![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_299209484-1619.jpg\")
\n\t\tRachel Nickell was stabbed to death in front of her three-year-old son during a walk in Wimbledon Common in 1992(Picture: Netflix)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tRachel Nickell was stabbed to death in front of her three-year-old son during a walk in Wimbledon Common in 1992(Picture: Netflix)<\/p>\n
Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times while taking her toddler son for a walk in Wimbledon Common in 1992.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old mum was murdered by Robert Napper, who was linked with several more violent assaults for which he was not held accountable.<\/p>\n
Now her boyfriend Andr\u00e9 Hanscombe has revealed in a major interview she may have been pregnant at the time of her death.<\/p>\n
A \u2018loving mother\u2019, Ms Nickell had always walked around frightened she would be attacked from behind, Mr Hanscombe, 63, said.<\/p>\n
She had in fact become expectant around eight seven months before her death.<\/p>\n
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Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/a> newsletter or get Breaking News<\/a> alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n Worried about the further pressure another child would bring, the family opted for an abortion \u2013 a decision Mr Hanscombe said he lived to regret.<\/p>\n But despite the intervention, he believes Ms Nickell was pregnant yet again when she was stabbed.<\/p>\n \u2018More than once I asked her if anything had happened to her. She always said no. But I will never be sure\u2019, he told Daily Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n He added that it was \u2018very early on\u2019 but the caring mother would not have chosen to abort again.<\/p>\n \t\t He added that the couple were \u2018hanging by our fingertips\u2019 as they struggled to make ends meet.<\/p>\n Ms Nickell\u2019s son Alex was days away from his third birthday when tragedy struck. He is now 36.<\/p>\n On the morning of the attack, Mr Hanscombe had left for work<\/a> as a motorbike courier, having kissed his partner knowing she would be taking their son and dog Molly for a walk in Wimbledon Common.<\/p>\n However his routine twice-daily call home while working was answered not by Ms Nickell, but a policeman, advising him of an \u2018accident\u2019.<\/p>\n Mr Hanscombe would take the officer\u2019s refusal to tell him whether his partner was alive correctly as confirmation she was dead.<\/p>\n The pain was \u2018indescribable\u2019 and heartbreaking, he said.<\/p>\n Alex had been found covered in blood clinging to Ms Nickell\u2019s body as she was stabbed and sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n \t\t He emerged from the attack with just minor injuries.<\/p>\n The heartbreaking events have now been recounted in a new Netflix<\/a> documentary entitled The Murder of Rachel Nickell, as well as three-part drama series The Witness.<\/p>\n In a bid to escape the media storm<\/a> surrounding Ms Nickell\u2019s death, Mr Hanscombe and his son moved to a countryside home in the south of France<\/a>, an area where he had dreamed of living one day with his partner.<\/p>\n The lack of internet at the time meant the pair were able to live there undisturbed for three years.<\/p>\n But it was also the place where Alex began to come to turns with the terrible events which had brought them there.<\/p>\n Mr Hanscombe recalled his son\u2019s body \u2018contorting\u2019 in bed at night.<\/p>\n A clip of them both shows Alex asking for help to draw a picture of \u2018mummy\u2019 before recalling details of the \u2018bad man\u2019 who ended her life.<\/p>\n They then moved to India<\/a> for three years, before relocating to Spain.<\/p>\n \t\t Back at home, Colin Stagg, who was in Wimbledon Common at the time and matched the description given to police, had been charged with Ms Nickell\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n Despite the case being thrown out by a judge in September 1994, Stagg\u2019s name would not be cleared in public for another decade after police announced they were not looking for further suspects.<\/p>\n However, six months after Ms Nickell\u2019s murder, another young mother, Samantha Bisset\u00a0was brutally assaulted to death along with her four-year-old daughter Jasmine.<\/p>\n In 1995, Robert Napper was held at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire<\/a> for killing the mother and daughter.<\/p>\n It would not be until 2008 that he pleaded guilty to stabbing Ms Nickell to death.<\/p>\n He is now sentenced indefinitely under the Mental Health<\/a> Act.<\/p>\n A leaked CPS dossier further revealed the extent of both police failures of the time and Napper\u2019s criminal activities.<\/p>\n It suggested the murderer may have raped as many as 90 women before he was imprisoned in 1995.<\/p>\n For Alex, authorities had both failed to do to their job and had subsequently \u2018covered it up\u2019.<\/p>\n Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more stories like this, check our news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_299437940-aa0f.jpg\")
\n\t\tMs Nickell was stabbed 49 times and raped to death while walking with her toddler son and their dog Molly (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_299437942-cfb6.jpg\")
\n\t\tRachel Nickell pictured with her partner Andr\u00e9 Hanscombe (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_299437943-408b.jpg\")
\n\t\tPolice originally charged Colin Stagg for Ms Nickell\u2019s murder years before Robert Napper would admit to stabbing her to death in 2008 (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix)<\/p>\n
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