David Kessler

Wimbledon Common Murder David Kessler

Colin Stagg spent thirteen months in jail awaiting trial for the murder of Rachel Nickell - a crime he did not commit. The case against him was weak from the outset, but was a classic example of the way in which facts can be mis-represented in the hands of professionals, be they lawyers, psychologists or police officers. When the case agianst Stagg collapsed, his life was made a living hell by the tabloid press, portaying him as a man who had got away with murder. Police leaks, and a book by a psychologist who had assisted them, led to the ongoing perception that Stagg was a murderer. This nightmare carried on for fourteen years until a "cold case review" identified faults in the original investigation. This culminated in the identification of the real culprit - a man who had indeed slipped through the net and gone on to kill again...