Car plate triggered by police camera (From The Northern Echo)

Car plate triggered by police camera

10:29am Tuesday 9th March 2010 in News By Joe Willis, Regional chief reporter

Peter Chapman

KILLER Peter Chapman was brought to justice after his vehicle registration number triggered a police camera.

The number had been put into the automatic number plate recognition system after he had failed to comply with notice requirements as a convicted sex offender.

He was picked up by officers on patrol in the Cleveland area and taken to Middlesbrough police station where he told officers “you can crush the car”.

Had he kept his nerve, the vehicle would have been crushed and valuable evidence lost.

Instead, hours later he asked to speak to a senior officer and told him “there has been a terrible accident”.

Stunned detectives who listened to his story took him to the outskirts of Sedgefield where Chapman pointed to the place where he had left Ashleigh’s body.

When he was formally interviewed, however, he was less than helpful. In the first session he was tearful and crying, but refused to answer questions.

At a second interview he produced a nine-page prepared statement giving his version of events.

When he was questioned about details of the statement, he became aggressive.

Asked where his laptop computer was, he replied: “On the planet Pluto.”

Officers pressed for more information and Chapman’s reaction was simply to put his hands over his ears and drop his head between he knees.

Detective Constable Tim Lerner said: “As the questioning went on he became more aggressive – at one point saying, ‘I’ve had enough of this, I’m going’.

“He was told he was going nowhere.

“It is unusual behaviour, but he was being questioned about something he didn’t want to be questioned about.

“He thought he had covered all the points in his statement and that would be accepted. It wasn’t.”

In the statement, Chapman said he and Ashleigh had met two days earlier, but this was quickly proved to be false.

He claimed that on the Sunday they were in the car “having a laugh” before having consensual sex However, tests showed force was used and the teenager had been bound with tape.

Chapman claimed Ashleigh became angry after he told her he had no money to pay for a hotel.

However, he had £70 on him.

He also claimed he had ended up in a farm lane near Sedgefield where Ashleigh’s body was found after taking a wrong turn, but his sat-nav system showed he had made an earlier reconnaissance of the area.

He also said in his statement he had tried to resuscitate the teenager when he realised she was not breathing.

Chillingly, police are confident no attempts to resuscitate her were made.

Detective Inspector Mick Callan, head of the major crime unit at Durham Police, said: “By using the picture of a good looking young man as a cover, he had woven a web of attraction and deceit that sadly had a murderous ending.”

After sentencing Chapman to life yesterday, Judge Peter Fox praised Durham Police for their investigation.

He said: “The scientific support is commendable. The reconstruction of events has been meticulous and a credit must be given to those who did that.”