POLICE lost a Merseyside sex offender who killed a girl he met online, it emerged last night.
Peter Chapman kidnapped, raped and murdered Ashleigh Hall, 17, after tricking her on Facebook.
The 33-year-old was a known sex offender whom police admitted they were unable to trace.
He posed as a teenage boy to trick the teen into meeting him before he killed her and dumped her body in a farmer’s field.
Merseyside Police admitted they were aware Chapman, 33, was no longer living at his registered address in Kirkby.
But they waited eight months before declaring him wanted – and circulating his details nationwide.
A month later, he strangled childcare student Ashleigh and dumped her near a lovers’ lane.
Chapman confessed yesterday – the day his trial was due to begin at Teesside Crown Court.
Prosecutor Graham Reeds, QC, said he used pictures of a boy in his late teens to lure the shy student to him.
She went missing on October 25 last year. She had told her mother she was going to stay with a friend.
Knowing Ashleigh was expecting a teenager, Chapman told her the boy’s father would collect her.
Merseyside Police confirmed he had lived as a high-risk sex offender in Merseyside since 2000.
In March, 2007, he was reassessed and classed as medium risk.
Chapman initially complied with his imposed registration. Officers saw him at home in August, 2008, and spoke to him a month later.
But when they visited him again in January, 2009 – to investigate a traffic offence – he wasn’t home.
Although officers managed to track him down on the phone, they were worried about his address.
They tried to find him on Merseyside before finally making him a wanted man that September.
Chapman, who was living in a hotel and in his car, admitted failing to notify a change of address.
Ashleigh’s mother, Andrea Hall, watched in court with her hands clasped and arms linked with two friends.
When unshaven Chapman entered, she began to cry.
Ashleigh was found near Sedgefield, in County Durham.
Chapman had been stopped in his car over a motoring offence.
He asked to speak to detectives and eventually led police to the spot where her body was found.
Chapman has been a sex offender since his teens. When he was 15 he was subject to an assault probe.
Four years later, a rape charge against him was dropped.
At 19, he was convicted of raping two teen prostitutes at knifepoint just days apart in Durham.
He was sentenced to seven years in 1996 and moved to Merseyside when he was released in 2000.
In 2002, he was arrested for the rape and kidnap of a prostitute in Ellesmere Port. The case was discontinued.
The following February, he was arrested in Liverpool, again for the rape and kidnap of a prostitute.
He was said to have tied her up at knifepoint and kept her prisoner for 14 hours while raping her.
Chapman was charged, but the case was later discontinued.
Judge Peter Fox, QC, said he would serve a minimum 35 years.
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