This story isn’t for the weak of heart.
A convicted sex offender was today sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting the kidnap, rape and murder of an English teenager Ashleigh Hall he had met on Facebook.
Peter Chapman changed his plea to guilty this morning on the day he was due to face trial. He stood, almost as if he was confessing to a parking ticket, and said “I killed someone last night.”
Hall was just 17 and had met her murderer on Facebook after Chapman had posed as a teenage boy.
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Det Insp Mick Callan, who lead the investigation, 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.”
Hall’s mother, Andrea, warned parents to find out who their children were talking to on the internet. She said: “Just put the message out that please parents whose kids are on Facebook, please ask them to tell you who they’re talking to. You just don’t know who is behind that photo.”
Despite reports that users are more honest on Facebook than any other social network, we’re still far from days where we can take our safety, and those of our loved ones, for granted. Social networks are absolute havens for the sick of mind and where we may consider Facebook a means to remain connected, predators see it as merely a tool to deceive and eventually abuse, or in this case, murder.
Video can be watched by clicking the image below.
. Source: BBC
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