Ashleigh Hall: 'We've learned a terrible lesson', says mother of girl killed after going to see 'boy' she met on Facebook

The mother of a teenager lured to her death over the internet yesterday warned other parents of the dangers of social networking sites.

Andrea Hall, 39, spoke of the 'terrible lesson' she had learned.

Her 17-year-old daughter Ashleigh was found dead in a ditch on Monday. The student nursery nurse had left home on Sunday evening and told her mother that she would be staying at a friend's house.



She believed she was going to meet a boy of 16 whom she had befriended on the social networking site Facebook.

Her body was found at the side of a secluded country road in Sedgefield, County Durham, known locally as a lovers' lane.



Devastated: Andrea Hall warned other parents after her daughter Ashleigh, right, was killed after going to meet a man who she had met on the internet



Online yesterday: The Facebook page of 32-year-old Peter Chapman

Miss Hall, who has three other children, yesterday said the death of her eldest child had devastated the family.

She begged other parents: 'Tell your kids to be careful on the internet. Don't meet someone without telling your family where you are going.

'Don't trust anybody and don't put your children on Facebook or other sites if they are underage. We have learned a terrible lesson.'

Ashleigh lived with her mother in Darlington and had three sisters - Olivia, six, Ellie, four, and one-year-old Evie.

Miss Hall, who also has a page on Facebook, said her daughter was in her final year at college where she was studying child care and was looking forward to a career as a child minder or nursery nurse.



Charged: Peter Chapman led police to the girl's body

'No one can imagine the hurt and devastation that has caused our family,' she said.



'Ashleigh was loving, honest, caring and well-liked.

'Everybody loved her. She was a person who brought light into the lives of others.

'To have Ashleigh taken from us in such circumstances is beyond belief and I don't want other families to suffer what we are going through.

'All we ask now is that people help the police in any way they can. We don't want any other child to be a victim.'

In a separate message, posted on her Facebook site just hours after she learned of her daughter's death, she simply wrote: 'My beautiful daughter has been taken away from me.'

Unemployed drifter Peter Chapman, 32, is thought to have led police to Ashleigh's body on Monday evening after being arrested by traffic officers.

He appeared before Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court yesterday charged with killing the teenager, kidnap and failing to notify the police of a change of address as all sex offenders are required to do.

Unshaven and wearing blue jeans and a creased white T-shirt, he kept his hands in his pockets and his head bowed for the five-minute hearing.



He remained standing in the dock as the charges against him were read to the court.



Chapman is thought to have been monitored every six months by the police under the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) for sex offenders.



Last night it emerged that Chapman's ex-fiancee is the spitting image of Ashleigh Hall.



Dyanne Littler, who moved in with the murder suspect after he proposed to her, has the exact brown hair and eyes and rounded features as the tragic 17-year-old.



Miss Littler, a mother-of-one, also revealed how she was wooed by Chapman over Facebook - the same internet site he used to target Ashleigh.



A month later Chapman was arrested after police discovered he was looking after her baby despite the fact he was on the sex offender's register.



She immediately ended the relationship and a few months later she suffered a miscarriage she blames on stress



Last night Miss Littler , 25, told The Sun: "He was always on Facebook and other social sites - he was on his PC constantly."



Magistrate Christopher Shaw told Chapman that he would not be granting bail because of the 'substantial grounds' that he would commit further offences. Chapman will appear before Teesside Crown Court on November 3.

Last night, Merseyside Police said they had launched a review into Chapman's case.

Victim: The body of Ashleigh Hall, pictured left with a friend, was found in a field near Sedgefield in County Durham

A white tent covers the place where the 17-year-old's body was found

In a statement they said: 'We can confirm that Peter Chapman was a registered sex offender who was resident in the force area.

'It was recently established that he had left his address in Merseyside and failed to notify the police to this.



'He was immediately circulated as being wanted for this offence and efforts have been made since to locate him.



'As a matter of routine and as with any such breach of requirements by a registered sex offender Merseyside Police are reviewing Chapman's case.'

A former neighbour of Chapman's from Kirkby, Liverpool, where he lived for two years until October last year, said: 'He was no problem most of the time, he had a manual job with a glass company.



'He seemed to like cars, that was his big interest. He had a couple of bangers he was doing up.'

A Facebook page under Chapman's name, with a black-and-white photo, was still active yesterday. All of his 144 listed 'friends' are women.



The Ford Mondeo car, registration S148 JNK, which Durham Police are asking for sightings of in connection with the incident