What Happened to Detective Micky Banks?

Netflix’s three-part miniseries, ‘The Witness,’ uncovers the truth behind the murder of Rachel Nickell. As the investigation proceeds, the cops find it difficult to nail the culprit, since the only witness is Rachel’s two-year-old son, Alex. After a time, they fixate on a suspect, Colin Stagg, but meanwhile, another murder takes place in a different part of town. Samantha Bisset and her daughter, Jazmine, are brutally assaulted and murdered in their home. The case is handled by DS Micky Banks, who won’t stop until he finds the killer.

Micky Banks Worked Tirelessly to Get Justice for the Bissets

DS Micky Banks had worked for the Met Police for several years, but he had never seen anything as bad as the crime scene at the Bisset house. Samantha Bisset and her 4-year-old daughter, Jazmine, had been killed so brutally that Banks had to warn his junior before he stepped on the crime scene. The brutality of the crime made Banks and his team adamant about catching the killer, no matter what it takes. Banks, described as an old-school detective who is very thorough in his process, knew the culprit had to have left some evidence behind.

The forensics team pulled prints from the house, but all of them were ruled out as belonging to the Bissets or their acquaintances. Banks, however, refused to believe that none of the fingerprints had stood out. It happened rarely, if at all, and so, he demanded a re-examination of the prints. He was proven right this time; one set of prints did stand out. It was found in places, such as the handle of the house’s French windows, which the culprit would have touched while entering and moving through the house.  The prints belonged to a man named Robert Napper, and Banks and his team were convinced that he was the man they were looking for.

Not only this, but the detective superintendent also strongly believed that Napper was behind the murder of Rachel Nickell. He shared this information with DI Keith Pedder, who was a part of the team handling Nickell’s case. However, Banks noted that they were convinced they had the right guy in Colin Bragg and were not ready to entertain the possibility that they had caught the wrong guy. Soon, Napper was convicted of the Bisset murders, while Bragg was acquitted of all charges. About a decade later, new DNA tech cracked Nickell’s case, confirming that Napper was the murderer after all.

Meanwhile, Banks continued to work for the Met Police and eventually retired after years of exemplary service. He diligently worked on his cases, staying out of the media spotlight, preferring to enjoy his personal and professional life in privacy. He hasn’t spoken publicly much about the cases he worked on. However, he did appear in the Netflix documentary ‘The Murder of Rachel Nickell’ to discuss the Bisset case, how he and his team caught Napper, and the impact the case had on him.

Read More: Robert Napper: Where is the Killer Now?