Predator on the Common

The Crimes of Robert Napper

By: Mark Stokes

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Late at night across south-east London’s parks and pathways, fear took a form that few could have imagined. In Predator on the Common, the story emerges of Robert Napper — a man whose quiet exterior concealed a catalogue of stalking, rape, mutilation and murder. From seemingly mundane roots, his descent into violence escalated until he turned the leafy trails and suburbs into hunting grounds, leaving behind shattered lives and unanswered terrors.

This book follows the investigation from its early mis-steps to the breakthrough that finally brought Napper into custody. You’ll move through the chilling details: the Green Chain Walk attacks, the brutal murders of Samantha Bisset and her young daughter Jazmine, and the infamous Wimbledon Common killing of Rachel Nickell — all crimes that exposed systemic failings and forensic blind spots. With access to court records, forensic insights and witness accounts, the narrative threads together how one man evaded capture and what it took to unmask the predator hiding in plain sight.

But Predator on the Common goes beyond the gruesome facts. It probes questions of identity, isolation and institutional breakdown: how Napper’s chaotic childhood and mental-health struggles intersected with police errors and overlooked leads; how a community hunted for answers; and how justice ultimately sought to cope with trauma, failure and the memory of lives lost. For readers of true-crime who demand both depth and clarity, this book delivers a haunting, uncompromising look at one of Britain’s darkest criminal sagas.