A CONVICTED sex killer is set to be charged with the notorious unsolved murder of a former Colchester schoolgirl 14 years ago, it has been reported.Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in front of her toddler son on Wimbledon Common, London, in 1992.

By Annie Davidson

A CONVICTED sex killer is set to be charged with the notorious unsolved murder of a former Colchester schoolgirl 14 years ago, it has been reported.

Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in front of her toddler son on Wimbledon Common, London, in 1992.

The crime, which horrified the nation, has been re-investigated by detectives at Scotland Yard in recent years in the hope of finally catching the killer.

Now a national newspaper has reported that police are on the verge of charging a man with the killing following a DNA breakthrough.

The 40-year-old suspect is a serial rapist and paranoid schizophrenic who is being detained indefinitely at Broadmoor high security mental hospital for the brutal murders of a woman and her young daughter.

It was reported that the man would be charged next year with the murder of 23-year-old Miss Nickell.

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said yesterday: “We won't confirm anything, we never comment on this kind of thing.

“The re-investigation continues and a final report has not yet been sent to the CPS.”

Miss Nickell lived in Wickham Bishops, near Witham, and went to Colchester County High School for Girls and Colchester Institute.

She was walking her dog, Molly, on Wimbledon Common with her son, Alex, who was a month away from his third birthday.

Miss Nickell was set upon, stabbed and sexually assaulted in front of her son, who was found clinging to her body.

A massive police investigation was launched and a suspect, Colin Stagg, was eventually charged with Miss Nickell's murder.

He spent 13 months in prison before the charges were thrown out by an Old Bailey judge in 1994.

The case against him was dropped after Mr Justice Ognall was told police had carried out an undercover operation and Mr Stagg had been befriended by a female officer using the codename Lizzie James.

She tried to lure him into admitting his guilt over Miss Nickell's murder under the direction of a police psychologist.

The judge labelled it “a blatant attempt to incriminate a suspect by positive and deceptive conduct of the grossest kind”.

Miss Nickell's partner Andre moved to France six months after her death with their son and is bringing him up away from the spotlight.

annie.davidson@eadt.co.uk