Police investigated over Facebook killer

By Chris Bradley, Level 2 News Editor

Merseyside Police will be investigated over their monitoring of Peter Chapman, a known sex offender, who was jailed on Monday for the kidnap and murder of 17 year-old Ashleigh Hall.

Chapman was living in Kirkby ten months before he murdered Ashleigh in County Durham in October 2009.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) will now investigate how he slipped under the radar. Despite attempts to track him down locally, Merseyside Police did not issue a nationwide alert until last September, when Chapman could not be contacted over a traffic offence.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has demanded to know how Merseyside Police failed to keep track of Chapman, which ultimately led to the death of the teenage social care worker.

A Merseyside Police spokesperson confirmed that an internal review was carried out following the arrest of Chapman in October.

A number of procedural improvements were identified and implemented, but the police admitted that “in view of public interest” and “transparency”, the handling of Chapman’s case would be referred to the IPCC.

Merseyside Police’s failings in this case were revealed on Monday when the court heard the depraved and violent history of Chapman, who was jailed for life and will serve a minimum of 35 years.

Chapman had previously been investigated over serious sexual assault allegations and he was jailed for seven years in 1996 for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint.

To prepare his latest attack, Chapman posed as a teenage boy on Facebook and arranged to meet Ashleigh Hall. He then suffocated her before dumping her body in a field.

Judge Peter Fox said Chapman was for “a considerable time, a very great danger to women”.

Ashleigh’s mother, Andrea, has demanded tighter monitoring of sex offenders but said the IPCC’s investigation into Merseyside Police was a ”little too late”.