Tonight:
4°c
Sex killer admits manslaughter of Rachel Nickell
Paul Cheston and Justin Davenport18 Dec 2008
- The killer who carried his armoury in sport bag
- Met makes public apology to honey trap victim Stagg
- Catalogue of police mistakes left Napper free to rape and kill
- Mother and child died together in ‘ritual’ slaughter
- Rachel's toddler son witnessed the horror
- Timeline: Rachel Nickell killing
- ‘Agony of never seeing our grandson’
A SERIAL killer today admitted he stabbed Rachel Nickell 49 times in front of her young son on Wimbledon Common 16 years ago.
Robert Napper, 43, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at the Old Bailey as a string of police blunders surrounding the case were revealed.
Napper was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in Broadmoor high security hospital as Mr Justice Griffiths Williams told him: “You are on any view a very dangerous man.”
Scotland Yard later made an unprecedented public apology to Colin Stagg, the man wrongly charged with the murder of the 23-year-old model after a disastrous “honeytrap” operation. Stagg was held in 1994 for the murder of Nickell, who was raped and killed in front of her two-year-old son Alex in July 1992, after police failed to make a crucial connection which would have led them to Napper, who was already a violent sex attacker.
The year after Napper attacked Nickell, he raped and killed Samantha Bisset, a single mother and her daughter Jazmine, four, disembowelling Samantha in the attack.
Today it can be revealed that Napper could have been stopped before all three killings as well as a string of rapes.
In 1989 his mother Pauline told police her son had confessed to a rape on Plumstead Common but officers took no action as they could find no trace of a rape, ignoring an attack on a young mother in her nearby home.
Within days police had a full DNA profile of the attacker which years later proved his guilt. This was one of a catalogue of errors and missed opportunities.
Napper went on to commit up to 106 attacks — known as the Green Chain rapes after the area in south-east London. Napper switched his hunting ground to Wimbledon and stabbed Rachel in front of Alex in broad daylight. Two months later in September 1992 he was questioned about the Green Chain attacks but failed twice to turn up for voluntary blood tests which would have proved his guilt.
Then he was arrested for possession of a firearm and his flat was found to be full of weapons and suspicious maps of the area. He was later jailed for eight weeks. He returned to Plumstead and in November 1993 he killed Samantha, 28, and her daughter Jazmine in their home.
The original Nickell inquiry was a fiasco. Innocent Stagg was conned into revealing his violent sexual fantasies by a plot involving an undercover woman police officer. Stagg walked free from the Old Bailey in 1994 after the judge condemned the police operation as “conduct of the grossest kind”. Stagg has since been paid £706,000 compensation.
But by the time he was cleared Napper was already in custody over the deaths of Samantha, 28, and Jazmine who were raped and killed in their one-bedroom Plumstead basement flat. New DNA techniques, known as Low Copy Numbers, eventually proved a one in 12 million link between Napper and evidence found on Rachel's body.
Today Napper, 42 a paranoid schizophrenic who has spent the past 14 years in Broadmoor for the manslaughter of Samantha Bisset and Jazmine, pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Rachel on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The court heard Napper has two severe mental disorders, paranoid schizophrenia and Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that affects the sufferer's ability to relate to people.
A psychiatrist who has assessed Mr Napper told the court that a result of his conditions, he suffers from a number of bizarre delusional beliefs. The combination of the disorders would have meant, at the time of the Nickell murder, Napper would have felt “untouchable”.
Napper's family have deserted him. His mother Pauline Lasham said: “He should die a slow death and be treated in the same way he treated those poor people.”
Reader views (12)
This just shows once again that despite the praise heaped on them from all official sources, the Met Police are still third rate plods.
- Albert Swift, Aberdeen, Scotland, 18/12/2008 19:26
Report abuse
This is excellent news. It's honestly made my day! I am so very pleased and relieved for Miss Nickell's family and friends. I am also glad that Mr Stagg is now absolutely exonerated.
Manslaughter, though?? Not sure....
- Rachel, UK, 18/12/2008 19:19
Report abuse
That's why they're called Mr. Plod isn't it. What do they teach these guys at Hendon College? How to issue speeding fines, and little else by the the look of it. Absolutely shameful. Dixon of Dock Green and PC 49 would have done better-if anyone out there remembers them! The mind boggles at such incompetence, and we're being served it up on a daily basis. What on Earth is going on in this once green and pleasant land? It might be greening up, much to our cost, but pleasant it ain't.
- Ray King, wood green londonand kassel germany, 18/12/2008 18:57
Report abuse
"... stabbed Rachel Nickell 49 times ..."
Manslaughter?????
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 18/12/2008 16:09
Report abuse
In the Rachel Nickell case the police tried to frame the wrong man. The Jill Dando case the same thing happened. Recently a jury found that police officers lied when they said they shouted a warning to Jean Charles De Mendez before killing the wrong man. The Met Commissioner has recently resigned in disgrace.
You can’t blame the average person for not trusting the police. We can add to this the awful state of our arrogant/incompetent social services and useless bullying councils. We workers all pay a lot in tax for these organisations that are supposed to be working for us… I know this lot waste of our money on ridiculous pointless bureaucracy and paperwork; the least they can do is leave the innocent alone.
- Paul, London, 18/12/2008 15:09
Report abuse
Suzy Lamplugh's appointments book had a meeting with a 'Mr Kipper' on the day she was murdered. I wonder if she actually wrote 'Mr Napper'. It would be easy to mis-read such a name.
- Paul Barton, Addlestone, Surrey, England, 18/12/2008 15:06
Report abuse
I think our thoughts should again go to Mr Stagg and of course the family of Ms Nickell.
- Tim Rickard, London, 18/12/2008 14:52
Report abuse
WOW,,, I am speechless,,,,
- Stan Shaw, DeLand Florida USA, 18/12/2008 14:52
Report abuse
The police are only any good at chasing motorists,when it comes to real policing they are of no real use!!
- Mark A, london england, 18/12/2008 14:43
Report abuse
Substitute one word for three words and you have the following - "A psychiatrist who has assessed "the police force" told the court that a result of his conditions, it suffers from a number of bizarre delusional beliefs. The combination of the disorders would have meant, at the time of the Nickell murder, "the police force" would have felt “untouchable”.
- Nick, Paris France, 18/12/2008 14:38
Report abuse
How can it be manslaughter? Surely a vicious attack such as this is murder?
- Pat, East Kent UK, 18/12/2008 14:34
Report abuse
Mr Stagg, 45, spent 13 months in custody and endured more than a decade of speculation that he was the killer of Miss Nickell.
Talk about an understatement!
Colin Stagg was pilloried and he was the target of a character assassination lead chiefly by the Mail Group. Anybody around big enough to say sorry!
- Mark, South-East London, 18/12/2008 13:33
Report abuse
