Netflix's new documentary The Murder of Rachel Nickell revisits one of Britain's most infamous miscarriages of justice: the wrongful pursuit of Colin Stagg following the brutal murder of 23-year-old Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common.
For years, Stagg was portrayed as the prime suspect in the killing, despite a lack of forensic evidence linking him to the crime. His arrest, prosecution and eventual acquittal became a national scandal, while Rachel's real killer remained free – and struck again.
Here's what happened to Colin Stagg, why police targeted him, and where he is now.
Who is Colin Stagg?
At the time of the murder, Colin Stagg was a 29-year-old unemployed man living near Wimbledon Common when Rachel Nickell was murdered on 15 July 1992.
Rachel had been walking her dog Molly with her two-year-old son, Alex, when she was attacked in broad daylight. According to police officers at the scene, it was "the worst crime scene" they had witnessed, describing a frenzied assault in which Rachel suffered almost 50 stab wounds while apparently trying to shield herself and protect her son.
The investigation quickly became one of the largest murder inquiries in Metropolitan Police history. More than 1,500 calls came in from members of the public and over 50 officers worked on the case.
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After an artist's impression was released, several callers suggested Stagg as a possible suspect. When questioned, he admitted he had been on Wimbledon Common around the time of Rachel's murder and lived nearby, placing him firmly on detectives' radar.
Why did police suspect Colin Stagg?
Detectives became increasingly convinced that Stagg fit their profile of the killer. When officers searched his flat, they discovered items they considered unusual, including knives, a survival kit, a sign reading ‘Christians Beware’ and a zodiac symbol drawn onto the carpet. Stagg had also previously been charged with sunbathing naked on the Common.
Detective Sergeant Keith Penrose later recalled that Stagg's home was "a very strange set up".
A woman also identified Stagg in a police line-up, further strengthening detectives' suspicions.
However, investigators still lacked the one thing they desperately needed: solid evidence.
The controversial 'Lizzie James' honeytrap operation
Unable to secure a confession through conventional means, police authorised one of the most controversial undercover operations in British policing history and authorised an officer to pose as a single woman interested in Stagg, using the name 'Lizzie James'.
The officer began corresponding with Stagg, in an effort to encourage him to reveal violent sexual fantasies and potentially confess to Rachel's murder.
As screenwriter Emilia di Girolamo, who wrote the series Deceit about Nickell’s killing, previously explained, the fictional persona was carefully crafted to appeal to what police believed Rachel Nickell's killer would find attractive.
The correspondence became increasingly sexual and disturbing. Yet despite repeated attempts to draw a confession from him, Stagg consistently denied involvement in Rachel's murder.
At one point, according to secret recordings, 'Lizzie' told him: "If only you had done the Wimbledon Common murder, if only you had killed her, it would be all right."
Stagg replied: "I'm terribly sorry, but I haven't."
Why was Colin Stagg acquitted?
Despite the lack of forensic evidence, Stagg was arrested on 17 August 1993, thirteen months after Rachel's death. Police dug up his garden and searched extensively for evidence, but nothing linking him to the murder was found.
Stagg spent more than a year in custody awaiting trial. However, when details of the undercover operation emerged, the judge ruled the evidence obtained through the honeytrap was inadmissible and threw the case out.
The prosecution collapsed – but his life was forever changed.
Speaking after his release from prison, Stagg told gathered press: "My life has been ruined by half-baked psychological theories and some stories written to satisfy the strange sexual requests of an undercover police officer."
He added: "The judge recognised there was never any evidence against me, no forensic evidence, no confession evidence. Nothing."
Even after the case was dismissed, then-Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon initially refused to apologise, saying he took "full responsibility" for his officer’s actions and stood by them, implying that the judge had got it all wrong (and that Stagg was still guilty in the eyes of the Met).
How was Colin Stagg’s name finally cleared?
For Rachel's family, the collapse of the case was devastating because it meant her killer remained at large and Rachel's partner, André Hanscombe, later admitted he even feared for his family's safety after Stagg's release.
"I headed to the coast, to put as much distance [as possible] between us and the killer on the loose, and the press pack," he says in the new Netflix documentary.
The case eventually went cold before being reopened in 2002, when forensic scientist, Dr Angela Gallop, and her team re-examined DNA evidence recovered from Rachel's body using more advanced techniques than were available in the early 1990s.
After years of work, they identified a male DNA profile that did not belong to Stagg. Instead, it matched Robert Napper, who, by that point, was already being held in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital.
Napper was later linked to a string of serious sexual offences and had already admitted responsibility for the murders of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine in Plumstead in 1993.
Investigators noticed striking similarities between the murders, including the victims' ages, the extreme violence involved and the presence of young children during the attacks – yet officers investigating Rachel's murder had initially dismissed suggestions that the cases might be connected.
André Hanscombe said of the case, "[It was] a catalogue of errors and then cover-up by police meant an innocent man, Colin Stagg, was arrested while Rachel's killer, Robert Napper, who was later linked with 106 rapes and other sexual offences, killed another mother and child, Samantha and Jazmine Bisset."
Where is Colin Stagg now?
Although eventually exonerated, Stagg spent years living under a cloud of suspicion. In The Murder of Rachel Nickell, he recalls the hostility he faced from members of the public, claiming people would shout "guilty!" and "hang him!" at him in the street, fuelled by years of sensational media coverage.
He also revealed the personal impact of the undercover operation. "I'd never had a proper girlfriend up to the point of 29, so when I received a letter from Lizzie James I just felt really happy that a woman had shown interest in me," he says in the documentary. "I had low self-esteem before this all started, this knocked me back further."
Stagg later explained that he became paranoid about even looking at women in public in case people assumed he was stalking them.
Unable to find work due to his notoriety, Stagg sought to regain control of his narrative and in April 1999, he co-wrote a book with thriller author David Kessler titled Who Really Killed Rachel?, which detailed the psychological warfare of the police investigation and aimed to permanently dismantle his "pariah" status.
His personal life also made intense headlines when he met and married 26-year-old care worker Diane Beddoes in August 1995. The highly publicised, unconventional wedding saw Stagg infamously wearing black jeans and trainers. However, the union was short-lived and was over within a few years.
In 2008, following a full apology from the Metropolitan Police, Stagg received an official payout of £706,000 from the Home Office for the miscarriage of justice. Stagg later admitted to spending the windfall rapidly on cars, holidays, and investments, stating he wanted to "make up for lost time" after his youth was blighted.
He occasionally participates in documentaries and interviews about the case, including Netflix's The Murder of Rachel Nickell, which explores both the murder investigation and the devastating impact of the wrongful accusation.
Speaking in the documentary, Stagg recalls learning that another man had finally been arrested for Rachel's murder. Two journalists arrived at his home while he was watching football on television. "I was like, 'Can you come back in an hour's time? I'm watching the match,'" he says. By that point, the ordeal had followed him for fifteen years and he was keen to put distance between himself and the case.
The Murder of Rachel Nickell is on Netflix now
