PLUMSTEAD: IPCC condemns Nickell case 'errors'

Napper, aged 43, who used to live in Plumstead High Street, killed Miss Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992.

Officers missed a series of opportunities to take the violent psychopath off the streets, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said.

The lives of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine, who were slaughtered in their flat in Heathfield Terrace, Plumstead, in 1993, would also have been saved if police had acted on tip-offs, including one by Napper's mother after he confessed to rape.

Rachel Cerfontyne, of the IPCC, said police failed to investigate the 1989 report that he attacked a woman on Plumstead Common, and no record of the telephone call can be found.

She added that officers "inconceivably" eliminated Napper over a series of rapes on parkland in south London because he was thought to be too tall.

She said: "It is clear that throughout the investigations into the 'Green Chain' rapes and Rachel Nickell's death there was a catalogue of bad decisions and errors made by the Metropolitan Police.

"Without these errors, Robert Napper could have been off the streets before he killed Rachel Nickell and the Bissets, and before numerous women suffered violent sexual attacks at his hands."

The IPCC said no police officers will face disciplinary action because they have all retired, and one key senior detective has died. Criminal prosecutions were not considered.

Reacting to the report, Miss Nickell's partner Andre Hanscombe said the IPCC shared his "sense of shock and disbelief" in the police blunders.

He added: "Nothing is going to bring Rachel, Samantha or Jazmine back.

"But having had some time to come to terms with this new reality, I now believe the best way to serve those who paid most heavily is to make sure all the lessons have been learned, to make sure that this could never happen again."