The Scream

The Murder of Rachel Nickell

The Murder of Rachel Nickell
Image courtesy of TMDB. Used under license.

The killer walked free for 15 years while the Met chased the wrong man.

What it's about\n\nA sober, methodical look at the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in front of her two-year-old son, and the catastrophic police investigation that followed — including the honeytrap operation against Colin Stagg and the fifteen years it took to correctly identify Robert Napper as the killer.\n\nThe verdict\n\nThis is true crime done properly: no smirking narrator, no true-crime-podcast affect, just clear-eyed accountability for a case that ruined multiple lives beyond the victim's. André Hanscombe's contributions are heartbreaking, and the film treats Colin Stagg's ordeal with the seriousness it deserves. Essential viewing.

The verdict

7/10