Stacey Lawrence's mum urges other parents to always be on guard
A West Bromwich woman whose fiance sexually assaulted then killed her nine-year-old daughter warned other parents today to "never let your guard down".
Stacey Lawrence's body was found in the cab of a white Spar lorry parked in a lay-by in Warmington, Northants, on August 29 last year.
Her mother's lorry driver fiance Darren Walker, 40, with whom Stacey had been on a delivery run, had sexually abused the youngster then strangled her before taking his own life.
His body was found hanging from a tree in nearby woodland with strapping made from the same material he used to strangle Stacey.
Last week inquests into their deaths ruled the nine-year-old had been unlawfully killed, while Walker had taken his own life.
Speaking on ITV's This Morning, Stacey's mother Roxanne Lawrence, 38, said there had never been any clue of what Walker would do, and she issued a warning to other parents.
"Never let your guard down," she said. "Really, if anything, I have realised how easy it is to put your children in the hands of a paedophile.
"You have your children sleep over at their friends' houses, and you don't know the parents, you don't know the people that go in that house.
"But at the same time, you can't destroy your children's lives. He could have been vetted, he could have been checked, but he still would have got through that."
Police previously said Walker only had one police record - a caution for assaulting his former wife.
