The Murder of Rachel Nickell
Overview
Rachel Nickell was twenty three years old, walking her dog on Wimbledon Common on an ordinary summer morning in July 1992, when someone killed her in front of her two year old son Alex. The only witness. Too young to understand and old enough to remember.
With 54 detectives on the case and all of Britain watching, the investigation collapsed into one of the most criticised failures in British policing history, ending with the wrongful prosecution of Colin Stagg, a man against whom there was no forensic evidence whatsoever.
Cast
Paul Britton
Alex Hanscombe
André Hanscombe
Ron Turnbull
Fun Facts
- The fictional TV psychologist Fitz in the British drama Cracker was directly based on Paul Britton, the real forensic psychologist on the Nickell case. Britton designed Operation Edzell, a controversial five-month honey trap targeting Colin Stagg, which a trial judge later condemned as deceptive conduct of the grossest kind.
- Rachel's son Alex Hanscombe, just two years old when he witnessed the attack, published a memoir in 2017 titled Letting Go: A True Story of Murder, Loss and Survival. In interviews, Alex has spoken openly about forgiving Robert Napper, describing it as finding his own closure. Both he and his father André hold no anger toward Napper, though they remain critical of the police errors that kept him free for over a decade.