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Bekijk Volledige Versie : 41 jarige man aangeklaagd voor moord 23 jaar geleden gepleegd



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28-11-07, 22:34
By Andrew Hough

LONDON (Reuters) - A 41 year-old man has been charged with the murder of Rachel Nickell almost two decades ago, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday.

Robert Napper, a former warehouseman from Plumstead, south-east London, is due to appear in court next week charged with the 23 year-old's murder.

The part-time model was found on Wimbledon Common, south London, in July 1992, after she had been attacked as she walked her dog with her two-year-old son, Alex.

She had been stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in one of Britain's most notorious murder cases. A fellow walker found Alex clinging to his mother's blood-soaked body.

Officials declined to comment about what prompted the charge but media reports said it was a DNA breakthrough.

The case's reviewing lawyer, Hilary Bradfield, said the charge was brought after a review of the case.

"It has been a painstaking process and alongside the police we have considered all aspects of the case in detail," Bradfield, of the Serious Casework Unit, said.

"This week we have reached a decision that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and have authorised the police to charge."

Another man, Colin Stagg, was charged with Nickell's murder in 1993 but his trial the following year collapsed on the grounds that police used a "honey trap" plot to encourage him to confess.

An undercover policewoman contacted Stagg, 44, posing as a friend of a woman that he used to be in contact with via a lonely hearts column and attempted to get information from him by feigning a romantic interest in him.

The evidence was ruled inadmissible and the case was thrown out.

Napper is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

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