
43:18matched a hell of a lot earlier
43:24when you look back at
43:26Knappert's A to Z
43:28and his markings in it
43:30there are still those
43:32that relate to
43:34parts of London
43:36and across London
43:38not just South East London
43:40and it begs the question
43:42are these attacks
43:44because he believed he came forward
43:46or do they relate to
43:48other unsolved cases
43:50he most certainly had it in him
43:52to commit other offences
43:55there are gaps
43:57in our knowledge of his activities
43:59which have not been looked at
44:01in the depth that they need to be looked at
44:03there were many marks
44:05yet to be explained by him
44:07and he was evasive
44:09we're looking for reasons
44:11why these marks are out there
44:12what else happened out there
44:16I'm very curious in particular
44:18about three unsolved murders
44:21they all have the markings
44:23on the A to Z's
44:25in the areas where these people lived
44:27or were found dead
44:29the most westerly mark
44:31is just north of Heston services
44:33in 91
44:35Annie Bell she was murdered
44:37reasonably close to that mark
44:39and it's not too far from where
44:40Jean Bradley was murdered
44:42in 93
44:44and there was two other marks
44:46at Friend Barnet
44:48Patricia Parsons
44:50found murdered in June 1990
44:52that's where she lived
44:54there is some kind of connection
44:57and here I am today
44:59still trying to answer questions
45:01about what Robert Knapper
45:03has done
45:05because I feel he's definitely done
45:07more than what we know
45:08there's probably a lot of victims
45:10out there
45:12that he's not going to admit
45:14to is he
45:19in some ways it angers me
45:21that he gets his photograph
45:23shown on the TV or wherever
45:25and it's almost like
45:27the victims are forgotten
45:30the beautiful photograph
45:32of Samantha and Jasmine
45:34and the photographs of Rachel
45:35that's more important
45:37to remember than him
45:39because
45:41he's not worth it
46:05¶.
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