‘Agony of never seeing our grandson’

RACHEL Nickell's partner has banned her parents from seeing their grandson Alex, the court heard today.

In an impact statement, Andrew Nickell described the pain he and his wife feel about the separation.

André Hanscombe had taken Alex, who aged two had seen his mother being butchered, to start a new life in France and Spain.

Mr Nickell says Mr Hanscombe has "retreated into pain and blame". "After a few years he moves abroad and later [we] are stopped from seeing [our] only grandson," he said in the statement read by Victor Temple QC, prosecuting.

Losing Rachel was like "being run over by a very large truck".

"You come out of a coma months/years later having lived through a period when you were not really conscious of what was going on but you keep automatically breathing and eating. When you come to you gradually realise what you have lost."

Mr Nickell and his wife Monica had lost their future with their daughter and grandson, and their anonymity.

They are "gawked" at in supermarkets and shunned by friends "who think some bad luck will rub off on them".

Rachel's brother will not form a close relationship in case it ends in another devastating loss.

The Home Office offers "derisory" compensation for Alex who had lost his mother's love for 15 of the first 18 years of his life, he said.

"The pain remains with you every minute of every day We hope the man who committed this crime will spend the rest of his life in prison — that is the sentence he has given us."