Colin Stagg charged

Colin Stagg, the man cleared last year of murdering Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, was arrested there yesterday after allegedly threatening a man and his 11-year-old son with an axe.

He was arrested with 26-year-old Diane Caroline Beddoes. They were both charged yesterday evening and Ms Beddoes was released on bail. Both will appear at Wimbledon Magistrates Court today charged with affray, assault and possession of weapons.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said last night: "Police were called at 9.12 this morning by rangers at Wimbledon Common after a report that a 30-year-old man and his 11-year-old son had been threatened with an axe by a man and a woman on the Common." Neither the man nor his son were hurt.

Rachel Nickell, 23, was murdered in July 1992 as she walked across Wimbledon Common with her two-year-old son, Alex. Mr Stagg was acquitted of the murder in September last year, after a judge ruled that evidence obtained by police was inadmissible.