Rachel Jane Nickell was born to parents Andrew, and Monica on the 23rd of November 1968. She was brought up in the village of Great Totham, which is in the Maldon district of Essex.
Rachel was well liked and popular, and it would seem hard not to like her as she’s an all-round good egg.
She attends the local primary school and then later attends Colchester High School for Girls. When she’s not at school she does voluntary work with the local elderly and disabled children in the area. In her spare time she attends classes and workshops in acting, singing, and dancing at the Essex Dance Theatre. Her teachers there are said to have encouraged her to pursue this career, she’s a natural but rather than immediately immerse herself in the arts, she continues her academic studies with an English and History degree at university.
In 1988 whilst she’s still at university, she meets Andre Hanscombe. Rachel is working as a lifeguard in a pool in Richmond, London. supporting herself through her degree. The couple met at the pool where he was messing about with his mates and looking after his younger half-brothers. They agreed to go on a date and straight after this first date Rachel told her mum that she had found the man of her life. He says similar, it’s very sweet – love at first sight.
And the young couples relationship moved quite quickly, within a few months Rachel found out she was pregnant, and they moved into a flat together in Balham, South London.
Rachel quits her degree and Andre who was a semi- professional tennis player at the time gets work as a motorbike courier to bring in some steady cash. Rachel did some modelling from time to time, but she wanted to be a children’s television presenter, she’s got the right wholesome vibe for that, I think.
A year after they originally met Rachel gives birth to a son, who the couple call Alexander Louis (Alex). By all accounts Rachel is a great mum and the couple are really happy. They adopt a rescue dog, called Molly and she completes the “Little Squad” as Rachel calls them.
They are happy and aspire for their future together, the plan was to save up, sell up, leave the UK, and live somewhere rural – with France being top of the list.
They sound happy. Where was Andre from?
I believe his father was a teacher originally from Zimbabwe and his mother is English. So I don’t believe there was a historic connection to France. Specifically.
Rachel, Andre & Alex lived near to Wimbledon Common and on the warm sunny morning of the 15th of July 1992, Rachel had decided to go on a walk there with son Alex and their dog Molly.
At around 10.20am Rachel and Alex walk along a much-used path. They’re enjoying the nice weather and are just 200 yards from many other people also out walking along the common.
They’re laughing as they stroll along. Alex will be turning three in a month’s time, and they are chatting happily and enjoying the morning; But what Rachel and Alex don’t know is that they are being stalked.
As they pass through a secluded part of the common, they are attacked.
A man jumped out of the bushes and began to slash and stab repeatedly at Rachel. One of the slashes cuts Rachel across her throat and is so violent that it almost decapitates her; in total she is stabbed 49 times. Rachel is then subjected to a horrific sexual assault before her blood-soaked body is posed in an intentionally obscene and degrading manner under a tree.
All of this occurs in front of Alex, who has been knocked none to gently to the side during the attack. Thankfully, he is physically unharmed, and the assailant flees leaving the small child alone with his mother’s body.
Alex is unsure of what has occurred he’s too young to fully process that he has just witnessed a murder, and he desperately tries to wake his mummy up. He collects the money that has fluttered to the ground from Rachel's purse and carefully places a discarded receipt on her forehead to act as plaster or bandage to a wound she has there.
He stays with his mum until a female passer-by found Alex clinging to his mother's blood-soaked body repeating the words "Wake up, Mummy".
Oh, I find that really hard. It’s horrific what has happened to Rachel but to happen in front of her little boy. Gut wrenching.
The police are alerted instantly, and an ambulance is called, Alex is sedated and taken to the local hospital. Andre is contacted and knows immediately that something is wrong, he demands the police tell him what has happened, but they advise him to come to the hospital where Alex is recuperating.
When Andre finds out that Rachel has been brutally murdered, he is bereft and the fact that his son witnessed it, makes it even worse. Unsure he could carry on without Rachel, Andre contemplated taking his own life and that of his sons. It’s very sad and some might be horrified to hear that, but I think he didn’t want any more suffering for anyone. I understand his thought process and am glad he asked his son if he wanted to go on before he made any final decisions on his behalf, because Alex said he did want to go on and that’s what happened; they battled through.
It was a very hard time for Andre, dealing with his own grief whilst also supporting his son and the investigation. Alex was a small child and the only eyewitness who had actually seen his mothers murderer.
Alex was supported by the police and an experienced child psychiatrist, who worked closely with him to ensure that the process was as smooth for him as possible. But that didn’t mean it was easy for them, the police bugged the family’s home in case Alex said anything that could aid in the investigation and the whole experience was pretty gruelling for them.
From the very next day the story of Rachel's murder dominates the headlines. Beauty slain by Beast ran in the Sun for example. People were outraged that a young mother had been brutally murdered in broad daylight whilst her son looked on. The media were relentless and stalked Andre and even followed Alex to Nursery – fine example set by them as usual.
Later, with the help of Andre, Alex did manage to provide the police with a clear description of his attacker. his loping walk, his strange, blank face, his black bag, white shirt.
Which to be fair is pretty impressive for an almost three-year-old.
Like I said a gruelling experience and so five months after the murder they decide to leave England. I have a quote from Andre here -
“All the time, you see the headlines, you hear the whispers, everyone’s watching Alex, saying he’ll never recover,” “I just felt it was impossible for a child to grow up like that. Rachel and I were always going to leave the country – again, it was being true to her values.”
So just the two of them and Molly the dog left for the south of France, where they rented a remote farm building near Montpellier. Three years later, they crossed over to Spain, settling in the Catalan countryside, where André coached tennis. They told no one about their past.
Rachel’s parents were devastated by their departure, describing it as a second bereavement. However, their relationship with Alex continued, with Alex visiting until the age of eight, when contact ceased. I have read that the visits impacted on Alex poorly, probably through no fault of their own, but he had nightmares and issues whenever he visited. They have corresponded more recently and are in touch regularly now that Alex is grown.
Back in England from day one of Rachel’s murder, the police had sprung into action. Whilst Alex was on his way to the hospital, they had flooded the area trying to contain a crime scene of over 1000 acres of woodland and with potentially 500 witnesses.
They took descriptions of potential suspects and witness statements from people in the area at the time. They stopped people in and around the common to ask them if they knew anything or had been there earlier in the day, one of the people they stop is a man called Colin Stagg a 31-year-old who was walking his dog in the area. Colin was very open and told the officer that he had in fact been in the area earlier that day and helpfully gives his name and address.
He explains that that morning he had woken up at his home on the Alton estate in Roehampton, where he has lived since childhood. He is currently unemployed, so his only routine involves taking his dog for a long walk on the common most mornings. This particular morning, following a night of drinking, he has a really bad headache. He forgoes his usual long walk taking a shorter one going round the Scio Pond which is nearest to his home and then back.
At approximately 9:25am, he takes some painkillers and tries to sleep it off on the sofa. When he wakes later, feeling better he takes his dog out again for a longer walk. Its then when he meets a uniformed officer who says he can’t go onto the Common because they’ve found a body.
Unable, yet again, to do his intended walk, Colin returns home.
Officers of the Metropolitan Police undertook the investigation, under pressure to find the perpetrator from public outrage at the circumstances of the homicide and press coverage. Thirty-two men were questioned in connection with the killing.
The public were keen to help too, and lots of witnesses came forward with suggestions for possible assailants. They also had Alex’s description and that of the several people who had identified a man they had seen on the common around that time.
One of the witnesses who had been on the common that day suggested a local man who was known to walk his dog there, and a neighbour of a local man alerted the police to say that he had seen said man behaving in a very excited manner when he heard about the killing of Rachel – that man was none other than Colin Stagg.
the investigation quickly targeted Colin, he had placed himself in the vicinity at approximately the right time. He was a loner, and he fitted the description given by Alex and the other witnesses.
The police asked Paul Britton, a criminal psychologist, to create an offender profile of the killer. I’ll link the full article as usual because Paul Britton is an interesting character as is his involvement in this case and other high-profile ones.
His profile stated that the perpetrator would…
· be attracted to some form of pornography that plays a role in his sexual fantasies. There would be some violent aspects to it, and he would fantasize about similar experiences.
· The perpetrator should not have more than average intelligence and education. If he is employed, he will be an unskilled or manual worker.
· He will be single, have a behaviourally lonely lifestyle and live either at home with his parents or in an apartment to himself.
· He will pursue solitary hobbies and interests.
· He will live very close to Wimbledon Common and know the area inside out.
The police decided quite quickly that Colin fitted the profile and asked Paul Britton to assist with designing a covert operation, code-named Operation Ezdell, to see whether he would eliminate or implicate himself, in effect a "honey trap".
An undercover policewoman from the Metropolitan Police Special Operations Group contacted Colin posing as a friend of a woman with whom he used to be in contact via a Lonely Hearts’ column.
Over the next five months the undercover female police officer attempted to obtain information from him by feigning a romantic interest, she won his confidence, and the sexually inexperienced Colin was keen to make things work with this attractive new woman in his life.
The aim of course was to try and trick him into a confession, and some of the things she said to try to get him to do this were quite extreme.
She told him that she was into Satanism and had once sacrificed a pregnant woman and her unborn child to the devil. She was into rough sex and tried to draw out violent fantasies from him. During a particular meeting in Hyde Park, they had spoken about Rachel’s murder in detail, but Colin told her truthfully why he had been there and did not admit to the killing.
On September 18th, 1992, with zero forensic evidence, no confession, and a dubious honey trap investigation, the police subsequently charged Colin Stagg with the murder of Rachel Nickell.
Colin was held on remand until the following year, 1993 and in August is officially charged with Rachel’s murder. The following month the case is presented at the old bailey and Colin Stagg is tried for murder.
The case collapses and is hailed a miscarriage of justice. The “honey trap” evidence is quite rightly ruled inadmissible and thrown out with the prosecution withdrawing its case.
Mr Justice Ognall ruled that the police had shown “excessive zeal” and had tried to incriminate their suspect by using “deceptive conduct of the grossest kind”.
The judge eventually acquitted Colin Stagg in September 1994; he’d spent 13 months on remand. but shockingly despite no evidence or motive, he remained the only suspect, for the police; and the case goes cold.
That is until 2002 The police force reopened the case -
The cold case review team, A small team of officers, examined the possibility that the case was linked to other crimes, as well as looking into witness statements and alternate potential suspects.
Officers compared the injuries suffered by Rachel with other attacks and consulted forensic scientists about improvements in DNA matching and other refined DNA techniques only recently made available to them.
And this is where we find out that the police have been more than just shitty to Colin, they have had the opportunity to get the real murderer long before now. In fact on more than three separate occasions.
Back in November of 1994, detectives reviewing Rachel's case had spoken to a man being held for a double murder and a number of rapes, there was no specific evidence at this time that he had been involved in Rachel's death other than geography - it was in southeast London. The police spoke to him again in 1995 and he denied ever being on Wimbledon common; the man they were talking to was Robert Napper.
Robert Clive Napper was born in Erith, southeast London on the 25th of February 1966, the eldest child of Brian Napper, a driving instructor, and his wife Pauline. He was brought up in nearby Plumstead along with his two brothers and sister. His background was troubled and dysfunctional his parents’ marriage was violent, and Napper witnessed this abuse. His parents divorced when he was 9 and he and his siblings were placed in foster care and underwent years of counselling at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell.
It is thought that Napper had then undiagnosed ASD I’ve read it referred to as Asperger’s, due to this he is socially awkward at school, where fellow students later described him as being "despised".
At age 13, Napper was sexually assaulted by a family friend on a camping holiday, the offender was jailed for the attack, but it impacted Napper immensely. He underwent a personality change becoming introverted, obsessively tidy, and reclusive. His mother said that he would bully his siblings and spy on his sister when she was naked.
In 1986, Napper first came to the police’s attention after being convicted of an offence with an airgun and this would start his long line of contact with them.
In august of 1989 Napper commits his first rape, that of a 30-year-old woman, in front of her children. Its reported to have occurred in a house which backed on to Plumstead Common.
Napper admits this to his mother, and I’ll give her her due here because she reports him to the police in November of 1989.
the police dismiss the information that she gives them because there is no case that matches, its reported as happening on Plumstead common itself. I mean that’s just the start of the police ineptitude in this case peeps.
The next year, 1992 he goes on to attack more women. In March alone there is an attempted rape each week on the 10th and then the 17th until on the 24th he succeeds in raping his fourth victim.
Just under four months later on 15 July 1992 Rachel is attacked and killed on Wimbledon Common.
In August of 1992 just one month after Rachel's murder the Police release an e-fit of the rape suspect. A man identifies Napper as fitting the description. Police go to his house and request he goes to a local police station to provide DNA samples, but he fails to show up.
The following month in September: A work colleague also picks Napper out from the e-fit. Officers visit his house again and make another appointment for him to attend a police station. Again he fails to show up. The police don’t pursue him and the following month in October he is eliminated from the rape inquiries because the senior investigating officer said his height did not match the victims’ descriptions. Napper was 6ft 2, but they said the attacker was more likely 5ft 7. Napper walked with a stoop.
Three days later he was arrested for possession of a gun and jailed for eight weeks, but not for any rapes.
the following year in April of 1993 Napper's fingerprints are identified from a tin discovered two months earlier containing a Mauser handgun. He was not pursued for this by the police despite previous firearms offences.
Later that year, in November of 1993, in the Bisset home in Plumstead, Napper stabbed 27-year-old Samantha Bisset in her neck and chest, killing her. He then sexually assaulted and smothered her four-year-old daughter, Jazmine Jemima Bisset.
Napper mutilated Samantha's body, taking away parts as a trophy. The crime scene was reportedly so grisly that the police photographer assigned to the case was forced to take two years' leave after witnessing it.
Forensics recovered a fingerprint from Samantha's flat, and found that it belonged to Napper, and he was quickly arrested. He was charged with the murders of Samantha and Jazmine Bisset, in May 1994 and plead guilty he was convicted at the Old Bailey in October 1995. He also admitted the two rapes and two attempted rapes at this time as well, one of which was discontinued, and he was sent to Broadmoor.
For context he is interviewed in November 94 about Rachel and in December of 1995 as well as being known to the police for having access to guns. Not to mention the multiple rapes.
Napper is believed also to be the "Green Chain Rapist" who carried out at least 70 savage attacks across south-east London over a four-year period ending in 1994.
It beggars belief that the police didn’t realise or put anything together here.
it is infuriating to think how many times that Napper was on the polices radar and how many times he wasn’t considered for the rapes and violent attacks well before he attacked and murdered Rachel.
And that’s where we come back to the cold case review of Rachel’s case. - back to 2001 when in October the review of Rachel's case begins leading it to be reopened in 2002.
The cold case team link Napper to Rachel and in 2004, due to the DNA profiling they prove Napper's official connection to the case.
in July 2006, the Scotland Yard team interviewed convicted murderer Robert Napper for two days at Broadmoor about Rachel's murder, they slowly build a cast iron case against him.
In January of 2008 Napper pleads not guilty to Rachel’s murder and on 18 December 2008, pleads guilty to and is convicted of the manslaughter of Rachel Nickell on the grounds of diminished responsibility he was sentenced to be incarcerated indefinitely at Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane, where he remains to this day. It is highly unlikely he will be released.
In 2007 Colin Stagg was awarded more than 700,000 pounds compensation for wrongful arrest and prosecution. He spent his money and enjoyed himself, blowing it all on cars, holidays, charity donations and bad investments,
"I was making up for lost time doing the things I should’ve done in my youth if it hadn’t been blighted by Rachel’s murder."
It's said that he now lives in semi-detached house in the Southeast with his wife and her four grown up children not far from the Tesco Express store where he works on the tills and as a warehouseman and has been doing throughout lockdown.
His colleagues are aware of his false links to the Nickell investigation,
With one stating "Sometimes customers recognise him and can’t figure out where they’ve seen him."
25 years after the attack, Alex is now living in Barcelona where he works as a yoga teacher & writer.
Letting Go: A True Story of Murder, Loss and Survival by Alex Hanscombe
Andre lives in Barcelona also and the two have a good relationship. It hasn’t been easy for them but like I said before they’ve got through.
Alex says that he has forgiven his mum's killer, saying “he doesn’t feel resentment.”
Andre himself sent a letter of apology to Colin Stagg, even though all he did was listen to the police that he was the suspect.
Which says a lot about their character?
Not many positives in this story I’m afraid a shocking murder and a shocking miscarriage of justice.
But what I would like to end with is a quote from Andre, he says that he sees Rachel in his son ever day.
“Her sharpness of intelligence, her wicked sense of fun and her movements, too. Rachel was tall and elegant – a dancer. Alex has that same elegance, you see it in his gestures, his eyes, his presence.
“Nobody does everything right – and I don’t know how I did anything, looking back on it,” André continues. “It’s been a marathon. But I can look at Alex now and think: ‘I’m in clear water.’ Mission accomplished. Alex got me through – and Rachel.”
Sources.
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We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as light-hearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.
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