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The Rachel Nickell Murder: Justice at Last

Episode 12 of 15

Rachel Nickell was murdered in 1992. Ten years later, a team using new DNA technology finally identify her killer. In another case, a trace expert uses beer glass fragments to find an assailant.

On 15 July 1992, while walking with her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common, Rachel Nickell was brutally murdered, with the little boy left clinging to her body. The police launched an investigation, gathering vast amounts of forensic evidence, but despite the scale of their efforts and the public nature of the crime, there were no witnesses and few leads. In the weeks that followed, a man was caught indecently exposing himself not far from the scene of the crime, and the police focused all their efforts on finding evidence to prove his guilt, leaving the real killer free to evade justice. A decade later, Angela Gallop and her team of forensic scientists were brought in to re-examine the evidence, and this time they discovered the truth. With powerful interviews with the forensic team and the first detective on the scene, Ron Turnbull.

In our second case, Adnan Said was assaulted outside a pub in Knightsbridge, London, by a group of off-duty soldiers. One of his attackers threw a glass in his face, causing such serious injuries that he lost sight in his left eye. Although police knew who the attackers were, they didn’t know who had caused the appalling injury. Expert witness Sarah Jacobs was brought in to use a high-tech piece of equipment called a GRIM – Glass Refractive Index Measurement System – to examine the glass from Adnan’s eye and match it to other fragments found at the scene and so prove who was responsible.

11 months left to watch

28 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Ashley John-Baptiste
Reporter Jeff Edwards
Production Manager Andrea McClelland
Composer Philip Guyler
Executive Producer Edward Hart
Executive Producer Emma Barker
Series Producer Lucy Wedlock
Producer Ben Thomas
Producer Angus Gibson
Producer Gary Watson
Director Ben Thomas
Director Angus Gibson
Director Gary Watson
Production Company Rare TV

Broadcast