Man admits Rachel Nickell killing

Convicted sex killer Robert Napper admitted carrying out the attack on Wimbledon Common which shocked the nation and triggered one of the biggest manhunts in recent police history.

Broadmoor patient Napper, 42, pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the Old Bailey on Thursday and his plea was accepted on the grounds of his diminished responsibility.

Telling him he would be held in Broadmoor top security hospital indefinitely, Mr Justice Griffiths Williams said: "You are on any view a very dangerous man."

Speaking on the steps of the Old Bailey, Miss Nickell's father Andrew said: "We sincerely hope that, whatever the court says, that he will spend the rest of his life in a totally secure environment to protect all other people."

Napper's plea means one of the most high-profile crimes ever dealt with by Scotland Yard has finally been solved. But it is unlikely to bring an end to controversy surrounding the case with questions marks still hanging over the original investigation.

A senior officer admitted on Thursday that Napper could have been arrested before the Wimbledon Common murder after his mother reported an earlier rape.

Miss Nickell, 23, was stabbed 49 times at the south London beauty spot in a ferocious attack witnessed by her two-year-old son Alex. Police became convinced local loner Colin Stagg was the killer and relied too heavily on a profiler during the inquiry.

Original suspect Mr Stagg was freed by an Old Bailey judge in September 1994 who criticised police for using a "honey-trap" undercover policewoman to try to make him confess.

Mr Stagg, 45, spent 13 months in custody and endured more than a decade of speculation that he was the killer of Miss Nickell. This year, he was awarded £706,000 compensation from the Home Office and the Met Police have apologised to him.