Man jailed for life for murder of schoolgirl Kayleigh Haywood
A man has been jailed for life for the rape, false imprisonment and murder of schoolgirl Kayleigh Haywood.
Stephen Beadman, 29, was told he will serve a minimum term of 35 years for the teenager's murder.
Beadman's neighbour Luke Harlow, 28, has also been sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court to 12-years in jail for falsely imprisoning and grooming the murdered schoolgirl.
The 15-year-old was groomed by Luke Harlow on social media, before he and his friend Stephen Beadman held her captive at his flat. Beadman then went on to rape and murder the Leicestershire teenager.
He dumped her body in a hedgerow, before returning to Harlow’s flat to collect his keys and Kayleigh’s belongings, which he abandoned in a skip along with his own bloodstained clothing.
An inquest heard that the teenager died of head and facial injuries and had to be identified by dental records.
Her body was found in undergrowth near a lake five days after she went missing in Leicestershire.
The judge was told that police found child abuse images and extreme pornography on computers belonging to Beadman.
Officers also found that he had been searching for extreme pornography the day before he went round to Harlow's flat when Kayleigh was inside.
Kayleigh Haywood's mother described the pain of not being able to say goodbye to her daughter. In sections of victim personal statements read to the court, Stephanie Haywood said: "Not only was I robbed of my daughter, I was robbed of saying my last goodbye to her too."
In Ms Haywood's statement, she said there were no words to describe her family's loss.
She said: "I am completely destroyed."
And she added that "a piece of me is missing".
Ms Haywood explained in the statement, read by Ms Moore, that her life is consumed by questions - the "why, ifs and buts".
She said: "The only people serving a sentence in my eyes are me and her dad and her brothers and sister."
She added: "No sentence will be enough."
Kayleigh's father, Martin Whitby, said: "My world has been completely shattered", in another statement, parts of which were read to the judge.
"I just exist from day to day," he said.
Mr Whitby said he and his family were dedicated to making sure no other children would face the same fate as his daughter by raising awareness of the dangers of online grooming.
The court was then played the trailer of a new film which has been made in collaboration with Kayleigh's family and Leicestershire Police.