Rachel Nickell: Family considers legal action against police 30 years after Wimbledon Common murder

Rachel Nickell's former partner André said the handling of the case by police bosses was 'a disaster'

The family of Rachel Nickell is considering legal action against the Met Police three decades after she was stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common.

Rachel’s son and her former partner believe if detectives had acted on tip off from the killer’s mother three years before her murder she may still be alive today.

'System didn’t work'

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain, André said: "30 years is a long time and there have been certain key point along the journey that make certain actions easier than others.

"It seems at this moment in time with the appointment of a new chief at the Met Police there may be a new opportunity here to move something.

"From the day this happened we were told this person was going to strike again.

"The system didn’t work and the institution failed to function and the person who should have been stopped in 1989 went on to commit even more horrendous attacks.

"And even on a personal level all the officers we came into contact with we could see they were doing the best they possibly could, but from an institutional and management level it was a disaster."

In July 1992 Rachel was walking with her two-year-old son, Alex, when she was sexually assaulted and stabbed 49 times. Alex was found clinging to her body.

A huge police investigation was a launched including a reconstruction of Rachel’s last known movements. The following summer Colin Stagg was charged with murder but his trial at the Old Bailey collapsed.

Police had used a so-called ‘honeytrap’ operation to try to coax a confession.

The trial ended after the judge condemned police tactics as "deceptive conduct of the grossest kind".

Mr Stagg spent 13 months in custody and endured more than a decade of speculation that he was Rachel's killer.

He says he received a letter from Rachel's partner after he was exonerated, expressing his anger at the police.

Stagg was cleared and awarded more than £700,000 in compensation.

The person responsible for Rachel’s death wasn’t convicted until 2008 after a cold case review made possible by developments in DNA testing.

Serial killer and rapist Robert Napper admitted to her manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He had been brought to the attention of police by his own mother as early as 1989 and had a history of violent attacks on women.

Napper killed Samantha Bissett and her daughter in 1993, the year after attacking Rachel.

He was identified as a suspect and interviewed at Broadmoor high security hospital.

Police acknowledged more could have been done to catch Napper earlier.

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