Who is Rachel Nickell’s killer Robert Napper and where is he now?

RACHEL Nickell's death in 1992 shocked the nation.

Robert Napper eventually admitted guilt in 2008 after a 16 year hunt for answers. This is what we know about him.

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Who is Robert Napper?

Robert Napper was born on February 25, 1966, in Erith, South East London and brought up in nearby Plumstead.

He had a troubled upbringing and witnessed his father Brian brutally beating his mother Pauline before their divorce when he was nine.

Along with his two brothers and sister, Napper was put into foster care and underwent psychiatric treatment.

When he was 13 he was sexually assaulted by a family friend on a camping holiday.

His mother said it was after this that his personality changed and he became introverted, obsessively tidy and reclusive.

He also bullied his siblings and spied on his sister when she was naked.

Napper has since been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and having Asperger's syndrome.

He first came to police attention in 1986 when he was caught in possession of an airgun and given a conditional discharge.

He later confessed to his mother that he had raped a woman on Plumstead Common and she immediately called the police to report it.

But they said they couldn't find a trace of a rape and the inquiry was dropped.

Eight weeks earlier a 31-year-old mother whose home backed on to the Common had reported to police she had been raped in her home in front of her children.

After this his mother stopped all contact with him and he moved into a bedsit while holding down a string of menial jobs.

Who were Robert Napper's victims?

Rachel Nickell

Rachel Nickell, 23, had been living near Wimbledon Common with her boyfriend André Hanscombe, their two-year-old son Alexander and dog Molly.

She was a former model who had settled into becoming a full-time mum when she was brutally murdered on July 15, 1992.

Rachel was walking with Alexander on Wimbledon Common when Napper lurched from bushes and attacked.

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

Little Alexander was found pleading for his mum, whose throat had been cut, to get up.

Samantha Bisset and Jazmine Bisset

In November 1993, Napper stabbed 27-year-old Samantha Bisset in her neck and chest and then sexually assaulted her inside her home in Plumstead.

He then assaulted and smothered her four-year-old daughter Jazmine and left her body on her bed surrounded by her toys.

The twisted killer then mutilated the young mum's body and took parts away as a trophy.

Napper was arrested after a fingerprint was recovered from her flat and he was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1995.

He also admitted two rapes and two attempted rapes and sent to Broadmoor Hospital.

When was Robert Napper convicted and how was he caught by the police?

In 1995, Napper was arrested and convicted for Samantha's murder and admitted to two other rape charges at the time, however denied involvement in Rachel's case.

Cops quizzed 32 men for Rachel's murder before attention focused on jobless local Colin Stagg, who often walked his dog on the common.

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

An Old Bailey trial the following year heard that Stagg had been the victim of police entrapment and he was acquitted.

When the case was re-evaluated a few years on, it was revealed that Napper did in fact have a connection to the murder of Rachel and was convicted of manslaughter.

It was not until 2008 — 16 years after the attack — that Napper, then 42, admitted stabbing Rachel.

He was duly convicted of her manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Police had missed a series of chances to arrest Napper before his six-year spree of sex and rape attacks was brought to a close.

Why is Napper also known as the Green Chain Rapist?

Napper is believed to be the "Green Chain Rapist" named after the Green Chain Walk - a string of leafy pathways linking large parts of South East London.

The attacks took place in a four year period ending in 1994 - around the same time as Napper was arrested.

They all bore similar hallmarks to Napper's crimes and it's believed there could be at least 106 offences involving 86 victims.

The earliest of the "Green Chain" rapes are those he admitted to in 1995.

He was known to keep detailed records of sites of potential and actual attacks on women.

Where is Robert Napper now?

Napper was sentenced to be incarcerated indefinitely at Broadmoor Hospital in December 2008.

In his summing up at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Griffiths Williams said to Napper: "You are on any view a very dangerous man".

It is highly unlikely that the convicted murderer and rapist will ever be released.