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Man charged with killing Internet date girl

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-28 17:25

LONDON: A man has been charged with the kidnap and manslaughter of a teenage girl whose body was found dumped in a field after the two were thought to have met over the Internet, police said on Wednesday.

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The unidentified 32-year-old, of no fixed address, is accused of killing Ashleigh Hall, 17, from Darlington in County Durham on Monday night. He is due to appear before Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court later on Wednesday.

Durham police said that as a registered sex offender he has also been charged with failing to notify authorities of a new address, required under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act.

The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that the girl was lured to a secret meeting with a friend she believed was a boy of 16 whom she met on Facebook.

Instead she met a registered sex offender with convictions for attacking young women, the paper reported.

Police said the discovery of the girl's body was made after the man was arrested near Sedgefield on suspicion of traffic offences on Monday night.

Whilst in custody, he asked to speak to detectives and took them to a field near a Little Chef restaurant on a roundabout off the A689 and A177 roads.

Hall was last seen by her mother on Sunday night after saying she was going to stay with a friend. Her mother failed to get a reply when she called her mobile phone the following day.