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Facebook killer sentenced to life for teenager's murder
Peter Chapman, who used fake Facebook profile to lure student Ashleigh Hall, told he must serve a minimum of 35 years
Peter Chapman admitted murdering Ashleigh Hall. Photograph: Durham police/PA
Sex offender Peter Chapman was today sentenced to life imprisonment after he admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenage student he had ensnared using a fake Facebook profile. Chapman, 33, of no fixed address, changed his plea as he was due to face trial at Teesside crown court for the killing of Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old student.
He was told by Judge Peter Fox QC that he must serve a minimum of 35 years before he could be considered for release.
Ashleigh's body was found dumped in a field near Sedgefield, County Durham, in October. The teenager, from Darlington, had been strangled.
Chapman also pleaded guilty to failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register.
Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, said Chapman had used the fake identity of a teenage boy to entice Ashleigh into meeting him.
He created the fake profile on Facebook and used pictures of a boy in his late teens, the court heard.
"The photograph is not of him. It is of a bare-chested and good-looking boy who is apparently in his late teens," Reeds said. "The defendant is a somewhat plainer looking man who could pass for being rather older than his 33 years.
"The prosecution case is that the defendant used this handsome alter ego to entice 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall into meeting him. When she met him, on 25 October last year, he kidnapped, raped and murdered her."
The prosecutor said the teenager suffered from low-esteem and boys were uninterested in her.
"According to her friends, Ashleigh was interested in boys but they, generally, were not interested in her," he said, adding that her friends thought that, if a male did show her attention, "she would likely be flattered by it".
The night before her body was found, she told her mother she was going to stay with a friend but had instead made the decision to meet Chapman.
Chapman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Stockton-on-Tees, has a history of sexual offending, it has since emerged. He was the subject of several sexual assault investigations, beginning when he was 15. In 1996, then 19, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint. He was released in 2001.
The unemployed defendant, who used to live in Kirkby, Liverpool, and has links to Teesside, was arrested by traffic police on suspicion of minor motoring offences soon after he had dumped Ashleigh's fully-clothed body.
He was held for questioning in Middlesbrough, where he asked to speak to detectives and what had been a routine inquiry took a more sinister turn. He led police to the spot, near a lovers' lane, where Ashleigh's body was found almost 24 hours after she had left the family home.
In the days after the killing, Ashleigh's 39-year-old mother, Andrea, called for the return of the death penalty for killers. Before Chapman's conviction, she said: "Whoever did this is going to go prison and sleep in a comfortable bed, but one day they will be out. They will be living and breathing as normal. But my daughter's life had been ended at 17 – and my life has ended because she is not here."
Ashleigh studied childcare at college in Darlington and helped her mother bring up the family's other children.
"I could understand it if Ashleigh had died because of illness," the victim's mother said. "But to actually have someone take someone's life is just unbearable. Ashleigh was my rock."
Her daughter loved chatting to friends online and spent much of her spare cash on her mobile phone so she could also text them. Her mother said: "Ashleigh wasn't a bad kid. She wasn't naughty. She made one mistake and has paid for it with her life."
Durham police led the inquiry, which involved contacting 2,500 people who knew Chapman through internet sites.
Peter Chapman, who used fake Facebook profile to lure student Ashleigh Hall, told he must serve a minimum of 35 years
Peter Chapman admitted murdering Ashleigh Hall. Photograph: Durham police/PA
Sex offender Peter Chapman was today sentenced to life imprisonment after he admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenage student he had ensnared using a fake Facebook profile. Chapman, 33, of no fixed address, changed his plea as he was due to face trial at Teesside crown court for the killing of Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old student.
He was told by Judge Peter Fox QC that he must serve a minimum of 35 years before he could be considered for release.
Ashleigh's body was found dumped in a field near Sedgefield, County Durham, in October. The teenager, from Darlington, had been strangled.
Chapman also pleaded guilty to failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register.
Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, said Chapman had used the fake identity of a teenage boy to entice Ashleigh into meeting him.
He created the fake profile on Facebook and used pictures of a boy in his late teens, the court heard.
"The photograph is not of him. It is of a bare-chested and good-looking boy who is apparently in his late teens," Reeds said. "The defendant is a somewhat plainer looking man who could pass for being rather older than his 33 years.
"The prosecution case is that the defendant used this handsome alter ego to entice 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall into meeting him. When she met him, on 25 October last year, he kidnapped, raped and murdered her."
The prosecutor said the teenager suffered from low-esteem and boys were uninterested in her.
"According to her friends, Ashleigh was interested in boys but they, generally, were not interested in her," he said, adding that her friends thought that, if a male did show her attention, "she would likely be flattered by it".
The night before her body was found, she told her mother she was going to stay with a friend but had instead made the decision to meet Chapman.
Chapman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Stockton-on-Tees, has a history of sexual offending, it has since emerged. He was the subject of several sexual assault investigations, beginning when he was 15. In 1996, then 19, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint. He was released in 2001.
The unemployed defendant, who used to live in Kirkby, Liverpool, and has links to Teesside, was arrested by traffic police on suspicion of minor motoring offences soon after he had dumped Ashleigh's fully-clothed body.
He was held for questioning in Middlesbrough, where he asked to speak to detectives and what had been a routine inquiry took a more sinister turn. He led police to the spot, near a lovers' lane, where Ashleigh's body was found almost 24 hours after she had left the family home.
In the days after the killing, Ashleigh's 39-year-old mother, Andrea, called for the return of the death penalty for killers. Before Chapman's conviction, she said: "Whoever did this is going to go prison and sleep in a comfortable bed, but one day they will be out. They will be living and breathing as normal. But my daughter's life had been ended at 17 – and my life has ended because she is not here."
Ashleigh studied childcare at college in Darlington and helped her mother bring up the family's other children.
"I could understand it if Ashleigh had died because of illness," the victim's mother said. "But to actually have someone take someone's life is just unbearable. Ashleigh was my rock."
Her daughter loved chatting to friends online and spent much of her spare cash on her mobile phone so she could also text them. Her mother said: "Ashleigh wasn't a bad kid. She wasn't naughty. She made one mistake and has paid for it with her life."
Durham police led the inquiry, which involved contacting 2,500 people who knew Chapman through internet sites.
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