Man admits Rachel Nickell manslaughter

[Blasphemous]

EDIT: apologies to Secures as I see he has just posted this.

Finally this case has been resolved. But, as in the Menezes case, again we are learning of a series of Police failings. The Police Commander stated outside court! (see bold text below), that if they (the Police), had followed certain lines of enquiry it is possible that Rachel would still be alive and PROBABLE that Samantha Bissett and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine would be alive today. I really don't know how I would react to a Police Officer giving me this information. I hope I never find out! But to lose someone in such brutal circumstances and then to be told that they may not have been killed if the Police had not missed opportunities must be horrendous. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not 'Copper Knocking'. We don't know enough about the missed opportunities to start another witch hunt against the Police! I just really hope to god that lessons HAVE been learned here.

A Broadmoor patient has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of young mother Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common 16 years ago.

Convicted sex killer Robert Napper, 42, admitted carrying out the attack which shocked the nation and triggered one of the biggest manhunts in recent police history.

Miss Nickell, 23, was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in a frenzied attack after she took her two-year-old son for a walk on the common in south London.

Mr Justice Griffiths Williams told Napper he would be held in Broadmoor top security hospital indefinitely. "You are on any view a very dangerous man," the judge said. "You still present a very high risk of sexual homicide which can only be managed in a high security hospital. You must be returned immediately to Broadmoor."

Napper was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital for killing Samantha Bissett, 27, and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine in a savage attack in south London in November 1993. He had admitted manslaughter on the grounds of mental illness. He also pleaded guilty to rape and two attempted rapes.

Police investigators admit that a series of failings meant Napper was not caught before any of his victims died. Officers failed to question him after his mother rang a local police station in 1989 to say he had confessed to a rape. The officer she spoke to could not match up details of the offence with any rape which had been reported. As a result Napper's DNA was not taken, his house was not searched and he was not arrested.

Police admit that it was a missed opportunity which could have saved Miss Nickell and the other victims.

Outside court, Commander Simon Foy said: "If it had been followed up Rachel could be alive now." Napper was questioned about a series of sex attacks in 1992 but was wrongly eliminated. Mr Foy added: "These opportunities in 1992 and 1993 were after he killed Rachel. "If all or any of these opportunities had been taken, it is probable that he would have been in custody and would not have murdered Samantha and Jazmine. "We have been absolutely honest about this to their family and we have told them that we deeply regret that this happened and have apologised to them."

Police became convinced local loner Colin Stagg was the killer and relied too heavily on a profiler during the inquiry. 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 Metropolitan Police have now made a public apology to him. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081218/tuk-man-admits-rachel-nickell-manslaught-dba1618.html

 

[securespark]

EDIT: apologies to Secures as I see he has just posted this.

I am a reasonable man. A thousand pardons & a bit of self-flagellation should do it.

 

[2scoops0406]

£700k for a ruined life, much more than many other deserving cases get I know, but would you be happy with that? I wonder if the home office has made the deduction for board and lodging at HMP? Still it must be of some comfort for her parents that they have got some sort of "closure" (god I hate that word)

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

It says something for the tenacity of the police to keep at it for all these years.

It does seem in hindsight (which is always 20/20) that some glaring facts were missed.

Colin Stagg who the police liked (a lot) for the Wimbledon Common murder took the focus away from alternative suspects. He will always be tainted with that crime even with all the publicity about his innocence, people will sit and point and whisper about why did they suspect him in the first place.

 

[2scoops0406]

Well, he's not the nicest of people, but there is a big difference between not liking someone and banging them up. Would you accept £700k? I wouldn't. (well I might at the moment, as I'm open to offers )

 

[tim west]

40 odd years ago he could've ended up hanged and all over a misunderstanding! And to please everyone they'd have given him a posthumous pardon, Nice.

 

[WDIK]

Well, he's not the nicest of people,

well I certainly didnt know him.

I doubt wether anyone on this forum knew him.

nothing personal or a dig.

but we were lead to believe this was not a nice person.

based upon what?

so we appear to victims of the image peddlers?

its about time they were the ones villified and strung up

 

[2scoops0406]

Well, he's not the nicest of people,

well I certainly didnt know him.

I doubt wether anyone on this forum knew him.

nothing personal or a dig.

but we were lead to believe this was not a nice person.

based upon what?

so we appear to victims of the image peddlers?

its about time they were the ones villified and strung up

Well, fair enough, according to what has been reported, no I don't know him.

 

[Rob]

He was more of a loner than a bad person which is why they honey trapped him.

 

[namsag]

Caught a bit of the stagg programme the other night and .
When they tried to honey trap him i am amazed he never admitted to it just to get his leg over .The guy was a virgin and a bird is saying it would really turn me on to be done by a guy who had killed someone.
But he would still not say he had done it , god i would imagine most have told a lot more porkies than that without being prompted just to get a bit.
As for 700k for 13 months the guy has had 16 years of shi#te whether that amount of money is justified is another question

 

[tim west]

You mean Peter Sutcliffe was only trying to get his leg over many times

 

[namsag]

What has sutcliffe murdering and mutilating woman got to do with innocent stagg being offered it on a plate

 

[Estrella]

What has sutcliffe murdering and mutilating woman got to do with innocent stagg being offered it on a plate

Nothing.

 

[tim west]

What has sutcliffe murdering and mutilating woman got to do with innocent stagg being offered it on a plate

When they tried to honey trap him i am amazed he never admitted to it just to get his leg over

 

[namsag]

Still missing your point Tim. Explain