Press Reporting and its Aftermath: The Rachel Nickell Case

The sample newspapers are The Sun, Daily Mirror, The Times, The Guardian, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, News of the World, The Observer and the (London) Evening Standard.

For example, Margaret Thatcher stated in 1978, “People are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people with a different culture… the British Character… has done so much throughout the world, that if there is any fear that it might be swamped, people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in” (quoted in Ohri , 1988, pp. 14–15). Such attitudes persist, particularly so with changes to border controls through European integration.

In August 1992 Peter Lilly entered “the political minefield of benefits to single parents” being concerned “with possible effects on crime rates, unemployment, and sickness… which can result in increased dependency on the State” (The Times, June 21, 1992). Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, at the 1993 Conservative Party Conference clearly stressed a link between lone motherhood and juvenile delinquency (The Guardian, October 6, 1993).

This was, in fact, a play on words, for not only was Rachel reported as an able and devoted mother, but she had also been employed as a part-time model until just before her death.

Segal (1990), for example, notes “Heterosexual performance may be viewed as the mainstay of masculine identity…” (p. 211).

The family background and socio-economic status of Rachel Nickell was also mentioned in press reports, and were in stark contrast with those of Colin Stagg. So, for example, it was reported that she had “a happy middle-class childhood” (The Times, September 15, 1995) and that she and André lived in a comfortable (£80,000) two-bedroomed flat’ (Evening Standard, July 16, 1992).

There were violent outbreaks at East Dareham, Aylesbury, Hereford, Falmouth and Chudleigh. The then Home Secretary was so concerned with the violence that he commissioned research from the Home Office concerning the causes of the violence, the result of which was Drinking and Disorder; A Study of Non-Metropolitan Violence (Tuck, 1989).

Interesting questions emerge from this which need to be explored. For instance, why were the two incidents not connected? Why is it that some criminal activities become connected in the press and develop into moral panics (Cohen, 1972), whilst others do not.

It was reported, for instance, that Rachel's parents lived in a “£250,000 detached house” (Daily Mirror, July 17, 1992), and that her father was “a former army officer and businessman” (The Times July 22, 1992).

In fact, it was Colin Stagg's profile as an “ideal” offender which was captured in the use of “psychological profiling which had been an important element in the police investigation of (Rachel) Nickell's murder almost from the start” (Wilson and Soothill, 1996).

In 1992, there were in fact, several lone mothers and divorcees with children murdered after being sexually abused. None received the degree or tone of press coverage which Rachel Nickell did.

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Morgan D. (1993) Discovering Men, London: Routledge.

Morgan P. (1995) Farewell to the Family? Public Policy and Family Breakdown in Britain and the USA, London: Institute of Economic Affairs Health and Welfare Unit.

Murray C. (1990) “Underclass”, in Murray C. , The Emerging British Underclass, London: Institute of Economic Affairs Health and Welfare Unit.

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Ohri S. (1988) “The Politics of Racism, Statistics and Equal Opportunity: Towards a Black Perspective”, in Bhat A. Carr-Hill R. and Ohri S. , Britain's Black Population. A New Perspective, 2nd edn, Aldershot: Gower.

Pearson G. (1983) Hooligan. A History of Respectable Fears, London: Macmillan.

Redwood J. (1993) “There aren't many fathers around here”, speech to Conservative Political Centre Summer School, Cardiff.

Segal L. (1990) Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men, London: Virago.

Soothill K. (1994) Sex Crime in the News Revisited, unpublished report for the Home Office.

Soothill K. , and Walby S. (1991) Sex Crime in the News, London: Routledge.

Thompson E. (1980) The Making of the English Working Class, London: Penguin.

Tuck M. (1989) Drinking and Disorder: A Study of Non-Metropolitan Violence, London: HMSO.

Wilson P. and Soothill K. (1996) “Psychological Profiling: Red, Green or Amber”, The Police Journal, Vol. LXIX, No. 1, pp. 12–20.