Police to review Nickell murder case

A REVIEW of the Rachel Nickell murder investigation was announced yesterday by Sir Paul Condon, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, writes Graham Moorby.

Officers headed by an assistant commissioner will re-examine the evidence following the acquittal of Colin Stagg last week.

Detectives will search for new leads in the murder hunt and decide if mistakes were made in the two-year investigation. Sir Paul said on BBC TV: 'Every possible new lead will be followed. What we're doing now is resifting everything we've done to see if there are further leads to follow up.'

But he added: 'There should not be an expectation that somehow we have ignored a whole range of clues . . . every potential avenue of investigation was followed up, explored and dealt with.'

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said the review was not a reopening of the case.

David Mellor, Mr Stagg's MP, said he would be seeking a meeting with Sir Paul and with Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, to get the case reopened. Mr Stagg was cleared last Wednesday of the murder of Ms Nickell, 22, on Wimbledon Common in July 1992.

An Old Bailey judge criticised the police operation to trap Mr Stagg using an undercover female officer.