Sean O'Neill, Crime Editor
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A man was charged yesterday with the murder of Rachel Nickell who was stabbed in a frenzied attack on Wimbledon Common 15 years ago.
Robert Napper, 41, a warehouseman, is expected to appear in court by videolink next week. But Mr Napper, who is being held in a mental health hospital, might never stand trial if he is judged to be too unwell to understand the legal process.
Miss Nickell, 23, a part-time model, was walking on the common in southwest London with her two-year-old son when she was attacked in July 1992. She was sexually assaulted and stabbed 49 times. Her son was standing by her body, crying “Wake up, Mummy” when she was found.
The boy, now aged 17, lives in France with his father, Andre Hanscombe, who was Miss Nickell’s fiancé.
The decision to charge Mr Napper is final vindication for Colin Stagg, who was the focus of a lengthy police investigation and spent a year in custody before a trial at the Old Bailey in 1994. He was acquitted when a judge threw out the case and criticised the police for running a “honey trap” operation. A female undercover officer had befriended Mr Stagg and encouraged him to talk about the killing and discuss violent sexual fantasies.
Mr Justice Ognall said the use of the tactic was “not merely an excess of zeal, but a blatant attempt to incriminate a suspect by positive and deceptive conduct of the grossest kind”.
Mr Stagg said that being charged with the murder had destroyed his life and, despite his acquittal, many people still believed that he was guilty.
He said: “I became a national hate figure. I had to endure every form of vilification. I was insulted, attacked, spat upon. My home was attacked and so was I. My name alone was enough to stop me getting work.”
Mr Stagg told ITV News yesterday: “There’s going to be a certain percentage of people who will always believe I’m guilty, no matter what.”
This year the Home Office announced that Mr Stagg was entitled to compensation. The amount will be decided by an independent review.
Mr Napper emerged as the prime suspect after police began a review of the case in 2002. The review team passed items of Miss Nickell’s clothing to forensic scientists, who identified microscopic DNA traces thought to belong to her killer. The traces had been missed during the original investigation. New techniques allowed the reviewing scientists to “grow” the material for more accurate analysis.
The Metropolitan Police sent a file on Mr Napper to the Crown Prosecution Service at the beginning of this year but the decision to charge him was delayed while lawyers tested the scientific evidence. Police and prosecutors were concerned to test the material fully because of the controversies about the forensic science evidence presented in the Damilola Taylor and Jill Dando murder trials.
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For the benefit of all You Innocent till proved guilty. THE ONLY place that that is so, is IN THE COURTROOM !! Do you grasp it? NO where else! If he was presumed Innocent OUT of the courtroom he would never go in now would he?? Ya get it????
John , Sydney,
Geoff,
Robert Napper has already been convicted of murdering, mutilating & sexually assaulting a young woman and child. while he has not stood trial or been convicted of killing Rachael Nickell he is still guilty (under law in England) of murder on 2 counts. he deserves a fail trial but respect?
Irene , Glasgow,
Robert Napper is innocent until proven guilty. Thankfully Justine is not judge, juror and executioner. People who are charged with serious crimes have to be detained, but it they must be treated with respect in good conditions. It is a serious denial of liberty to be locked up till convicted.
Geoff Milner, Firle, England
Regarding Paul Brittain's book "The Jigsaw man",he said the same man who illed Jasmine Bisset could not have murdered Rachel Nickell.
He also mentioned Robert Napper in the Green Chain rapes in the same book!!
If he had looked at Robert Napper instead of Colin Stagg then maybe Rachel's murder could have been prevented.
w johnson, Lincs, uk
Why do we keep people like Robert Napper alive? Killing a young mum and her toddler daughter in this way is beyond sickening. Just put a bullet straight through his head - he's never going to be cured. Spend the thousands of pounds wasted on his care on child protection. There is no case for useful rehabilitation here.
Justine, London, uk
Mr Tilbury. The murder victim is only one victim in a case such as this. The innocent person who is jailed is also a victim of the law that should protect them. As long as it is possible to "prove beyond reasonable doubt" that someone committed a crime even when none has occured, the legal system will be a hit and miss affair enabling totally innocent people to be imprisoned.
Rob Price, Wimborne, Dorset
By coincidence, I have just finished reading The Jigsaw Man by Paul Britton, the psychologist used by the police to help profile the killer of Rachael Nickell and also another victim of Robert Napper and her young daughter.
Yes Colin Stagg was a victim of a 'honeytrap' but when reading the book you will discover that far from being a completely innocent member of the public, Colin Stagg held some extremely disturbing fantasies which were very similar to Rachaels murder involving the common and although he was shown a photo of the way her body was left, according to the book, he described details that only someone who had seen the body could know.
db, essex, uk
This is one of those cases where public opinion demands the pollice find the criminal. The police totally scewed up first time so who will have any faith in their 'evidence' this time?
Why are poeple who couldn't care less about other murder victims so concened with this one? Just because of the massive press coverage?
Roger Tilbury, Worthing,
With a result again such as this what makes us think that the correct evaluation, and suspect\s being charged at the end of the McCann (missing Maddie) case.
or in few years time the case being re-opened and supposed new evidence being upturned or turned over to accuse someone else, it all instills very little confidence in the law and legal system, especially in the larger cases or more serious crimes.
mike oakes, Jersey, Channel Islands
People have worked tirelessly in this case. May she finally be allowed her justice. 49 times she was stabbed. And quite how this suspect's first murders were never rasied as a high profile case by the media (a mother and her daughter, horrifically murdered in cold blood... I undertsand the details were too horrific for the the public to be fully informed about!) is a disgrace. I hope her son and family are well and get some 'closure'. Sadly this suspect will get no more than he has already been sentenced to. And who knows.... he may even be released in 30 years, by accident, to do it all over again!
Mr James, Sutton, Surrey
Yet another MET frame up craters. Punishing the innocent is not only a crime, it is also corruption. Pity some of the compensation can't be taken from senior police officers' pensions. Might make them a little more circumspect in the future.
Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan
Now will Mr Stagg get an official apology from the bumbling Met and hope he'll get a good payout for all his troubles from them.
cww, suffolk,
Wasn't Barry George. now serving life for the murder of Jill Dando, also a "prime suspect" in this case?
Ken Leyland, Liverpool, U.K.
Well, that didn`t take too long for the Met to confess they had the wrong man
How many years ago did they have doubts about Colin Stagg`s
guilt , while he languished in prison
It`s not just the government who are incompetent under thier leader.
John , plymouth, UK
I worked in the High Street where Colin Stagg was housed near by after the collapsed trial.The police were disgraceful in the way that they went in to all the shops,banks and building societies and told us that in the next few days he would be walking our local streets and that he had done it. Yes , you could say that they had our welfare at state but he was just an odd man in the wrong place.( near wimbledon) I can remember him being interviewed on the late shows with his then girlfriend and the poor man went through hell!
His life has been changed forever and I do think in the end he will now benefit from this ordeal ,but at a price!
I hope he can now sleep at night and know that justice has been served and that Mr Napper is never let out again to repeat his actions. The efforts the police went to to convict the wrong man might have caught the right man at lot earlier and Colin Stagg could have rebuilt his life 10 years earlier.
Rachel, Surrey, England
But I thought that when the poor
Colin Stagg was hounded the way that he was and aquitted, the Met were not looking for anyone else?
Pete Balchin, Solicitor , Bristol, UK
As the father of a two-year-old child at the time and a resident of South London I remember this case well.
The way Colin Stagg was hounded over this was visibly wrong, but the Met seemed to be responding to the tabloids in the worst possible way. The case seemed to hinge around him being an inadequate and a conviction for nude sunbathing. I also remember the outcry when Stagg, whose life had been wrecked, obtained compensation for the fit-up.
I wonder how many other wrong convictions the "fit-up" Met have achieved and whether their attitudes are any better now. I somehow doubt it.
Dave, slough,