Classmates of Lucy McHugh have been urged to “fight for her” by telling police anything they might know about the murdered schoolgirl’s disappearance.
At a special assembly at Redbridge community school in Southampton on Wednesday, the headteacher, Jason Ashley, said he believed someone in the “school community” could know something that could help the investigation.
Last week, Stephen Nicholson, who is suspected of murdering the 13-year-old, was jailed for refusing to provide his Facebook password to police investigating her death.
“I don’t want you to be worried or scared,” said Ashley. “I never believed I would have to lead a school through such a traumatic experience as a child murder,” he told the assembly at Redbridge, where Lucy would have started year 9 this week.
Ashley told students, many of whom were in tears, that an area of the school could be renamed in Lucy’s honour. Police officers also attended the assembly.
Ashley said: “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. And maybe they just feel they can’t share that, because either they think maybe they’ll think less of Lucy or they might get into trouble because they’ve sat on that information for some time.”
The teenager had been “very private” but had good friends in her year group and in the school, said Ashley. “We’re interested in conversations. Did you know anything about where she was going that day or who she was going to meet?”
The case has become more high profile as Facebook has come under pressure from MPs and the authorities to give Hampshire police access to Nicholson’s account.
The care worker, 24, who had been staying in 13-year-old Lucy’s family home in Southampton until “several days” before her death, pleaded guilty to a charge under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act at Southampton crown court on Friday and was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment.
He was first arrested by Hampshire police on suspicion of murder and sexual activity with a child. A charging decision is anticipated on 27 October.
Lucy was found in woodland at Southampton sports centre on 26 July, having gone missing from her home about 24 hours before. She had been stabbed to death.
Her mother, Stacey White, said on Tuesday that Lucy would have been eager to get back to school.
Writing on Facebook, she said: “The days are getting harder to accept that you’re not here. You were taken too soon from this cruel world. You would be telling me to shhhh and that I’m being silly, but darling you just don’t know how much we all miss you and [what we] would give, just for even a few minutes, to have you back.”
Facebook has said it is working closely with law enforcement and is following established legal mechanisms.
