Film about murdered girl 'could have saved lives'

Kayleigh Haywood was groomed online before being chased, raped and murdered in woods in November 2015

"It was devastating. The ripple effect was horrific. Something I will never, ever forget."

Vikki Rundle-Brown still vividly remembers her pupil Kayleigh Haywood, who was groomed online before being raped and murdered.

The 15-year-old's body was found in a hedgerow in November 2015 after she was raped and beaten to death by Stephen Beadman - two weeks after she was first contacted by his friend Luke Harlow on Facebook.

Her death brought into sharp focus the dangers young people on social media face, and work to keep Kayleigh's legacy alive has continued 10 years on, including with a Leicestershire Police film about her story, which Vikki believes has "potentially saved students' lives".

Kayleigh, from Measham in Leicestershire, started chatting with Harlow online a fortnight before she was killed.

It was Harlow who contacted Kayleigh. He wrote: "Hey, how are you?"

She replied: "Fine - who are you?"

Within 10 minutes, the pair had swapped mobile phone numbers and went on to exchange 2,600 messages - mainly by text - which led her to believe Harlow was her boyfriend.

She agreed to stay at his flat in the nearby village of Ibstock on Friday 13 November 2015, and her father dropped her off outside Ibstock Community College.

On Harlow's instruction, Kayleigh had told her parents she was staying with a friend.

Beadman, who lived next to Harlow, told police he met Kayleigh for the first time when he went round to the flat on the Saturday evening.

The two men were found guilty of keeping her prisoner between 21:00 GMT on the Saturday and 03:00 on the Sunday, before a neighbour saw Beadman chasing Kayleigh - who was naked from the waist down - as she fled the flat in the early hours of the Sunday.

Beadman then took her across a road where he raped her, before marching her for a mile and a half across rough ground to where he battered her to death.

Kayleigh's body was found three days later, hidden in a hedgerow near a stream after a police search involving more than 300 officers.

Vikki Rundle-Brown previously taught Kayleigh at Ashby School in Leicestershire

Vikki - head of school and senior safeguarding lead at Ashby School in Leicestershire - previously taught Kayleigh PE.

"It was devastating," she said. "Kayleigh was supported by a number of staff in school as well as having multiple friends in school and the ripple effect was horrific.

"Something I will never, ever forget."

Vikki described Kayleigh as "a really headstrong, independent young lady" - and added she wanted to make sure "everything that happened never happens again to a young person".

"I think for us it was really important that we always remember Kayleigh, and that memory is just as strong 10 years on," she said.

She added the school was passionate about "turning such an awful tragedy into something that potentially could save students' lives in the future".

Following Kayleigh's death, Leicestershire Police produced a five-minute video called Kayleigh's Love Story to warn people about grooming and sexual exploitation of children.

The force says the film has had a "huge" impact, with more than 4.3 million views on YouTube, and is often shown to entire classrooms at a time.

It was reported in 2017 that 35 children had come forward fearing they had been groomed online after watching the film, but the force told the BBC it could not track prosecutions that had directly resulted from victims viewing it.

Vikki added: "Kayleigh's Love Story will remain a legacy at this school and something that will be shown to students for years and years to come.

"It is still so relevant."

The release of Adolescence on Netflix - which won several top prizes at the Emmy Awards this year - sparked a national conversation about children's use of smartphones and the impact of social media on young people, with calls made for a government ban on smartphones for children under the age of 16.

The Online Safety Act was passed in 2023, making online and social media companies legally responsible for keeping children and young people safe.

New measures were introduced in July of this year, including stricter age checks for people accessing age-restricted content and changes to algorithms meaning harmful content, such as bullying, suicide and weapons, is filtered from children's feeds.

The new rules do not ban children from using social media, or set a minimum age for them to use it, and some campaigners think the act does not go far enough.

When asked about this, Vikki said: "I think that it's going to be really tricky to eradicate phone use in under-16s. And I would just like to see tighter controls and tighter restrictions on possibly what they can access, but also the length of time that they can access it for.

"Some of our young people are on social media for really excessive times, and it is having such a negative impact on their lives, on their world, on their future.

"And I would like to see that support. It's a really difficult thing to manage in schools."

Stephen Beadman (right) - who died in 2021 - and Luke Harlow both received lengthy prison terms

Beadman was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years after admitting to murdering and raping Kayleigh.

He was also convicted at Nottingham Crown Court of falsely imprisoning her, and died at HMP Wakefield in April 2021 aged 34.

Harlow was jailed for 12 years for sexually touching and falsely imprisoning Kayleigh, and grooming her and two other girls.

Timeline of Kayleigh's disappearance

Kayleigh's body was found five days after she was last seen at Ibstock Community College

• Friday 13 November - Kayleigh is dropped off by her family outside Ibstock Community College to spend an evening with friends

• Saturday 14 November - Kayleigh contacts her family in the morning

• Sunday 15 November - The teenager is reported missing by her family

• Monday 16 November - Harlow and Beadman are arrested in connection with Kayleigh's disappearance

• Tuesday 17 November - Kayleigh's phone is found by a member of the public

• Wednesday 18 November - A body is found in a field north of Ibstock at about 22:00 GMT

• Thursday 19 November - Police say the body is Kayleigh's and is removed from undergrowth

• Friday 20 November - Beadman is charged with her murder and Harlow is charged with grooming and two counts of sexual activity

Kayleigh was described as "a really headstrong, independent young lady"

Kayleigh's former school continues to teach pupils - from Year 7 all the way up to Year 13 - about online safety.

Vikki added: "I hope that when they watch Kayleigh's Love Story, they find it impactful, they look at themselves and their use of the phones and social media.

"And they just think twice a little bit better about the choices they make when they're setting their privacy settings, when they're communicating to people they might not know and when they potentially are spoken to by someone and they ask to meet up.

"I think that video has potentially saved students' lives because had they not watched that and had they not made those different decisions, they would not have been supported to stay safe."

Det Supt Helen Schofield, from Leicestershire Police, says "there's a continual learning experience when it comes to child sexual exploitation"

Det Supt Helen Schofield, of Leicestershire Police, said it was "really important" to tell the story of Kayleigh's "dreadful murder" to "do all that we can to prevent something like that happening to any children".

She said: "I remain really surprised at how far the impact's gone with Kayleigh's Love Story.

"But it's really heartening for us to see that her legacy kind of goes on today and helps to educate children on this very dangerous type of crime to make them as safe as possible."

Det Supt Schofield said the issue of grooming remained "prevalent" across the county.

"Kayleigh's Love Story creates a vehicle for us to keep it current, to make sure that we're keeping children safe and the issue of grooming and sexual exploitation remains on the agenda," she added.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Measham for Kayleigh's funeral

When asked about the current challenges of investigating grooming, Det Supt Schofield said: "Children that are victims don't always know and understand that they are victims of the worst types of child abuse.

"So that will probably be the biggest barrier for children to understand they are a victim."

She said in the decade since Kayleigh's death, the force would have learned "hugely about the experience of children, and our service changes regularly to address those things".

Det Supt Schofield also issued a plea for anyone who saw the film, and believes they were a victim of sexual exploitation as a child, to come forward to the police, adding "it's never too late to report that".

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, please visit the BBC Action Line