The true story of Robert Napper (2024)

Note: The following article contains discussion of sexual assault that some readers may find upsetting.

Robert Clive Napper is a convicted killer and rapist who has been compared to the infamous Jack the Ripper over the years, despite being lesser known.

He is currently detained at the high-security psychiatric facility of Broadmoor Hospital – which has also housed The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Charles Bronson and Ronnie Kray – where he will remain indefinitely.

Napper was convicted of the 1993 murder of Samantha Bisset and her daughter Jazmine when his fingerprint was found at the scene. It wasn't until 2008 that he was linked to the brutal killing of Rachel Nickell, who was stabbed to death while on Wimbledon Common with her two-year-old son in 1992.

This has been revisited by Channel 4's Deceit. But who is Napper, and what happened in real life?

Napper, born in 1966, was brought up and lived around Erith and Plumstead in South East London. He is now also widely believed to have been the "Green Chain Rapist" – so named because of the Green Chain Walk – who was responsible for around 70 attacks, and terrorising up to 86 women, over a period of four years which finally ended in 1994.

He's often described as having had a troubled childhood, witnessing violence by his father against his mother. He was around nine or 10 years old when his parents divorced and he and his siblings were taken into foster care, and they were said to have undergone psychiatric treatment, with Napper most affected. He was also sexually assaulted at the age of 12, which his mother described as having had an affect on his behaviour causing him to withdraw.

According to The Times, psychologists have argued that Napper's pattern of attacking young women while with their children was down to his own traumatic childhood experiences, but detectives have instead put forward that Napper selected women in these circ*mstances because they were more likely to comply.

Napper's first recorded criminal offence came in 1986, when he was found to be in possession of an airgun. Not long after that, he had confessed to his mother – who he was living with at the time – that he'd raped a woman on Plumstead Common. She rang the police immediately, but they decided not to pursue the inquiry due to them being unable to trace the crime.

Around eight weeks earlier, a woman had come forward to report to police that she had been raped in her home in front of her children. Her house backed on to Plumstead Common.

According to a report (via The Guardian), the masked perpetrator had come into the house through the back door and had been armed with a Stanley knife. This was the first of the attacks that became known as the Green Chain rapes.

Police are reported to have taken DNA from the woman, but they did not interview Napper in connection to the crime.

In the months leading up to July 1992, when Rachel Nickell was murdered, there was an elevation in the assaults along the Green Chain Walk. One woman was out with her two-year-old when she was grabbed from behind, raped and repeatedly beaten.

There was a major inquiry into these sexual assaults, and on more than one occasion Napper's name was put forward by members of the public as a possible suspect. After twice failing to show up to give DNA samples to the police when asked, Napper was eventually discounted from the investigation due to the belief that the rapist was 5ft 7 (Napper was over 6 foot).

In October 1992 he was back on the radar of the authorities after being accused of stalking. He was arrested, and the police search of his home uncovered some disturbing finds including knives, a pistol and a London A-Z that had been marked around the areas of Plumstead, Eltham and Woolwich.

He had also made derogatory notes about women, and they'd found a fitness card belonging to a young blonde woman.

Napper pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm. In court, time was spent talking about Napper's mental state and a psychiatric report argued that he was "without doubt an immediate threat to himself and the public" (via the Guardian piece). Napper was given a sentence of just eight weeks in custody.

By May 1994, Napper was connected to the brutal murder of Samantha Bisset and her daughter Jazmine in their home in Plumstead after DNA evidence confirmed him as the perpetrator. The evidence also connected him to the Green Chain rapes.

According to the Guardian, the police – who had been wrongly pursuing Colin Stagg for the Nickell murder – have since claimed to have looked at Napper after his arrest, but there was apparently no forensic evidence linking him to the Wimbledon Common scene at the time.

In 1995 Napper admitted to killing Samantha Bisset and her daughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and he also admitted to one rape and two attempted rapes on the Green Chain Walk.

It wasn't until the best part of 16 years after Rachel Nickell's death that Napper finally confessed to his involvement.

In 2008 he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey, admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility (via Guardian). The judge called him "a very dangerous man."

It is thought that Napper, now aged 55, will never leave Broadmoor.

Deceit is airing weekly at 9pm on Channel 4, and all episodes are available on All 4.

If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information from Rape Crisis England and Wales, who work towards the elimination of all forms of sexual violence and sexual misconduct, on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline number is 08088 01 03 02.

Readers in the US are encouraged to contact RAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673.

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