Tuesday 28 June 2016


Luke Harlow, who groomed the teenager on Facebook, will be sentenced on Friday with Stephen Beadman, who raped and murdered her.
15:56, UK,Tuesday 28 June 2016

Kayleigh Haywood murder court case
A second man has been found guilty of falsely imprisoning Kayleigh Haywood in the hours before the 15-year-old schoolgirl was raped and murdered.
Luke Harlow will be sentenced on Friday, along with Stephen Beadman, who was found guilty of the same charge on Monday.
Beadman has already admitted the rape and murder of Kayleigh. 
Harlow, 28, and Beadman, 29, were neighbours in George Avenue in Ibstock, Leicestershire.
Kayleigh Haywood murder court case
They had denied falsely imprisoning Kayleigh during a six-hour period before she was raped and killed on farmland in November last year.
Harlow, a warehouse worker, admitted grooming Kayleigh and two offences of sexual activity with a child before the start of his two-week trial.
After he was found guilty by a 10-1 majority, a woman thought to be his sister told him: "We will fight this Luke, I mean it."
During the trial, the jury was told that a motorist and his partner saw a man with blood on the left-hand side of his face near to where Kayleigh's body was found.
She was discovered three days after a witness said she had seen the teenager being pinned down by Beadman.
Kayleigh was groomed by Harlow for around two weeks via social media before being persuaded to travel to his home.
She was killed by Beadman, who told police he struck her with a brick, after she fled barefoot and partially-clothed from Harlow's home.
Before the trial, Harlow pleaded guilty to attempting to meet another 15-year-old girl last year following sexual grooming, and trying to meet a third after grooming her as well.
Miranda Moore QC, prosecuting, read social media messages sent by Harlow to a girl he groomed online when she was 15.
Police handout photo, Kayleigh Haywood
One read: "I wish I could kidnap you for Christmas but I would probably be arrested and sent to prison."
Another message sent via WhatsApp to the girl read: "If I kidnap you, I am keeping you."
Other messages revealed that Harlow had an interest in having sex with "drunk, unconscious" girls.
During most of the trial, Beadman refused to enter the dock and gave no evidence in connection with the charge of false imprisonment.
In a statement, Kayleigh's parents, Stephanie Haywood and Martin Whitby said: "We cannot begin to find the words to describe how we feel or how we continue to get through each minute of every day.
"We lost our beautiful, precious little girl Kayleigh who we will never see again. We miss Kayleigh every minute of every day, as do her brothers and sister.
Flowers are left outside the St Laurence Church in Measham, Leicestershire, where a vigil has been held for Kayleigh Haywood who has been missing since Friday.
"We are all heartbroken and devastated, our hearts have been torn apart. We ask ourselves every day, why? Why Kayleigh? Why did this happen to our beautiful daughter?
"Today we have got justice for our beautiful daughter. But that doesn't change anything for us. We have to live with this heartache forever."
Ms Haywood thanked police and prosecutors. "Without them there would be no justice or punishment for the two people who so heartlessly took away our beautiful daughter Kayleigh," she said.
Detective Superintendent Kate Meynell, who led the inquiry, said: "All murders are shocking but what happened to Kayleigh Haywood is particularly harrowing.
"Kayleigh was just a teenager with her whole life ahead of her but having been groomed online over the course of two weeks, her life was cut short in the most brutal way.
"Her family have lost a much cherished daughter and sister, and their hopes of seeing her grow up and have her own family have been taken away from them."
She said Harlow knew Kayleigh was only 15, but continued to contact her, "luring her closer" with false messages of affection.
Detective Chief Superintendent David Sandall, head of crime at Leicestershire Police, said: "Kayleigh's story demonstrates, in the most harrowing fashion, the ultimate potential consequences of children talking to strangers on the internet and the very real threat of online grooming."

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