Police unit ‘too understaffed’ to monitor girl killer rapist

A POLICE unit tasked with monitoring sex offenders was too understaffed to keep tabs on a convicted rapist who went on to murder a 17-year-old girl he befriended on internet site Facebook, the police watchdog said.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission yesterday said the Knowsley sex offender unit, which was in charge of monitoring Peter Chapman, was run by a single female police constable who was in charge of more than 60 sex offenders and was making visits alone in her own car because of a lack of resources.

She had also received no appropriate training and resources were such that proper monitoring of offenders was “impossible”.

The IPCC said Chapman was able to “slip away”, leaving him free reign to groom and murder Ashleigh Hall in County Durham, in October 2009.

He befriended Ashleigh on the social networking site while posing as a fictitious “good-looking” 19-year-old called Peter Cartwright. Having arranged to meet her on the evening of October 25 he kidnapped, raped and then strangled the childcare student, who was later found dumped in a farmer’s field. He was jailed for life in March last year.

IPCC Commissioner Naseem Malik said: “It is evident from our investigation that this particular sex offender unit was inadequately resourced and as result the officer tasked with managing sex offenders in the community had an impossible task. Chapman was not monitored effectively and managed to slip away, with terrible consequences.”

She added: “For it to take a year for him to be apprehended was unacceptable. The slow response understandably prompts concern among the public.”

Chapman was first placed on the sex offenders register after being convicted of rape and robbery in December 1996. Following his release from prison in January 2001, he moved from Cleveland to Merseyside and came under the management of the Merseyside Police sex offender unit.

During the following two years, he was arrested on two occasions in relation to sexual offences and was assessed as a “high-risk sex offender”, the IPCC said.

In May 2005, Chapman came under the control of the Knowsley sex offender unit, which in late 2006 was placed under the sole responsibility of the female police constable. She visited Chapman’s house on August 27, 2006 but the next recorded visit was May 15, 2007 – nine months later.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Ward of Merseyside Police said yesterday that a review was carried out after Chapman’s arrest and Merseyside Police had put in place “a number of improvements” to strengthen the management of sex offenders.