The Plumstead Ripper

plumstead southeast london a busy and bustling area offset with commons and walking paths making up what are called the green chain walks the many routes cover several miles and boast beautiful and relaxing scenery it was an area that many people felt safe in however this feeling of safety and security was shattered as throughout the 1980s and 90s a monster was stalking the streets of plumstead a series of horrifying and violent rapes and sex attacks were committed on the green chain walks the police investigation was a complex one they appeared to be dealing with two different types of attacks the first would take place in open areas like plumstead common and winds common these appeared to be at random and unplanned attacks the second type appeared to be premeditated after watching and stalking his victim he would attack them in their home the one sinister trait that ran through the attacks was that he would target young mothers accompanied by their children on one of these occasions he raped her mother in the upstairs bedroom while her children were downstairs having breakfast as he left he said to her you should keep your door locked as the investigation into the savage attacks continued the country would be rocked by a sadistic and horrifying murder wimbledon london famed for its tennis championships people come from all over the world to experience the prestigious grand slam as well as enjoy the picturesque common july 15 1992 [Music] rachel nakal took her two-year-old son alex and the family dog for a walk on wimbledon common born in 1968 she had become a mother in her early twenties [Music] rachel and her partner andre live with their son alex near the common she adored being a mother and doted on her son another dog walker was heading to a more secluded area of the common when he heard a young child saying wake up mommy following the sound of the voice he soon came across a disturbing scene rachel nickell had been brutally stabbed slashed and sexually assaulted alex was found clinging to her lifeless body begging her to wake up it was revealed she had been stabbed 49 times in a frenzied and ferocious attack she was pronounced dead at the scene alex was not physically harmed good evening the savage knife murder of a young mother in broad daylight stunned detectives in london today this was an area popular with families and even the more secluded parts of the common were still fairly open the fact her clothes were disheveled indicated a sexual motive for the murder she was 23 when she died she was a shining light a bright star in my life and everybody who knew her somebody must know something um from the ferocity of the attack so now i couldn't have just walked down the road and not be nice and i would say to anybody who does know this person no matter how they feel about them please come forward before [Music] the metropolitan police came under immense pressure to catch the killer before they struck again the ferocity of the murder left people terrified that it wouldn't be long until there was another one 32 men were questioned over the murder but the police's sights soon fell on one man colin stagg was known for walking his dog on wimbledon common he was from nearby roehampton and was somewhat of a social outcast he also allegedly fit the description given by a few witnesses of a man seen in the area around the time of the murder because of the lack of forensic evidence to tie him to the murder or crime scene police decided to take a different route they asked criminal psychologist paul britton to create a profile of the kind of person they were looking for they quickly decided that stag matched the profile and thus launched operation esdell operation esdell was a covert operation designed in part by paul britton to see if colin stagg would implicate himself in the murder or give anything away as the investigation into collins died continued so too did the green chain rapes the police hadn't connected the rapes to the murder of rachel nikell the sex attacks that followed appeared to be emulating the wimbledon common murder the violence in the rapes began to escalate more victims began to report that the attacker was armed with a knife one of the biggest issues the police force had was that the descriptions of the rapists were varied and vague the man was described as around five foot seven or five foot eight the police continued to make appeals and issued an e-fit of the suspect several people came forward and said the e-fit looked like a plumstead resident robert nappa when officers went to speak with him they quickly realized he was far taller than the description given of the rapist napa stood at around six foot two due to this discrepancy in height officers ruled him out robert nappa's name however just kept coming up it was reported that a peeping tom was spying in the windows of houses especially one inhabited by a lone female [Music] he was subsequently arrested following his arrest the police searched his flat on plumstead high street the flat was a singular room and was tidy and organized they also found a red metal toolbox containing hunting knives they found an a to z maps book with roots planned out and locations highlighted it covered part of the green chain walk the contents of the toolbox were not linked to the green chain rapes as part of operation estelle the police sent in an undercover officer from the metropolitan police special operations group so10 she contacted stag and posed as the friend of a woman he had contacted through a lonely hearts column over the following five months she pretended to be romantically interested in stag spoke to him on the phone and exchanged letters detailing sexual fantasies she also met with him and on one of these occasions during a meeting in hyde park they spoke about rachel's murder to try and get stagg to implicate himself the undercover officer claimed to enjoy hurting people his mumbled reply was please explain as i live a quiet life if i've disappointed you please don't dump me nothing like this has happened to me before when she went on to say if only you had done the wimbledon common murder if only you were killed her it would be all right he replied i'm terribly sorry but i haven't after winning his trust the officer worked on getting stagg to talk about his sexual fantasies she then passed these on to paul britton and he interpreted said fantasies as violent colin stagg did not however admit to the murder of rachel nickell following the undercover investigation colin stagg was subsequently arrested for the murder of rachel nickell but he maintained his innocence the increase in deviation increasing domination the increase in appliance we need to humiliate do you remember this the my name goes over to his pile of clothes and produces some string and a knife but up until this point in time i have never mentioned a fantasy with a knife with you up until this point in time i've never mentioned a fantasy do you remember a second and you told me the police are showing your photographs of how rachel the car was allowing you to tell she was murdered and you in fact lay down in that position you lay down like a bed like this do you remember you curled you had your hands like this and you told me that her head was tilted like this do you remember do you remember that the psychologist who helped design operation esdell said he vehemently disagreed with the use of the letters detailing sexual fantasies and that he didn't know about their existence until after they had been sent the case went to trial at the old bailly and the problems in the investigation were laid bare mr justice ognal said that the excessive zeal shown by investigators was deceptive conduct of the grossest kind he excluded the entrapment evidence forcing the prosecution to withdraw its case the case was thrown out in september 1994 colin stagg was sensationally acquitted of murdering rachel nakal my life has been ruined by a mixture of half-baked psychological theories as of stories written to satisfy the strange sexual request of an undercover police officer the judge recognized that there was never any evidence against me the law has been upheld but where is the justice i understand that the police will now keep the files on my daughter's murder open but they are not looking for anyone else one of the residents of plumstead was 27 year old samantha bissett is your flower my flower yeah hello i'm jasmine's mummy sam she lived in the basement flat on the edge of wind's common with her partner conrad and their four-year-old daughter jasmine that used to be my boyfriend [Applause] samantha was a keen camerawoman and often filmed her young daughter documenting her life as she grew up comrade described samantha as a feisty woman and a feminist determined to give her daughter the best art in life she possibly could jasmine was a bright chatty and happy little girl she got on well with children and adults alike and shared a deep and close bond with her parents samantha would often take jasmine outside to play on the surrounding grass and in the wooded areas making sure she had plenty of time outdoors november 3rd 1993 conrad arrived home and found the flat door locked believing samantha must have taken jasmine out he let himself in he noticed an odd stain on the carpet as he opened the front door upon going into the kitchen he saw samantha's clothes strewn all over the floor it was then he realized that something was seriously wrong after he entered the living room the horrifying picture of what had occurred came to light someone had forced their way into samantha's flat and stabbed her more than 70 times in the chest and neck she had also been mutilated post-mortem then came the next question where was jasmine jasmine was found in her bedroom where she had been sexually assaulted and then smothered to death if you're out there which i think you probably are could you possibly write to me by the police or something and tell me why you did sergeant alan jackman was one of the first officers to arrive at the bissit residence he explained that this did not appear to be a first offense this was a criminal whose violence had escalated and progressed to this point the crime scene was so horrific the police photographer needed to take two years off work as it had completely traumatized him she had been stabbed with such ferocity it is believed she had died quickly the killer then dragged her body into the living room before mutilating her forensic examinations initially turned up nothing due to the lack of fingerprints it was believed that the murderer had worn gloves but further analysis revealed that the fingerprints of the killer were almost identical to samantha's meaning they weren't initially distinguished from each other when they were checked against police records it came back with a match robert in may 1994 officers went to his flats and took him into custody samantha's partner conrad described that she had woken up one night and had seen a face in the window staring at her as she slept it is believed that this was robert nappa and that he had been stalking her before killing her around the time of the murder a witness reported hearing the voices of two male assailants with one shouting at the other to leave it it is believed that this was nappa arguing with and shouting at himself when it was announced that nappa had been arrested those who were his acquaintances and those who worked with him were shocked by the nature of the horrific killing the usually quiet and withdrawn nappa did not on the face of it seemed like the kind of person capable of committing such an offense but who exactly was robert nappa he was born on february 25 1966 to brian and pauline shortly after his birth his parents moved from aerith london to the nearby area of plumstead and he was the oldest of four siblings napa's childhood was highly dysfunctional and marred by domestic violence he often saw his father attacking his mother and fights between the pair were frequent when robert turned nine his parents divorced concerned for their welfare social services had him and his siblings removed from the home and taken into care they also had to undergo psychiatric evaluations to assess the damage their tumultuous childhood had caused and subsequently required treatment robert would have psychiatric treatment at mordsley hospital for six years robert's school life was also deeply unhappy he attended abby wood comprehensive where he had frequent problems as a result of having undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder previously referred to as aspergers he was socially awkward and struggled to make and maintain friendships in his class he was often the target of bullies and was picked on by both boys and girls his peers would later refer to robert as being despised throughout the school at the age of 13 his life was turned upside down while away on a camping trip he was sexually assaulted by a family friend the perpetrator would be sent to prison but the damage had been done napa became introverted and would obsess over being clean organized and tidy he became even more reclusive and distant and his personality began to take a more sinister turn he started spying on his younger sister while she was naked and began to bully his other siblings too when he was a teenager he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia he would often be unable to distinguish reality from imagination he would tell stories of being pursued by the ira captured and tortured by them with his fingers being cut off and him being able to grow them back it wouldn't be long until robert nappa was on the police's radar in 1986 napa was convicted of an offence with an airgun despite his convictions at the age of 27 he got a job at a plastics factory working as a machine operator he also moved into a flat in plumstead and became increasingly isolated his relationship with his mother had also began to break down partly due to his hatred of her new partner while in custody for the murder of samantha and jasmine bisset officers researched his home examination of the red toolbox found in his flat drew the police's attention back to the maps they had found napa had made a number of notes which corresponded with several of the green chain rapes the police soon realised that the man they had in custody for the brutal double murder was most likely responsible for the more than 70 rapes and sex attacks that had been committed on the green chain walks they also realized that the height discrepancy was due to the fact that nappa walked with a stoop thus appearing to be shorter than he actually was [Music] his first rape is believed to have taken place in 1989 in a house that was on the edge of the common it turned out that he had confessed as such to his mother saying that he had raped a woman on plum said common and that people were out to get him she went to the police and told them what he had said to her no case on file matched what his mother had told them and no further action was taken after this pauline napa severed all ties with her son [Music] it turned out that the sex attack had actually occurred on wynn's common meaning the police records didn't match his mother's report in october 1995 robert nappa went on trial at the old bailey courthouse in london for the brutal double murder of samantha and jasmine bisset despite the initial concerns that they may not have had enough to convict him a jury was not required in this case he pled guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility citing psychiatric problems he was sentenced to be held at the high security broadmoor psychiatric hospital although this case had been solved there was another that lingered over the heads of everyone rachel nikell with a botched police investigation and a wrongful arrest the police needed to find the culprit but the case had all but stalled [Music] in december 1995 police went to broadmoor to interview robert in connection with rachel's murder he refused to answer their questions leaving them back at square one in the years that passed and with the police no closer to catching rachel's killer on the anniversary of the murder the public pressure to find the culprit came back into the spotlight ten years after rachel's death dna techniques had become more refined and readily available to the police in 2002 scotland yard set up a cold case review team to look into rachel nickell's murder and try and unearth any new clues the team was comprised of both current and retired investigators who poured over witness statements looked at the files of potential suspects and also considered the possibility that it may be linked to other crimes when looking at the injuries that rachel had sustained during the frenzied attack and compared it with other attacks they consulted those on the forensics team about the improvements that had been made in the science of dna they were able to lift the blood from rachel's clothing and underneath lay the breakthrough they were looking for in july 2003 it was reported that after 18 months of testing on the clothes worn by rachel a microscopic sample of male dna which did not belong to either her boyfriend or young son had been found the sample was enough to rule people out but not enough to confirm the identity of the killer a sample had been taken from the hair of rachel's son alex and upon re-analysis it was found to contain samples of paint that they were able to trace to a metal toolbox in july 2006 a team from scotland yard headed to broadmoor hospital they wanted to talk to the now 40 year old robert nappa officers were there for two days while they interviewed him about a potential connection to the murder of rachel nickell finally after more than a decade of waiting the police got the news they had been hoping for the microscopic dna found on rachel nickell's clothing came back as a match to robert nappa the paint from the toolbox found in alex's hair also matched the red toolbox used by nappa to hide his knives and maps when looking at the map found in napa's toolbox police found something of interest the map showed he had ventured out of his comfort zone the distance between wimbledon common and plumstead had led to him being ruled out initially despite the similarities in the cases on one of the pages isabella plantation in richmond park had been heavily marked this was within a walking distance of where rachel had been murdered on the 28th of november 2007 robert clive nappa was charged with the murder of rachel nikel on the 4th of december that year he appeared at the city of westminster's magistrates court he was subsequently granted bail on the condition he be returned to broadmoor it would soon be time for him to enter his plea and on the 24th of january 2008 he pled not guilty his trial started in november that year and the following month he changed his plea he entered a plea of guilty to the manslaughter of rachel nickell on the grounds of diminished responsibility when sentencing napa mr justice griffith williams said that it was vital he'd be detained indefinitely for the protection of the public saying he was a very dangerous man it is highly unlikely that robert nappa will ever be released [Music] when napa was sentenced colin stagg received a public apology from the metropolitan police for his wrongful arrest clear that he is completely innocent any involvement in that case and i today apologize to him for the mistakes that were made in the early 1990s keith preda the detective who headed the investigation into colin stagg received intense public scrutiny despite the judge condemning their actions and colin stagg being acquitted in the years that followed and before napa was caught preda continued to press the idea that stagg was guilty of rachel naquel's murder in 2001 he told the itv programme real crime colin stank has been through a version of justice albeit truncated and he has been found not guilty but i wonder whether he can actually say hand on heart that he believes people will meet him in the streets and believe that after stag was acquitted preda retired from the police force he would later go on to face charges of corruption the determination of the police to prove kolinstag was responsible was revealed to have used three million pounds from the public purse as estimated by an internal review the same review also found that vital scientific information had been missed during the investigation following the 14 months he spent in custody colin stagg sued the police force for damages totaling one million pounds he has co-authored two books about his case who really killed rachel with novelist david kesler and pariah with journalist ted hans pariah was published on the same day napa appeared in court to enter his plea for rachel's murder in 2010 the independent police complaints commission released a report following an investigation into the conduct and actions of the metropolitan police force it detailed what it described as a catalogue of bad decisions and errors it suggested that had the police acted accordingly on the tip-offs about napa and his behavior including the one by his own mother the lives of samantha and jasmine bisset could have been spared the independent police complaints commission said that as all officers involved had retired and a key senior officer had died nobody would face disciplinary action it also ruled out any criminal prosecutions the female police officer who went undercover in operation esdell took early retirement from the police in 1998 she would later sue the metropolitan police force after being given support by the police federation for damages it was settled out of court and she received 125 000 pounds this move prompted harsh criticism including from rachel nickell's son when he got older who had received less than a fifth of that just 22 000 pounds from the criminal injuries compensation authority the criminal psychologist who helped form the investigation paul britton was charged with professional misconduct by the british psychological society however in 2002 further action was dismissed due to a time delay in the proceedings being brought after the intense media scrutiny following the murder rachel nickell's partner andre moved to france with their son he wrote a book about rachel's death called the last thursday in july detailing what it was like to go through such a profound loss under such intense media scrutiny and public interest on august 13 2008 it was announced by the home office that colin stagg would receive compensation totaling 706 000 pounds [Music] the extent of robert knapper's crimes may never be fully known and the damage and hurt his actions have caused are incalculable conrad ellen continues to keep the memory of his partner samantha and daughter jasmine alive talking about them and the impact they had on so many people ensuring they will never be forgotten yeah rachel nickell's partner andre wrote a public letter of apology to colin stagg for pointing the finger at him publicly saying in an interview with the guardian as a parent you have to set an example i can't expect alex to behave in a certain way if i wasn't prepared to do it myself i made a mistake based on information from apparently reliable sources i helped put a spotlight on him which made his life worse her son alex remains incredibly close to his father and they now live in barcelona alex went on to write a book about his experiences titled letting go a true story of murder loss and survival [Music] according to andre rachel continues to live on through their son her sharpness of intelligence her wicked sense of fun and her movements too rachel was tall and elegant a dancer alex has that same elegance you see it in his gestures his eyes his presence it's been a marathon but i can look at alex now and think i'm in clear water mission accomplished alex got me through and rachel [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021