Who is Rachel Nickell’s son Alex Hanscombe and what is he up to now? – The US sun

The murder of RACHEL Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992 shocked the nation.

She died in front of her son Alex, who was just three years old when he witnessed it. But what is he doing now?

1

Who is Alex Hanscombe?

Alex Hanscombe was just two years old when he witnessed his 23-year-old model mother, Rachel Nickell, being stabbed to death on July 15, 1992.

They were out walking their family dog, Molly, on Wimbledon Common, south-west London, when the evil Robert Napper rushed out of the bushes and attacked them.

Rachel had her throat cut before being stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in front of her little boy, who was just a month shy of his third birthday.

Alex has since opened up about how detectives didn’t question him about his mother’s attacker for three weeks.

What happened to Rachel Nickell?

On July 15, 1992, Rachel was walking Alex on Wimbledon Common when serial sex offender Robert Napper fell out of a bush and attacked her.

The killer stabbed Rachel 49 times in the frenzy and sexually assaulted her in front of her son before fleeing.

Little Alex was found begging his mother to get up.

Rachel’s throat had been slashed, cuts on her hands showed she had fought back.

Many of her other injuries were inflicted on her after she was dead.

Little Alex stuck a piece of paper on his tragic mom like a band-aid “to make mom better,” he told the Sun on Sunday many years later.

No one around had heard her cry for help.

What does Alex remember about the attack?

Alex recalls desperately trying to revive his mother after she was brutally killed and described the memory as a silent movie.

He told The Sun on Sunday in 2018: “I was looking down at my mum who was lying on the floor. She looked so peaceful, like she was asleep and ready to wake up at any moment.

“I yelled, ‘Get up, Mommy!’ with all my strength In less than a second, life seemed to come to a standstill. She was gone. My heart was completely broken.”

Alex says he also has vivid memories of the day of the murder before they went to the park, including a cooked breakfast and a playful fight with his father.

The pair then walked hand in hand to Wimbledon Common.

He said: “There was beautiful sunshine and I remember the sound of people having picnics in the grass and our dog Molly circling around us.

“We saw a stranger running towards us with a black bag slung over his shoulder.

“Then I was grabbed and thrown to the ground, my face dragged across the mud. A few seconds later, my mother collapsed next to me. I got up as fast as I could.

“I was slightly dizzy and disoriented and I saw the stranger walking to the creek. Everything was fast.

“He started washing the blood from his hands. He just disappeared into the distance like a ghost.

“I got up as fast as I could and went to my mother. I noticed a note next to her – it was an ATM receipt, I found out years later.

“I held it up to her and said, ‘Get up mom.’

“I said again, ‘Get up mom,’ and she didn’t answer. Then, for the last time, I said with all my might, ‘Get up, Mom.’

“She didn’t. At that moment, reality collapsed.

“I was very young, but I knew in that moment that she was gone and would never come back.

“I reached down and carefully placed the piece of paper on her forehead so that it was with her wherever she was.”

Alex said he then started walking up the path they had been walking on before he reached an open spot and was spotted by strangers.

After being taken away in an ambulance, Alex was reunited with his father and was told, “There was a terrible accident. Mom was killed.”

How did the police catch Robert Napper?

Police questioned 32 men before attention focused on unemployed local resident Colin Stagg, who often walked his dog on the site.

Although there was no forensic evidence linking him to the crime scene, in August 1993 police charged him with Rachel’s murder.

An Old Bailey trial the following year learned that Stagg had been the victim of a police arrest and he was acquitted.

It wasn’t until 2008 — 16 years after the attack — that Napper, then 42, admitted to stabbing Rachel.

He was duly convicted of manslaughter on charges of diminished responsibility.

Police had missed a number of opportunities to arrest Napper before his six-year streak of sex and rape attacks came to an end.

They failed to interview him about rape for the first time in 1989 on Plumstead Common in south-east London.

Then they failed to identify him as a suspect in another series of rapes and did not link him to the Wimbledon Common attack.

They finally paid Colin Stagg £706,000 in compensation in 2008 but neither Alex nor his father received a dime after a failed investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The schizophrenic Napper is being held for life at Broadmoor Hospital.

Where is Alex Hanscombe now?

After her death, Alex and his father Andre, 54, moved to Barcelona where he now works as a yoga teacher.

Single Alex who wants to write a self-help book has returned to the scene of the crime and has described it as a “magical experience”.

He has also forgiven his mother’s killer, admitting, “I hold no grudges.”

A Metropolitan Police investigation found that there was a “catalogue of errors” in the way the case was handled.

Hanscombe said he would take legal action against them in 2022 to ensure those responsible are held accountable.