‘I asked her to get up’: Rachel Nickell’s son Alex first spoke of chilling ordeal nine years ago

The murder of Rachel Nickell is being spoken about once again as Netflix has released drama The Witness, and a true crime film about what happened to her. But, her son Alex Hanscombe actually broke his silence about the chilling ordeal nearly 10 years ago.

In 1992, Rachel Nickell was on a walk with her two-year-old son Alex in Wimbledon Common. Then, a stranger assaulted and killed Rachel, while Alex watched. She was later discovered when dog walkers found Alex clinging to his mother’s body. She had been s*xually assaulted, and stabbed 49 times. Alex saw the whole thing happen.

It took years for police to track down her killer, and now Robert Napper is housed at Broadmoor Hospital.

Alex Hanscombe appeared in the Netflix film The Murder of Rachel Nickell, and shared what it was like as a young boy to have to re-live the ordeal over and over again, to try and help investigators. He shared how it impacted him growing up, and the relationship with his father André.

This wasn’t the first time he shared his story. Alex Hanscombe appeared on This Morning in 2017, and shared more. This was 25 years on from what happened.

via YouTube

‘I realised in a split second that she’d gone and was never coming back’

During the interview, it was suggested that Alex “remembers everything” from his mother’s murder and he said he remembers “the key elements”. He then went on to explain exactly what he did remember, and the moments that have stuck with him the most from that day.

“Not everything [I remember], but I think the most important things,” he said. “Over time you remember the key elements of the story. The things you need to remember. Memory is different for everyone. You tend to remember what you need to remember to function and move forward in your life.”

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He went on to say he has memories of both his parents from when he was just two-years-old, and “of course” those involve memories from the day his mother was killed.

“The thing that’s really stayed with me throughout my life from that morning is that realisation in the seconds after the attack had taken place, reaching out to my mother and asking her to get up, and realising in a split second that she’d gone and was never coming back,” he said.

Alex spoke of the moment Robert Napper emerged from the bushes and explained he and his mother “could sense something was in the air” and turned their heads to see a “stranger lurching towards us with a black bag over his shoulder”.

Alex explained everything happened in just seconds, and that he was grabbed and “thrown roughly” to the ground, and his face was then dragged across the mud. He said within seconds he saw his mother collapse next to him. He called the moment “intense” but described a “strange feeling of peacefulness, serenity” at the same time.

Alex then got help, and he was taken to hospital before being reunited with his father. “There was nothing that my father could explain to me,” Alex said. “I’d been there. I’d seen through my own eyes. But… my father wanted to make sure there was no doubt in my mind that my mother was gone.”

In the aftermath, Alex Hanscombe described his childhood home as being “rigged” with cameras so investigators could hear anything he might say about what had happened. “It was very chaotic from that morning really,” he said. “We were chased by the press. They camped outside our home.”

After this, Alex and his father André fled the country to attempt to start a new life.

The Murder of Rachel Nickell is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.