Nickell killing: Serial rapist Napper pleads guilty

[Guest guest]

When I heard this story I instantly thought more bad press connected

with Aspergers.

" Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, said two psychiatrists agreed that at

the time of the killing Napper suffered from Asperger's syndrome and

paranoid schizophrenia. "

The above wording is really ambigous by saying '...at the time of the

killing Napper suffered from Asperger's syndrome and paranoid

schizophrenia', it is almost implying that Asperger's is something

that people can get over - or I suspect that is how some will

interpret it. Some also might read/hear about this story and then

assume that having Asperger's makes one violent and prone to commit

crimes (sigh).

Full story below;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/18/rachel-nickell-robert-napper-

murder-guilty

Nickell killing: Serial rapist Napper pleads guiltyMan

with schizophrenia and history of violent attacks on women pleads

guilty to killing mother in front of her son on Wimbledon Common 16

years ago Laville, Haroon Siddique, Percival and

Sturcke guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 December 2008 16.25 GMT Article

history

Napper and Nickell Photograph: /Rex Features/ PA

Napper, who has schizophrenia and a history of violent attacks

on young women, today pleaded guilty to killing Nickell on

Wimbledon Common 16 years ago.

In Court One of the Old , Napper's admission of manslaughter on

the grounds of diminished responsibility brought to a close the

inquiry into one of the most notorious killings in modern British

criminal history.

Mr Justice Griffiths told Napper he would be held in

Broadmoor high-security hospital indefinitely. " You are on any view a

very dangerous man, " the judge said.

The story of how the Metropolitan police missed several opportunities

to catch Napper can be revealed today. On at least seven occasions he

came on to the police radar, twice being flagged up as a potential

stalker or rapist, but he was never pursued.

Connections between three major investigations – into a series of

rapes in south-east London, the killing of Nickell and the murders of

Bissett and her four-year-old daughter – were never made and

Napper, the perpetrator of all of the attacks, remained at large.

Had officers pursued the connections, Bissett and her daughter could

have been alive today.

Napper, 42, was already being held indefinitely at Broadmoor for the

killings of Bissett, 27, and her daughter, which he admitted in

October 1995 on the grounds of diminished responsibility. In 1995 he

also admitted one rape and two attempted rapes of women he had

stalked on the Green Chain Walk in south-east London.

Detectives, who investigated a series of attacks over four years in

south-east London in the early to mid-1990s, say 86 victims and 106

crimes were identified by officers; Napper refuses to admit any

offences for which there is no forensic evidence.

Police apology

Today, Commander Simon Foy, the head of homicide command at Scotland

Yard, said the families of Bissett and Nickell had

received apologies from the police.

" We have been frank with them about a number of missed opportunities

to arrest Napper. Where it has been appropriate we have

apologised unreservedly, " he said.

Nickell's parents, and , who live in Bedfordshire, were

in court to hear the sentencing. Nickell's partner, Andre Hanscombe,

who left Britain with their son, , after her killing and now

lives in Spain, was also in court.

Speaking outside the Old , Nickell said : " We sincerely

hope that he [Napper] will spend the rest of his life in a totally

secure environment. A long time ago we came to terms with 's

death. We now hope to draw a line and move forward into the new year. "

He thanked the police and investigators and said that despite

mistakes being made in the original investigation, the family never

felt that officers gave " anything less than their best " .

Colin Stagg: completely innocent

Detectives wrongly pursued another man, Colin Stagg, for the killing

of Nickell, using an undercover policewoman in a honeytrap operation

to try to entice a confession from him.

Stagg, 45, spent 13 months in prison on remand. He was saved from a

potential life sentence for a crime he did not commit when a judge

threw the case out before it reached a jury, condemning the police

actions and the use of a forensic profiler, Britton.

The Metropolitan police apologised to Stagg today and made it clear

they would make it a matter of public record that he was an innocent

man. In a letter to Stagg, delivered by hand to his solicitor this

morning, Assistant Commissioner Yates said on behalf of the

Met: " I must offer you an unreserved apology for the proceedings

instigated against you in 1994. I acknowledge the huge and most

regrettable impact this case has had on you for the last 16 years. "

Yates said the proceedures and processes in place today meant it

would be unlikely the police would repeat the mistakes made during

the Nickell investigation.

Later Yates stood outside the Old to make a similar, public

apology to Stagg: " It's clear that he (Stagg) is competely innocent

of any involvement in the case. "

Minutes later. Rene Barclay, the Crown Prosecution Service director

of serious casework, made a public statement outside the court in

which he apologised to Stagg and said he had also written to him to

express his regret that a prosecution was brought against him in 1993.

" We hope that justice having been done that the outcome of today's

hearing will provide some measure of closure for the friends and

family of Nichell, " he said.

Bradfield, a CPS lawyer, said Napper's plea had been accepted

by the prosecution after " very careful consideration " , based on

Napper's DNA being found on Nickell, a shoemark that could have come

from Napper's shoe and similarities with other assaults perpetrated

by Napper.

DNA breakthrough

It was not until 2004 that forensic tests finally linked Napper to

the killing of Nickell. The 23-year-old was attacked as she walked on

Wimbledon Common on 15 July 1992 with , who was then aged two.

Napper, who carried a rape kit and knives, forced Nickell off the

pathway into an overgrown part of the common, where he stabbed her 49

times. The first blows almost decapitated her.

She was found by a member of the public. was clinging to her

body saying: " Get up Mummy. "

A tiny sample of DNA was picked up when Nickell's body was swabbed

using tape soon after her death. It was too small to be analysed

until recent advances made it possible and a match to Napper was

confirmed four years ago.

Today the judge told Napper: " You stabbed her a total of 49 times and

you even stabbed her when she was dead. All the while was there.

The marks of injury upon his face proved that at some time you almost

certainly in my judgement dragged him away from his mother. Now, 16

years or so later, in early adulthood, knows the man who killed

his mother has been brought, albeit belatedly, to justice. It may be

that he can now close a long drawn out chapter in his life. "

The killing led to a frenzy of media interest, and the arrest of

Stagg was published on the front pages of almost every newspaper.

Despite being cleared in September 1994, Stagg was treated like a man

who got away with murder.

In court today Napper, wearing a check shirt, was asked by the clerk

to enter a plea to the charge that he murdered Nickell. The court

stood silent as he responded in a clear but faltering voice,

stumbling over the wording of his denial of murder but admission to

manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, said two psychiatrists agreed that at

the time of the killing Napper suffered from Asperger's syndrome and

paranoid schizophrenia. He said after consultation with police,

lawyers and the victim's family it had been decided it was " proper

and appropriate " to accept the plea.

A psychiatrist from Broadmoor, Dr Pyszora, told the court

Napper was severely mentally ill and should be returned there for

treatment. She said there was a high risk of him committing further

sexual offences without treatment, and a high risk of him killing

himself. Upon his admission to Broadmoor in 1995, Napper had a number

of delusions and thought people were out to get him. He believed he

had won the Nobel peace prize, had millions of pounds in the bank and

was listed in Who's Who.

Fisher QC, defending, said Napper wished to apologise to the

victim's then partner and her son, her parents and her close friends

for " the dreadful thing that he did " . He said the killer had asked

him to make an apology to Stagg.

" At the time of these events, the arrest and the preliminary trial of

that man, this defendant was not in a satisfactory mental state to

really appreciate what was going on. He is now. He realises how

dreadful that period of time in Mr Stagg's life must have been, "

Fisher said.

Fisher accepted that Napper was " highly unlikely ever to be released

from detention " .