Inside the devastating true story of Rachel Nickell’s murder – killed in broad daylight in front of her two-year-old son

Rachel Nickell’s son, Alex Hanscombe and his father André reveal how they tried to escape the trauma that made headlines worldwide, and what convinced them to tell their deeply personal story in Netflix’s The Witness.

Almost 35 years after Rachel Nickell was brutally murdered on Wimbledon Common in south-west London, the horrific crime that shocked Britain is being retold on screen.

Rachel was just 23 when she was sexually assaulted and stabbed 49 times while walking with the family dog, Molly, on 15 July 1992. Tragically, her two-year-old son Alex witnessed the attack.

The toddler was later found clinging to his mother’s body and became the only witness to her murder – thrusting Alex and his father, André Hanscombe, into the centre of one of Britain’s most notorious murder investigations.

It would take more than 16 years for Rachel’s killer to finally be brought to justice.

Police initially focused their investigation on Colin Stagg, who was charged with Rachel’s murder but later cleared after the case against him collapsed. The investigation became notorious for the controversial undercover “honey trap” operation used in an attempt to obtain evidence against him, which was heavily criticised by the judge.

In 2008, Robert Napper pleaded guilty to Rachel’s manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Napper, who had schizophrenia, had previously been convicted of the 1993 murders of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine. He was detained indefinitely at Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital.

As an adult, Alex has spoken about the memories he carries from the day his mother was killed.

“The moment I watched my mother’s soul leave her body is one I will never forget,” he told The Sun in 2017. “It’s all remained engraved in my mind. It was a frenzied attack but like a silent movie… Even today, almost 25 years later, I can still see the film running inside my mind.”

The Witness: ‘I saw my mother murdered’

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Now Alex and André’s story is being brought to a new generation of viewers. Netflix has dramatised the case and its aftermath in the three-part series The Witness, alongside the documentary The Murder of Rachel Nickell, which features contributions from both Alex and André.

The programmes not only revisit the crime and the extraordinary investigation that followed, but also explore what happened to the father and son left behind – and how they attempted to rebuild their lives after an unimaginable tragedy.

Netflix interview with Rachel Nickell’s son Alex Hanscombe and partner André Hanscombe

Rachel Nickell’s son Alex Hanscombe and partner André Hanscombe served as consultants on The Witness and were contributors in The Murder of Rachel Nickell documentary. The Witness is based on Alex’s memoir, Letting Go.

“Our life has been a battle. We can never express how indebted we are to everyone that’s been a part of this, for the kindness and generosity they’ve extended to us, for the chance they took with us in bringing our story to the screen, and for the care they have taken. Our journey has all been by the grace of God and a promise to go on together, and we feel incredibly blessed to be able to share our story in this way.

“We hope that audiences will be left with a testament to the tough battle of life we all face and to the power of faith, hope, love – and never giving up.”

Alex, The Witness is based on your book, Letting Go. Can you tell us why you wrote the book, and what the writing process was like?

Alex: That’s right, in part. Over the years, I have tried to make sense of and come to terms with what happened. Writing the book was part of that process, but it’s a complicated journey and, for me and my father, we never felt we’d got it quite right nor that we’d stopped growing, and we both felt that there was still a part of the story to share to truly honour my mother’s memory. At the heart of sharing our journey from darkness to light is the desire to help others. We don’t always know why things happen, the ‘why?’ of our pain and suffering, nor are there guarantees of what our future will be – our message is to never give up or lose hope. That life is a battle worth fighting for, and that it’s worth sacrificing everything to follow what’s in your heart.

At what stage were you approached to make the book into a television drama?

Alex: Rob [Williams] the writer and John [Yorke] the executive producer reached out to us when they first heard I might be writing our story, about thirteen years ago. We’ve been in touch with them ever since.

André: We’ve always had a great deal of trepidation, we know this is a story that has affected a lot of people: it’s a story that traumatised the nation at the time. At first, we wanted to get as far away as possible, and live a life of solitude and anonymity abroad, but in many ways that became impossible. There was no escaping it. People suffer in different ways, and when this opportunity came up, we thought perhaps there’s a power for good in this somewhere. We’ve felt in the past that we’ve been forced into a box, but there’s more to our story than what’s been told before.

Alex: Absolutely. We’ve given interviews before, and there have been other programmes that have been made, but with the best intentions, they were just scraping the surface. We believe that life is a battle between good and evil, and that while evil is real, the power for good is always greater, and something positive can come out of everyone’s pain and suffering. We wanted to pay tribute to the healing power of love and hope and faith in our lives and never giving up.

You’re consultants on the drama. How involved were you?

Alex: It’s a privilege to have anyone interested in our story, and wanting to help us, but this has clearly been much more than just a job for everyone that’s been a part of it. From the beginning they were incredibly kind in allowing us to share with them everything that was on our mind, and we met and spoke regularly from then until the end, helping with anything we could. A great many people have been a part of this, and our relationship with every one of them is important to us. They know who they are, and we will always be indebted to them for the chance they took with us, the many difficult conversations shared together, and the care they have taken to get it right with us and do justice to our story.

André: Rob, John, Sarah [Brown, executive producer] and Andy [script assistant], were kind enough to go over every line with us, which wasn’t a walk in the park for them. We will never forget that. The drama’s not a home video, and they had to condense thirty-odd years into a small space of time, which is a challenge. This is our first experience of being involved in drama, and no matter how much trepidation we may have approached this with, we couldn’t have asked for a greater degree of commitment from the team, who took us on our word and worked incredibly hard to make sure that everything felt true in spirit to us, as we lived it. We hate to use these generic terms – producers, directors, actors, crew, commissioners and so on – because these are all people that care and have cared about us. To all the team at Netflix, to Alison, Katie, Alex, Michael, Mekel, Noam, Zainab, Alex, Nicole and all the crew in the UK and Spain, Margaret and all the team at STV (we can’t apologise enough to anyone we’re leaving out), we hope they all know how much they mean to us and that they never hesitate to reach out for anything we can do for them.

Alex: It was a difficult task that they had, but we can honestly say there’s nothing in the story that isn’t true in spirit.

Did you meet the actors who play you?

Alex: We were unable to meet Jahsaiah, who plays the younger version of me, as it was important to respect the process given his age and the difficulty of the material. But we did meet Max, who plays me as a teenager, and Jordan, who plays my father, and watched them working on set. Needless to say, they cared just as much about getting it right and understood what this was about for us, and it’s a privilege to have them representing us.

André: They both took the story to heart, and had done their research before we met them, so it was important to us that they knew they were on track and that we trusted and believed in them. Obviously, it’s strange to watch someone much younger and better looking than you, being you!

Why did you want to make the accompanying documentary?

Alex: People respond differently to drama and documentaries, so we really saw that as an opportunity to reach more people with our story and to hopefully make a difference.

You’ve contributed to documentaries before. What sets this apart?

André: What sets it apart is there’s a production team that gets it, and are on the same page as us. Unfortunately, with the best intentions in the world, our experience with the media has often been that the person on the other side of the table was unable to see things from our point of view. Often we’ve struggled to agree on what’s important, and get that message across in a way that feels true to us.

Alex: This is the first time we’ve had a team so committed and so caring in our corner, willing to go beneath the surface and narrate our story in a way that does justice to it. This hasn’t been done overnight and simply tagged on at the last minute, we’ve been working with Danny (producer) for several years now. We can never thank him, the Netflix team, Tanya, Lucy, Emma, Paul, Becca, Zanna, everyone at Blast Films, and Tom, Tim, Adam, Keir and all the crew enough for the kindness and generosity they’ve extended to us. We know that this has been a labour of love for all of them, and I know that I speak for my mother also in saying that they will always be in our prayers.

Alex, do you have strong memories of your childhood, before your mother’s death?

Alex: I have memories of both my parents together, some very early memories. I was blessed to have two incredibly loving parents who cared deeply about me, went the extra mile for me and were willing to suffer for me. The feeling of love and of being loved in return and the purity of that kind of love is something impossible to forget. I can’t explain the desire or drive to move forward to overcome what happened to us, it’s just something that was in my heart. I think everything that’s happened was a combination of my parents’ care and love for me, and God’s grace.

André, how do you feel about your relationship with Alex as an adult?

André: It’s a gift and beyond words, just as much as the love Rachel and I shared for each other.

Do you think Rachel would be proud of you both?

Alex: She wanted us to go on without her and never would have wanted evil to have the last word. We believe that she knows what’s in our heart and is with us in spirit in everything that we’re doing. She was all heart, and never would have wanted her suffering to be in vain.

What would you like audiences to take away from watching the programmes?

André: Never let anything or anyone define you or cause you to lose hope. Through all your suffering, trust what’s in your heart. There are many times we’ve felt lost along the way, life will bring all of us to our knees sooner or later. It wasn’t our strength that carried us through, but always the Grace of God. We hope viewers will take away our simple testament to the power of faith, hope, love and never giving up – and hold on to that with everything they have.

Alex: That even in the darkest moments, God is always with you. If we can touch just one person with our story, that makes it all worthwhile. We’ve been so touched already by everyone who has been a part of this, and helped us to tell our story with such love and care.