Another case of innocence finally proved

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/18/rachel-nickell-colin-stagg


Rachel Nickell killing: Met apology a long time coming, says innocent Stagg
Man who was charged and cleared over killing says he has forgiven case detectives but not profiler who accused him
* Sandra Laville, crime correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 December 2008 13.34 GMT

Colin Stagg today received the apology from the Metropolitan police that he has waited 16 years to hear.

"It has been a long time coming," the 45-year-old said. "It would have been nicer if the Met could have looked me in the eye while they did it, but I'll take what's on offer."

A letter signed by the Met's assistant commissioner, John Yates, was hand delivered this morning to Stagg's solicitors's office. It said the police would like to make it a matter of public record that Stagg had nothing to do with the murder. "I must offer you an unreserved apology for the proceedings instigated against you in 1994. I acknowledge the huge and most regrettable effect this has had on your life for the past 16 years," Yates wrote.
...
Stagg said he had forgiven the detectives who implicated him in the murder of Rachel Nickell, and reserved his bitterness for the senior officers and prosecution team who allowed the case to go ahead against him with no evidence. His anger is directed in particular at Paul Britton, the forensic profiler who in 1992 was hailed as the man with the key to unlock tough murder investigations. From Britton he has had no apology.
...
Stagg was held in prison for 13 months on remand. For four of those months, Robert Napper was held on remand in prison for the murder of Samantha Bissett and her daughter, Jazmine, 12 miles away from Wimbledon Common.

Police sources said officers saw the similarities between the two murders – both were random, motiveless knife attacks on blond women with children present. But the senior officer in the Nickell inquiry decided to let the legal process go ahead despite the questions the Bissett killing had raised.
...
Stagg left the court a free man but in the 14 years since he continued to be viewed as a man who got away with murder. In August this year, Lord Brennan awarded Stagg £706,000 in compensation for his ordeal. Brennan said the police operation had involved manipulation and deception of a highly reprehensible kind.