Robert Napper pleads not guilty to Wimbledon Common murder of Rachel Nickell

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A 41-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to the murder of former model Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992.

Appearing via videolink during the 10-minute hearing at the Old Bailey, Robert Napper denied killing the mother in front of her two-year-old son.

Napper, 41, formerly of south London, wore a black checked shirt as he listened to the proceedings before the Common Serjeant of London Judge Brian Barker.

The case will be re-listed in March for further directions and the trial will take place on November 11.

Nickell, 23, was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted during the attack, after she took her son Alex for a walk on the common.

When Nickell was discovered, her two-year-old son was clinging to her blood-soaked body.

Colin Stagg, from Roehampton, west London, was charged with the murder but cleared in 1994 after a judge threw the case out because police had a "honey trap" plot to encourage him to confess.

He spent a year in custody before walking out of the Old Bailey a free man.

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Tragic: Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times in front of her son Alex

Napper was charged with Nickell's murder last November following a dramatic DNA breakthrough.

In September 2003 officers from Scotland Yard's Murder Review Group, which examines unsolved cases, made a potentially vital breakthrough.

Forensic advances meant they were able to find microscopic traces of DNA on Nickell's body which would have been undetectable in 1992.