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| Facebook predator admits murder | |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| A convicted sex offender has admitted the kidnap, rape and murder of a County Durham teenager who he met on a social networking site. | |
| Peter Chapman, who has a history of violent sex assaults, befriended 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by posing as a teenage boy on Facebook. | |
| In October, after agreeing to meet him, Ashleigh was suffocated and dumped in a farmer's field near Sedgefield. | |
| Chapman, 33, pleaded guilty to the charges at Teesside Crown Court. | |
| He also admitted failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register. | He also admitted failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register. |
| Chapman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Stockton, has a history of sexual offending, it has since emerged. | |
| Since the age of 15, he has been the subject of several sexual assault investigations and in 1996 was jailed for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint. | |
| The 19-year-old Chapman was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and released in 2001. | |
| Ashleigh thought she was meeting another teenager | |
| In October last year, Ashleigh was attracted by a picture of a young, bare-chested man that Chapman - calling himself Peter Cartwright - had posted on the website. | |
| Later that month, she told her mother she was going to stay with a friend. Text messages showed she thought she was being picked up by "Peter Cartwright's" father. | |
| Prosecutor Graham Reeds QC said: "He needed a plan which made it more likely that he would get into her car so that he would be able to overpower her for sex. | |
| "Having invented 19-year-old Peter to make contact with girls he now decided to invent Peter's dad in order to persuade Ashleigh that it was safe to get into his car. | |
| "The plan he devised was calculated and wicked and it worked." | |
| Mr Reeds said Chapman, pretending to be Pete's father, texted Ashleigh and wrote: "Hi hun its pete's dad are you sure you don't mind me picking you up? Pete is really looking foreward to seeing you and yes its ok for you to stay." | |
| He is a predatory sex offender who, through the tentacles of the internet, could reach out to the young and the vulnerable Det Insp Mick Callan, Durham Police | |
| A few seconds later, Ashleigh replied: "No its fine I dnt mind I trust him so I trust u and thank u." | |
| The prosecution said Chapman picked her up near her home, and then drove her to the A177 at Thorpe Larches, near Sedgefield, where he sexually assaulted her. | |
| Mr Reeds added: "After the rape, her arms were bound up again and further tape was put over her face, suffocating her to death." | |
| Her body was dumped in a gully up against a fence by the side of the Old Stockton Road. | |
| Chapman was arrested the following day on a separate matter after a nationwide alert went out to trace the car he was using. | |
| The registration number had been put into the Automatic Number Plate Recognition System because the convicted sex offender was not complying with his registration requirements. | |
| During initial interviews, he told police they could "crush his car" and made no mention of Ashleigh, but later he lost his nerve and told a stunned custody officer: "I killed someone last night." | |
| Ashleigh's mother said her daughter made a mistake and paid with her life | |
| He led them to the spot near a lovers' lane where her body was found, almost 24 hours after she left the family home. | |
| Durham Police have admitted that had he remained silent the car would likely have been crushed and valuable evidence lost. | |
| Det Insp Mick Callan, head of the force's major crime team, said: "The truth is he is a predatory sex offender who, through the tentacles of the internet, could reach out to the young and the vulnerable. | |
| "He knows full well that using his real name and picture would not grab the attention of any young woman for a moment. | |
| "But by using the picture of a good-looking young man as a cover he has woven a web of attraction and deceit that has sadly had a murderous ending." | |
| Initially Chapman denied the charges, but changed his plea at Monday's hearing. | |
| He will be sentenced later. |