TiddlyPom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7783796.stm

A Broadmoor patient has pleaded guilty to killing former model Rachel Nickell, who was stabbed 49 times in front of her young son 16 years ago.



Excellent.

storms

Yes Excellent news.

TiddlyPom

Can't believe her little boy will be, what, about 17-18 now? Amazing that's taken so long but so glad for them.

Pollyana

Like you, I'm stunned its taken so long, but thank goodness they got the bloke for it in the end.

framac67

Another case against capital punishment.

emelems

I am very glad... and quite right re comments about capital punishment..

Going a bit off at a tangent.. me and OH were at a really boring IT company dinner and got talking to a forenist scientist.. so we asked her "tell us what the perfect crime? what is the perfect murder?"... she said there is no such thing anymore.. they apparently take loads of samples and will solve every single one at some stage in the future... (from the ones that they have samples from I hasten to add!)..

Seems like she seems to know what she was talking about, when you look at what happened here.. the dinner was about 8 years ago..

Em x

RCoight

Absolutely. The treatment of Colin Stagg has been an utter tragedy and reflects very badly on the Met Police.

I agree with the sentiment that at last I hope the Nickell family can find some peace: and I hope that her boy can live a happy and fulfilling life.

TiddlyPom

Well finally Colin Stagg gets vindicated, even though he had been anyway, in theory. But I'm sure people will have still suspected him. This is good for him, and doubly good for the family - closure.

Assegai

R Nickell's parents believed that Stagg had literally got away with murder when his case was quashed by the judge in 1994. They didn't believe it could have been anyone else that perpetrated the crime. Whether the police were still misleading them or not, who knows.

TiddlyPom

I think the whole country believed he was guilty though... not just the parents.

Assegai

With respect, I'm not sure that's true.

From what I remember of the honeytrap sting, Stagg was completely besotted with the police officer (although he obviously didn't know she was a cop) and she had him bent round her little finger. If he had been guilty she would have easily got a confession out of him. I think the fact that the Nickell parents were on record stating that they thought he was guilty only added to the general perception that he must be guilty.

TiddlyPom

You may or may not be right.

But she did! That's what the whole case was based on. That's why people believed he was guilty. Who'd admit to a murder they didn't commit?!
I'm glad he's free of it now though.

Assegai

I would like to see the evidence that she got a confession from him. My clear understanding is that he laid his heart bare to her but she couldn't wheedle a confession from him because a) he didn't do it and there was nothing to confess and b) he wasn't that much of a fantasist.

If he had have confessed would the judge have thrown the case out? There was a lot to suggest he was the likely killer - living nearby, fitting the profile, matching the description of eyewitness reports, nobody else in the frame etc which was why the case came to court.

TiddlyPom

You're right. I mustn't be remembering right. I thought she got a confession from him but she didn't did she? I know the policewoman set him up for it all... just thought he'd actually said he'd done it so she wouldn't dump him? And he'd gone along with it so she didn't dump him?
I remember the police being very embarrassed....

hitchcock71

shame that another woman and small beautiful little girl aged 4(Samantha and Jazmine Bissett ) died at the hands of this man


if the police was not looking at stagg and had actually looked at other pervs then sam and Jazmine would be alive today

my thoughts are with the Nickell family and also the Bissett family

and for the 3 women who he raped

also for the woman who he attack - the woman was walking home with her small child in a pushchair when he attacked her - he sadly went on to rape her while her small child was straped in his buggy



a very sad case and one i hope the british police really learn from so that these tragic deaths are never repeated