THE mother of a murdered teenager has criticised the decision by Facebook to shut down a group dedicated to exposing online paedophiles.

Seventeen-year-old Ashleigh Hall, from Darlington, was killed by a man who “groomed” her on the social networking website.

The Northern Echo reported yesterday that a group had been set up on Facebook to expose paedophiles using the site.

The group Mommies on a Mission was set up after one of its founders, Leanne Moss, stumbled across a profile featuring lewd images of children.

The group wanted to prevent a repeat of the murder of Ashleigh Hall, who was targeted by 33- year-old Peter Chapman who posed as a 19-year-old youth.

Within days of Mommies on a Mission being set up, hundreds of mothers joined the group and began flagging up suspicious profiles and reporting them to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop).

However, on Tuesday evening, Facebook decided to close the group down, saying that it contravened its terms of use.

Ms Moss, a 33-year-old mother of four from Hull, said: “I just can’t get my head around it.

“There’s a lady who we flagged up I don’t know how many times and her profile’s still up, but they take us down.”

Last night, Ashleigh’s mother, Andrea Hall, said: “It’s shocking.

They are very quick to shut down people are trying to do some good for a change.

“If these people can do something good and prevent paedophiles getting in touch with young people then I wish them luck.”

A spokeswoman for Facebook said: “Any group or page on Facebook that is used as a platform to share content that violates Facebook’s terms will be removed.

“The safety of Facebook users is our top priority and users sign up to our statement of rights and responsibilities when they join which outlines rules about what is allowed on the site.

“If anyone has concerns about content on Facebook, we strongly encourage them to report this to us using the report links on every page.”

Ceop declined to comment.