Day: 14 November 2022

Man wrongly charged over Rachel Nickell murder says he is ‘done and dusted’ with case News Briefing

Man wrongly charged over Rachel Nickell murder says he is ‘done and dusted’ with case

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Colin Stagg and Paul Britton have broken their 30-year silence and met for the first time earlier this year (Picture: CBS Reality)

A man who was wrongly charged with the murder of Rachel Nickell has come face to face for the first time with the man he blamed for setting him up.  

Rachel Nickell, 23, was stabbed to death in front of her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common in July 1992.   

She had taken her dog out for a walk with her two-year-old son when she was brutally attacked and stabbed 49 times by Robert Napper.  

However it took 16 years for him to admit the killing, during which time Colin Stagg was hounded by the media, and was seen as getting away with the murder.  

During the investigation, Mr Stagg was duped into a ‘honeytrap’ by police, which later resulted in the case being thrown out of court in 1994.

As part of a new documentary, Colin met with Professor Paul Britton for the first time – the man who he blamed for making his life ‘hell.’  

Mr Stagg has told Metro.co.uk he has now put the case behind him, and said it is ‘done and dusted’.  

He said: ‘For quite a few years I never blamed the police officers, they were just doing their job.  

‘I always blamed Paul Britton I thought he was responsible for the undercover operation.  

‘I think for many years I thought he was the problem that caused me all the problems.  

‘It was only when I got to meet him and he explained things to me, that he felt betrayed by the police officers at the time. By not keeping records, which is against his profession.  

‘I realised now I’ve been blaming the wrong person.

‘Having said that, he’s a very clever, intelligent man, and can manipulate people.  

‘I think he’s more human now, for all these years I saw him as an ogre, a monster, and when I did finally meet him, I actually felt sorry for him, he’s a nice guy.’  

Colin Stagg was hounded by the press for years after he was charged with murdering Rachel (Picture: PA)

Rachel Nickell was out walking her dog when she was attacked and killed by Robert Napper (Picture: PA)

Colin Stagg has said the case is now ‘done and dusted’ for him (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Professor Paul Britton came face to face with Colin Stagg for the first time in 30 years (Picture: CBS Reality)

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Earlier this year Colin came face to face with the man he thought was a ‘monster’.  

Mr Britton is a consultant psychologist and is the founder of modern psychological criminal profiling in the UK.  

He has worked on huge cases including the murders by Fred and Rose West – a husband and wife who tortured, murdered and raped young women for more than 20 years – and the tragic murder of two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.  

Colin had always blamed Prof Britton for his 13 months behind bars, and despite meeting him in person he wished he had come forward sooner.  

Mr Stagg said: ‘The fact he explained everything. The only thing I’ve got against him is that he could have come sooner and told how the police were using the truth against him.  

‘He could have come forward a lot earlier, and that’s the only thing.  

‘I think the higher up at the police force at the time are to blame for what happened to me.  

‘I think the police have now changed a lot, not just because of my case, I’m told it’s a historical case but I don’t see that.  

‘As far as I’m concerned it is done and dusted, and we’ve just got to move on.’

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He added: ‘I think murder cases they have to be more careful now, when they accuse anyone, they have to be more specific, more solid, and have more solid evidence.’  

Despite being blamed by Colin for 30 years Professor Britton has said he doesn’t feel any guilt for what happened and blames the Met for allegedly forcing him to not take notes during the case.   

Prof Britton advised police on the sting which involved an undercover officer feigning a romantic interest in Mr Stagg, and gaining his trust to see whether he would admit to the crime.  

The officer used the persona of ‘Lizzie James’ to start the relationship, claiming to be the friend of someone who Mr Stagg spoke to via a Lonely Hearts column.  

But later the trial collapsed after the judge condemned the 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.  

Colin Stagg (second left) and Professor Britton (second right) have met for the first time (Picture: CBS Reality)

Colin has spoken out about the case again, nearly 30 years after he was wrongly charged with Rachel’s murder (Picture: PA)

Criminal Psychologist, Paul Britton has stayed silent since the case in 1992 (Picture: PA)

Mum-of-one Rachel was killed in Wimbledon Common in 1992 (Picture: Steve Back/Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock)

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Professor Paul Britton told Metro.co.uk: ‘I would have spoken about it 30 years ago, if I wasn’t asked to say nothing. I was told the CPS or the Met would say anything publicly.  

‘I had prepared a statement at the time, but I was asked to not put it out, and I’ve stayed quiet all these years. Why now?  

‘Well when ‘Deceit’ came out, it portrayed everyone in it, in not the quite way. I didn’t recognise myself form what was put out, in a variety of ways.  

‘And that was preceded by a number of drama programmes with folks associated with the cases.  

‘No-one else was going to make a formal comment, and any reviews, no-one had come forward to me and asked me to give evidence to a review.  

‘It feels like now is the time for me to tell what has happened.  

‘I think there are two things, I’m not a strongly emotional person in such matters. I’m a lucky person, yes what happened to me, was miserable, it’s dishonest and it’s unpleasant. 

‘But I worked with so many murder investigations, what those people and those families suffered compared to me, they suffered so much, and mine relatively small.  

‘In that sense you just shoulder it and get on with it.’  

Thousands of people mourned Rachel’s death 30 years ago (Picture: PA)

She was killed on Wimbledon Common and her death sparked a nationwide manhunt for her killer (Picture: PA)

Robert Napper admitted carrying out the attack on Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common 16 years after she died (Picture: PA)

The nation wept on the day Rachel was laid to rest after her death had such a big impact on the country (Picture: PA)

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Speaking about any guilt he felt for what happened to Colin he said: ‘Not personal guilt at all, Everything I did I did very carefully, very properly, and put into the team very thoroughly.  

‘I can be sure, it wasn’t just my work, I had my work checked by another professor, and by an FBI profiler, and again by the FBI team at Quantico, and each one of them was of the view this was the right way to go about it.  

‘What happened was it wasn’t implemented in the way it should have been.  

‘If I had been him, and I had been led to believe the things he was led to believe, I would feel the same way about me.  

‘I was able to go over the things, and tell him what I did do, what I didn’t do, and I think that’s helped him to move forward to where the responsibility for what happened to him is now.’  

The Murder That Changed Britain premieres on Tuesday 15th November at 10pm on CBS Reality  

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