The man who wrongly went to jail for 13 months over the death of former model Rachel Nickell is now homeless, despite being given a whopping £700k payout from the Home Office after he was caught in a Met Police honey-pot operation.
Colin Stagg was handed the payout by the Home Office in 2008 to help “rebuild his life” after being the victim of a Met Police honey-trap operation.
But 15 years on, he revealed that he just spent his 60th birthday in a council-funded emergency shelter after his girlfriend kicked him out of her home.
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Rachel Nickell was just 23 when she was stabbed to death in front of her two-year-old son while they were walking on Wimbledon Common, southwest London, in 1992.
Colin, then 29, spent more than a year behind bars waiting for a trial that was eventually thrown out by a judge, who condemned the Met Police for their “deceptive conduct.”
A female officer had been ordered to pretend to be romantically interested in him to get a “confession” out of him
Despite the case’s collapse, the allegations hung over Colin’s head for more than a decade, with many speculating that he had simply gotten away with Rachel’s murder.
It was only when serial killer and rapist Robert Napper admitted in 2008 that he was Rachel’s killer did Colin face any justice.
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Colin told the Mirrorthat despite splashing all his cash knowing it could’ve been used to set himself and his family up for life, he had no regrets about it.
He said: “After everything I’d been through, I just wanted to live for the moment. I guess it did feel a bit like winning the lottery. I thought it might last me 10 years, possibly 20. I wasn’t really thinking about the future.”
Colin, who now lives on less than £300 a week from Universal Credit, said he burned through the cash like it was going out of fashion, spending thousands on holidays, cars and gifts for his partner Terri, her kids and their family.
“I didn’t care how much anything cost. Anything I wanted, I bought. Terri never asked for anything. But I loved her and wanted to spoil her.”
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But despite all the gifts he gave, their 17-year relationship ended in April, even though he was her full time carer.
Cold said he isn’t ready to give up yet, adding that living in the homeless shelter was a cakewalk compared to what he had gone through in the past.
He added: "If I can survive a year in prison for a crime I didn’t commit, I can survive this. It’s not going to break me.”
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