Police monitoring sex offender who killed teenage girl to face probe
Peter Chapman was a known sex offender when he raped and murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall (pictured)
Tuesday, 09, Mar 2010 04:40
By Sarah Garrod.
The police force responsible for monitoring a sex offender who killed a teenage girl is to be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
Peter Chapman was a known sex offender who was on the national sex offender's list when he raped and murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall last October.
At the time of her murder Chapman, 33, had been missing from his Merseyside home for some time, and it has since emerged that police had lost contact with Chapman in the months before the crime.
Although police say attempts were made to locate him locally, it was not until September 2009, one month before Ashleigh was murdered, that police issued a nationwide wanted alert. Following Chapman's conviction police decided the case needed to be investigated by the IPCC. A spokesman said the decision to refer the case was "in view of the public interest and concerns" and to ensure "complete transparency".
The decision to refer the case to the IPCC came after the Home Secretary Alan Johnson demanded answers. Mr Johnson said lessons "needed to be learned" following Ashleigh's murder.
During the trial the court heard how Ashleigh was tricked into believing 33-year-old Chapman was a 17-year-old boy called Peter Cartwright via messages he sent her on social networking site Facebook, and that he had a long history of sexual offending.
Ashleigh's mother, Andrea Hall said on ITV's This Morning: "He took my daughter. He shouldn't be allowed human rights; he's not human, is he?
"He murdered my daughter. She was 17 and he knew exactly what he was doing and there was no remorse whatsoever.
"He had it planned... and she was such a lovely girl and that's probably why he targeted her."