A convicted sex killer has been questioned for a second day by detectives investigating the murder of Rachel Nickell who was stabbed to death in front of her toddler son 14 years ago on a South London common.
Police are talking to the 40 year old man at Broadmoor hospital, where he has been held for more than a decade. The interviews follow a four year re-investigation of the Nickell killing by a cold case review team, which used refined DNA techniques only recently made available.
Miss Nickell, a part-time model, was stabbed 49 times after being attacked in May 1992 as she walked the family’s pet dog with her son, Alex, on Wimbledon Common. After the shocking attack many women refused to use the common, which is a popular spot for dog-walkers.
Police sources said today that the man, who cannot be named, is regarded as a strong suspect for the killing and will be questioned for much of this week. Detectives say they also have other work to follow up, including tracing potential witnesses. One senior officer said that there was still “a long haul” in front of them before any trial.
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Identity parades may be held with people who were on the common on the day of the murder, and a report will eventually be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is likely to decide later this year on whether there should be a prosecution.
The suspect, who comes from London, is being held indefinitely at Broadmoor and has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Plans to question him earlier were delayed because of his condition and his questioning is likely to be monitored by psychiatrists and prison workers.
Miss Nickell’s relatives and her partner Andre Hanscombe, who lives abroad, will have been warned by police about the latest development in one of the biggest murder cases investigated by the Yard.
The latest investigation was launched after a disastrous attempt to convict Colin Stagg for the murder, which was thrown out of court in 1994. If there are charges and a conviction, Mr Stagg - who co-authored a book defending his innocence - could stand to gain hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages.
An Old Bailey judge was highly critical of the Yard operation to catch Mr Stagg, which involved the use of a “honey trap” in which an undercover policewoman befriended him and, guided by a forensic psychiatrist, tried to persuade him to confess.
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In 2002 Scotland Yard launched a review of Rachel’s murder to coincide with the tenth anniversary of her death, as part of a wide-ranging examination of unsolved murder cases.
A small team of officers and retired veteran investigators working from secret offices in South London analysed statements from witnesses, reassessed files on a number of potential suspects, and examined the possibility that the case was linked to other crimes.
Officers compared the injuries suffered by Rachel with other attacks and consulted forensic scientists about improvements in DNA matching. Techniques such as “low copy” DNA now mean it is possible to take traces of DNA from tiny sources such as sweat and skin fragments left on clothing.
Today Mr Stagg said: “I’m glad the police are actually doing their job properly now.”
But Mr Stagg said he thought he would never be able to escape the consequences of being linked to the murder.
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He said: “I’ve always been associated with the Rachel Nickell case and I’ll never shake that off really. You will always have people who will always believe I had something to do with it in some way. They’ll just think there’s no smoke without fire, and the police had every reason to arrest me.”