Convicted sex offender Peter Chapmen duped single mum with baby until she found out about his past (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Convicted sex offender Peter Chapmen duped single mum with baby until she found out about his past

12:10pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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CONVICTED sex offender Peter Chapman jailed for life after admitting the kidnap, rape and murder of a teenage girl he ensnared on social networking site Facebook, had duped a Runcorn mum.

The 33-year-old befriended the single mum and moved into her rented home in December, 2007.

Chapman failed to comply with his sex offender conditions and the woman, who had a young baby, discovered his past and threw him out.

Chapman, of no fixed address, admitted killing childcare student Ashleigh Hall, aged 17, after seducing her online, at Teeside Crown Court on Monday.

He posed as a teenage boy and tricked her into meeting him before he strangled her and dumped her body in a farmer’s field in Cleveland.

Chapman has been a prolific sex offender since his teens, with countless convictions.

Det Insp Mick Callan, head of Durham’s major crime squad, said: “He is a devious and dangerous individual and could well be responsible for other, similar offences.

“He is a predatory sex offender, who, through the tentacles of the internet, could reach out to the young and the vulnerable.”