The partner of murdered young mother Rachel Nickell has revealed the heartbreaking moment he discovered she had died and their two-year-old son was in hospital. The 23-year-old was stabbed 49 times on Wimbledon Common in London while walking her dog Molly with her son Alex on July 15, 1992 in a crime that shocked the nation.
The partner of murdered young mother Rachel Nickell has revealed the heartbreaking moment he discovered she had died and their two-year-old son was in hospital.
Miss Nickell was stabbed 49 times on Wimbledon Common in London while walking her dog Molly with her son Alex on July 15, 1992 in a crime that shocked the nation. The 23-year-old was also sexually assaulted by the attacker before he fled and Alex was found by a passer-by next to his mother, repeatedly saying: 'Wake up, Mummy.
' André Hanscombe has told a new Netflix documentary about how he fell to the ground after police informed him of an 'accident' involving his partner. In the documentary, an emotional André says: 'A man's voice answered the phone and my blood ran cold. I just knew immediately that something was seriously wrong. He said: 'I'm a policeman'.
So I said: 'Where's Rachel?
' And he said: 'There's been an accident'. I said: 'Is she dead?
' He said: 'I can't tell you that'. I said: 'You just did'. I asked: 'Where's Alex?
' He said: 'Alex is safe, he's at hospital'. He said: 'André, stay where you are, we'll send a police car to you'. The moment I put the phone down I collapsed to the floor, broke down. Every belief I had about the firmness of reality disappeared.
I was in a state which you can only describe as bordering on the edge of insanity.
' The documentary also features moving home videos of Alex, André and Miss Nickell playing together in a park with the family dog. After the murder, André moved with Alex to rural France to start a new life and to avoid him being found - given the boy was the only person to have witnessed his mother's killing and was therefore in danger while the killer was still at large.
A newly-released photograph of Rachel Nickell and André Hanscombe with their son Alex features in the new programme which comes out tomorrow. Rachel Nickell and André Hanscombe are photographed following the birth of their son Alex. André Hanscombe holds son Alex as they visit the site of the murder at Wimbledon Common to try jog Alex's memory about what happened given that he was the only witness.
Alex speaks to his father André about his mother Rachel Nickell's murder in a home video. Some 32 men were questioned and the original suspect Colin Stagg - a local man who walked his dog on the common - spent 13 months in custody, enduring more than a decade of speculation that he was the killer.
Stagg was freed by an Old Bailey judge in 1994 who criticised police for using a 'honeytrap' undercover policewoman to try to make him confess to the murder. The case was reopened by Scotland Yard in 2002 using advanced DNA forensic techniques that had developed in the intervening years and identified convicted murderer Robert Napper as a suspect.
Napper pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in 2008 and was ordered to be detained indefinitely at Broadmoor Hospital. At the same time, Stagg was awarded £706,000 compensation from the Home Office for the bungled probe, but revealed in 2017 that he had spent all the cash.
A separate clip from the Netflix documentary first revealed by the Mail in April showed Alex chatting with André about how the knife-wielding murderer had killed his mother in front of him. Rachel Nickell with her son Alex, who was the only witness to her murder on July 15, 1992. Rachel Nickell and her son Alex, who watched as she was stabbed while walking her dog. André Hanscombe, following the death of his partner Rachel Nickell in South West London.
Alex and his mother Rachel Nickell, in an image released by Netflix for the new documentary. André Hanscombe speaks in a police appeal following the death of his partner Rachel Nickell. The clip shows Alex - now aged three - and André sat at a table, with the boy dressed in a Thunderbirds outfit as he says: 'Dadda, can you help me draw Mummy on this piece of paper?
' André then calmly says to his son: 'Alex, look at me. When you saw the bad man, was he in front of me like I am, or was he on this side, or was he on that side?
' Alex says that the man was 'in front of me'. André asks: 'Did Mummy see him?
' Alex says: 'I don't think she did' and then confirms that he saw the man first. Alex says the man had a bag. André asks: 'Did he open it, or was it already open?
' Alex says: 'He opened it. ' André asks: 'And what did he get out? ' Alex says: 'A knife. ' André then asks his son: 'What did he do to you?
' Alex is heard saying: 'He knocked me over. ' Alex draws a picture on paper, and André asks: 'What's he sticking in her? ' Alex says: 'A knife, there's his knife'
Rachel Nickell André Hanscombe Alex Murder Wimbledon Common
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