Tragic Lucy’s headmaster begs classmates for help
Desperate plea for information after Facebook refusal to hand over password
THE headteacher of murdered schoolgirl Lucy McHugh has asked her tearful classmates to help police after Facebook failed to hand over the prime suspect’s password.
In an unusual move, Jason Ashley said at a special assembly that he was ‘desperate’ for Lucy’s friends to provide information to help crack the case.
Mr Ashley made the plea at the address in honour of the 13-yearold girl at Redbridge Community School in Southampton on the first day of term. He said: ‘I never believed I would have to lead a school through such a traumatic experience as a child murder.
‘She can’t fight for herself any more – we can, we can do that for her. If you need help, if you’ve got any information, we are desperate to help you. There’s a bit of me that thinks someone in our school community may know something.’
Mr Ashley pleaded with those who knew Lucy best to help police piece together her final hours before she was fatally stabbed and dumped in woods near a sports centre in Southampton six weeks ago.
He added: ‘We’re interested in conversations. Did you know anything about where she was going that day or who she was going to meet?’
Meanwhile, Lucy’s mother Stacey White, 30, said it is ‘getting harder to accept’ that her daughter is dead. Online, she wrote: ‘You just don’t know how much we all miss you and would give just for even a few minutes to have you back.’
The direct appeal came as Face-
Tuesday’s Daily Mail book faced a growing backlash over its failure to allow police quick access to the accounts of the prime suspect in the case.
Officers from Hampshire Police have been forced to apply to the US Justice Department for access to Stephen Nicholson’s accounts.
In a tortuous process, detectives had to submit a request letter which is passed through six different organisations – two in the UK and four in the US – before Facebook is served with a warrant.
Officers believe Facebook accounts belonging to Nicholson, who was jailed for 14 months last week for refusing to reveal his password, hold vital clues. The social media giant admits that this process takes ‘at least six months’.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick also told LBC radio on Tuesday: ‘I absolutely think in certain instances – and it sounds like this is one – law enforcement in the UK ought to be able to have vital evidence which might bring someone to justice.’ Former children’s minister Tim Loughton, a Tory member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘Any right-minded law-abiding citizen in this country would not give a second thought to stepping up to help the police hunting down violent criminals who would do harm to our children. But with Facebook it would seem it only comes after an invoice has been issued and protracted legal processes exploited. Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb added: ‘It raises the whole issue of the need for more regulation of social media which feels a bit like the Wild West in many ways.’
Shortly after Lucy’s body was found, Nicholson, 24, was arrested on suspicion of murder and of engaging in sexual activity with a child.
A Facebook spokesman said: ‘This is a terrible case and our hearts go out to the family of Lucy McHugh. We are working closely with law enforcement and there are well-established legal mechanisms that the police follow to obtain information in criminal investigations like this.’