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Why was Facebook fiend Peter Chapman free to kill Ashleigh Hall?
Evil Peter Chapman murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall after police failed to lock him up for an arson attack weeks earlier.
Facebook sex fiend Chapman, jailed for life yesterday, set Emma Monk’s house ablaze after she let him stay with her.
But though she gave police the serial sex offender’s details, describing the Ford Mondeo he later used to snatch Ashleigh, they did not track him down.
Six weeks later Chapman kidnapped, raped and suffocated the teenage nursery nurse after luring her to a meeting near Sedgefield, Co Durham, by posing as a teenage boy on social networking site Facebook.
Emma, 31, of Newbury, Berks, yesterday insisted police should have been able to trace Chapman easily with the information she and friend Kim Parkin gave them following the arson attack.
She added: “They just didn’t seem interested. We told them everything and we gave them numbers of people he traded with online. One of them was a man who had sold him the Mondeo. We both gave statements but the police never got back to us.”
Amazingly, police were supposed to be hunting for Chapman anyway at the time Emma made the arson complaint.
He had absconded from an address in Merseyside, breaching the terms of his prison release for a double rape and a national police alert had been issued.
Kim said: “If the police had pulled their finger out, Ashleigh might not have been murdered. They knew he was missing and they knew he was a sex offender.”
“They could have traced his car through its description and number plate.”
Stephen Clarke, who sold Chapman the Mondeo, said police finally questioned him about two days before Ashleigh’s murder.
He said: “The police asked for a description of him and the car. They were very vague about why they wanted the information.”
Chapman, who admitted murder, kidnap and rape, was finally arrested close to the the remote rural spot where he had dumped Ashleigh’s body. An officer became suspicious, checked the details of the Mondeo, and arrested Chapman.
Once at the police station he confessed to murdering Ashleigh, of Darlington.
Emma told how Kim introduced her to Chapman at a New Year’s Eve party.
She let him stay at her council home alone while she went to visit her brother.
Emma said: “He then phoned me out the blue saying ‘Are the kids with you?’
“Then he told me the house was on fire, I couldn’t speak through shock. I rushed home and saw it going all going up.”
Thames Valley Police confirmed Chapman was wanted in relation to the arson.
A spokesman said: “Originally there was another suspect who was arrested, however subsequent investigations revealed Chapman may have been responsible.”
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