Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times while taking her toddler son for a walk on Wimbledon Common in 1992. The 23-year-old mother was murdered by Robert Napper, who was linked to several other violent assaults for which he was not held accountable. Now, her boyfriend André Hanscombe has revealed in a major interview that she may have been pregnant at the time of her death.
A Loving Mother's Fear
Ms Nickell, described as a 'loving mother', had always walked around frightened she would be attacked from behind, Mr Hanscombe, 63, said. She had become pregnant around eight months before her death. Worried about the further pressure another child would bring, the family opted for an abortion – a decision Mr Hanscombe said he lived to regret. Despite the intervention, he believes Ms Nickell was pregnant again when she was killed.
'More than once I asked her if anything had happened to her. She always said no. But I will never be sure,' he told the Daily Mail. He added that it was 'very early on' but the caring mother would not have chosen to abort again. The couple were 'hanging by our fingertips' as they struggled to make ends meet.
The Day of the Attack
Ms Nickell's son Alex was days away from his third birthday when tragedy struck. He is now 36. On the morning of the attack, Mr Hanscombe left for work as a motorbike courier, having kissed his partner knowing she would take their son and dog Molly for a walk on Wimbledon Common. However, his routine twice-daily call home while working was answered not by Ms Nickell, but by a policeman, who advised him of an 'accident'. Mr Hanscombe took the officer's refusal to tell him whether his partner was alive as confirmation she was dead. The pain was 'indescribable' and heartbreaking, he said. Alex had been found covered in blood, clinging to Ms Nickell's body as she was stabbed and sexually assaulted. He emerged with only minor injuries.
Documentary and Drama
The heartbreaking events have been recounted in a new Netflix documentary titled The Murder of Rachel Nickell, as well as a three-part drama series The Witness. In a bid to escape the media storm surrounding Ms Nickell's death, Mr Hanscombe and his son moved to a countryside home in the south of France, an area where he had dreamed of living one day with his partner. The lack of internet at the time allowed them to live undisturbed for three years. But it was also where Alex began to come to terms with the terrible events. Mr Hanscombe recalled his son's body 'contorting' in bed at night. A clip shows Alex asking for help to draw a picture of 'mummy' before recalling details of the 'bad man' who ended her life. They then moved to India for three years before relocating to Spain.
Justice Delayed
Back home, Colin Stagg, who was on Wimbledon Common at the time and matched the description given to police, was charged with Ms Nickell's murder. Despite the case being thrown out by a judge in September 1994, Stagg's name was not cleared in public for another decade after police announced they were not looking for further suspects. However, six months after Ms Nickell's murder, another young mother, Samantha Bisset, was brutally assaulted to death along with her four-year-old daughter Jasmine. In 1995, Robert Napper was held at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire for killing the mother and daughter. It was not until 2008 that he pleaded guilty to stabbing Ms Nickell to death. He is now sentenced indefinitely under the Mental Health Act. A leaked CPS dossier revealed the extent of both police failures and Napper's criminal activities, suggesting he may have raped as many as 90 women before being imprisoned in 1995. For Alex, authorities had failed to do their job and had subsequently 'covered it up'.
