A woman from Chippenham has told how she met a confessed killer over the internet and arranged to meet him, not knowing that a month earlier he had raped and killed a 17-year-old he groomed on Facebook.

Peter Chapman, 33, from Liverpool, was jailed for life on Monday after he admitted killing 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall, from Darlington, and dumping her body in a farmer’s field near Sedgefield, County Durham, in October last year.

The convicted sex offender lured Miss Hall to a layby by posing as a teenage boy on social networking site Facebook.

Now a 46-year-old woman, known as Sue, from Chippenham has said she met Chapman on a chat site Social Me last November before arranging to meet and have sex with him.

The couple exchanged phone numbers and spoke for a few hours before Chapman convinced her to pick him up in Newbury.

They returned to her home in Chippenham and had sex.

She said: “He had been really nice and really chatty. There was no silence, we chatted the whole way back over here.

“He said he chatted to a lot of women on the internet, but had never met up with anyone. I didn't believe him though, because he was the one who suggested we meet up.

“I don't know how it came across, but I think he approached me, kissed me and it just went from there.”

A few days after returning to Newbury Chapman told Sue he had moved back to Liverpool and she did not think about him until she saw his picture in the news.

She said: “I heard the name on the news but it wasn't until I saw the picture that I realised, and I was just gobsmacked .

“That poor girl. That could’ve been me. I just must have been lucky.

“I’m still in shock, I can't believe I slept with him. It makes you feel dirty.

“He’s a convicted sex offender. I just can’t believe it.

“He was just so nice. He was quite comical, he made me laugh, he had quite a softly spoken voice.”

DC Kevin Rowles from Wiltshire Police’s Public Protection Unit, said the case highlighted the importance of internet safety.

“There are people who exploit the opportunity and anonymity the internet provides. People need to think very carefully before meeting anyone in person they don’t kno,” he said.