A TV show exploring a controversial honeytrap set up to catch the suspect in the murder of a woman from Great Totham has hit the screens.
Deceit, a Channel 4 drama produced by Story Films, was first shown last week and is available to watch on demand.
The four-part series has been directed by Bafta award-winning director Niall MacCormick and boasts a cast of familiar faces.
Niamh Algar, Sion Daniel Young and Harry Treadaway star alongside Eddie Marsan, Rochenda Sandall and Nathaniel Martello-White.
The show is centred on the investigation into the murder of former Colchester County High School for Girls student Rachel Nickell in 1992.
Rachel, from Great Totham, was at the girls’ grammar school between 1980 and 1985, before leaving to take A-levels at Colchester Institute.
Aged just 23 at the time of her horrific killing, she was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in front of her son Alex Hanscombe, then aged two, while walking their dog on Wimbledon Common.
The 1992 attack shocked the country and was one of the UK’s most high-profile cold cases until paranoid schizophrenic Robert Napper, 42, eventually admitted manslaughter.
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Before his conviction, Napper also went on to brutally murder Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine the year after killing Rachel.
The series will specifically look into a honeytrap which was set up by police officers in an attempt to catch a suspect they believed to have carried out the murder.
Colin Stagg, who had his life turned upside down after he was suspected of the crime, helped producers and writers with the TV show.
Deceit depicts Niamh Algar as a female undercover officer called Lizzie James who is asked to become sexual bait for a suspected killer.
Writer and executive producer Emilia di Girolamo said: “It has a unique female point of entry through Lizzie James and because we start several months after the crime and focuses on the undercover operation, rather than on the murder itself or the investigation, that makes it different.
“Also with the public inquiry into undercover policing examining the ethics and treatment of those involved within cases it was the perfect time to examine a story that I think few know about, and the treatment of the officer and impact for all involved."
To watch all episodes, visit www.channel4.com/programmes/deceit.
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