The Murder of Kayleigh Haywood

In November 2015, schoolgirl Kayleigh Haywood told her parents she was going to stay at a friend’s house. She wasn’t. For the previous two weeks the fifteen-year-old had been groomed online by Luke Harlow, a man twelve years her senior. He had bombarded her with over a thousand Facebook messages persuading her to come to his flat in Ibstock, Leicestershire. After she finally agreed, he plied her with alcohol, assaulted her, then introduced her to a rapist and killer. In this episode, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes examines how two predators — a calculating online groomer and a violent opportunist living next door — converged on one teenage girl who had no idea her life was in danger. Listen now to The Profiler with Kerry Daynes.

Key psychological themes

This episode explores: online grooming and the psychology of digital predation • the escalation from flattery to control in sustained coercive communication • the ‘bubble’ dynamic — how secrecy isolates victims from protection • opportunistic sexual violence and male social networks that enable harm • the devastating consequences of a child’s trust exploited by multiple offenders

Contributors featured in this episode

• Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.

• Phil Mackie — BBC News Midlands correspondent who covered the investigation, search, and trial.

• Miranda Moore — Barrister and Crown Prosecutor who led the case against Luke Harlow and Stephen Beadman at Leicester Crown Court.

What you’ll learn in this episode

• How Harlow used Facebook to target Kayleigh — and what the thousand-plus messages he sent her reveal about the mechanics of online grooming

• Why Kayleigh kept her contact with Harlow secret — and how that secrecy removed the one protection that might have saved her

• What happened when Harlow introduced his neighbour Stephen Beadman to Kayleigh on the Saturday night — and what that decision set in motion

• How a neighbour’s account of what he believed was a police arrest helped detectives reconstruct Kayleigh’s final hours

• What the physical evidence — bloodstained clothing hidden in an unlit bonfire — revealed about Beadman’s attempts to conceal his crime

• Kerry’s psychological analysis of how two men with very different criminal profiles came together to destroy one young life

Relevant links and further reading

• Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)

• Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)

• Faking It: Tears of a Crime (Warner Bros. Discovery) — some interviews in this episode were originally featured in the series. Watch on discoveryplus.com.

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-36651220 — BBC News: coverage of the Kayleigh Heywood case and trial

• Kayleigh’s Love Story — NSPCC educational film inspired by this case, used in schools to teach young people about online grooming

• Support for those affected — NSPCC Helpline (0808 800 5000) • Victim Support (0808 168 9111)

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Credits

• Presented by Kerry Daynes

• Produced by Shearwater Media

• Executive Producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson

• Editing & Music: Rob Warner

Content note

This episode contains descriptions of the grooming and murder of a child, references to sexual violence, and details of a police investigation. Listener discretion is advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from the NSPCC (0808 800 5000), Victim Support (0808 168 9111), and the Samaritans (116 123).

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