Mother of teenage girl killed 'after meeting man on Facebook' calls for ban on false online profiles



The mother of the girl allegedly killed by a stranger she met on Facebook yesterday demanded more protection for users of social networking sites.

Andrea Hall said 17-year-old Ashleigh had 'made one mistake and has paid for it with her life'. She called on websites to clamp down on users who create false identities.

Ashleigh had told her mother she had gone to spend Sunday night with a friend, but a frantic series of calls to her mobile phone the next morning went unanswered.



Loss: Andrea Hall sitting on the bed of her daughter Ashleigh, whose body was found in a field near Sedgefield in County Durham earlier this week Her body was found that night in a field near Sedgefield, County Durham, after police made a routine stop on a motorist. Miss Hall, 39, told yesterday of the agonising moment she finally got through to Ashleigh's phone, only for it to be answered by a police officer. Her 'mother's instinct' made her realise that the worst had happened. And she told of the 'scary' moment she saw pictures of the accused's ex-fiancee, who closely resembles Ashleigh, saying she feared her daughter had been targeted deliberately. 'I can't blame the internet, but it is about time that somebody looked at ways of introducing controls which stop people putting up false pictures and false information,' she said. 'The people who run Facebook and other social networking sites do have some responsibility for bringing in these controls.'



Ashleigh Hall was found dead after allegedly meeting a man through Facebook. Peter Chapman has been charged with kidnap and manslaughter



Miss Hall said Ashleigh knew the risks of sharing information online but stressed: 'We trusted Facebook and she was always told never to add a stranger as a friend. I brought her up not to talk to strangers and that applied to the internet as well.

'She had about 400 friends on Facebook but she knew every single one of them. We can't imagine how she got to be friends with someone she didn't know. She made one mistake and has paid for it with her life.

'It's not Ashleigh's fault what happened. All we can do as parents is try to get across to them that there are two sides to the internet.'

Miss Hall said Ashleigh, a trainee nursery nurse, had made the decision to spend Sunday night with a friend at the last minute.



She gave her daughter the go-ahead only after insisting that she return to their Darlington home early the next day: 'I shouted to her to make sure she was home by 10.30. She said "I will" and that was it. I never saw her again.'

Distraught: Andrea breaks down as she talks of Ashleigh's death for the first time

Miss Hall said she felt physically sick when a policeman answered her daughter's phone on Monday.

'I felt as if my heart had been ripped out. My whole world fell apart in those two seconds.

'The policewoman [who later came to her house] didn't even get the words out. I wouldn't let her say it. Deep down I knew what she was going to say.'

When the woman officer finally told her a body had been found, she collapsed.

Miss Hall, who has three younger daughters - Olivia, six, Ellie, four, and Evie, one - said it took her four days to summon the courage to enter Ashleigh's bedroom.

'As soon as I walked in I could smell her,' she said. 'There was a big pile of dirty clothes lying in the middle of the floor where she had dumped them.

'Like any teenager she just took her clothes off and left them on the floor thinking it was my job to pick them up.

'That was the hardest part, picking up those clothes, knowing she would never wear them again.

'But holding them did give me some comfort, it again made me feel that she was still in the house.'



Peter Chapman, 32, has been remanded in custody accused of the manslaughter and kidnap of Ashleigh as well as failing to identify a new address, as required by the Sex Offences Act.

Earlier this week it emerged that his ex-fiancee, Dyanne Littler, a single mother from Runcorn, Cheshire, closely resembles Ashleigh.

Miss Hall said: 'It was so scary how much they looked alike. I'm now wondering if Ashleigh was targeted because she looked so like that other girl.'

Child safety campaigners say the onus is on young people to be aware of potential abusers on social networking sites and chatrooms. They are warned not to divulge personal information to people they do not know and never to arrange meetings.

They say popular websites could do more to deter paedophiles from attempting to groom vulnerable youngsters.



The Government's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre wants sites to sign up to its alerts system which enables users who come across something suspicious to warn child protection professionals.

Facebook said it had a range of measures to protect users and expose those attempting to abuse the site, including informing police of dubious behaviour.

A spokesman said: 'We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of Ashleigh Hall.

'Everyone should use extreme caution when contacted over the internet by people they do not know. On Facebook there are a variety of measures people can use to protect themselves from unwanted contact and we strongly encourage their use.

'We encourage Facebook users to report unwanted contact and any behaviour they find threatening or intimidating.'