Stacey Lawrence's body was found in the cab of a white Spar lorry parked in a lay-by in Warmington, near Oundle, 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 ruled the nine-year-old had been unlawfully killed, while Walker had taken his own life.

Speaking on ITV's This Morning programme, Stacey's mother Roxanne Lawrence, 38 (pictured), 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," she said. "But at the same time, you can't destroy your children's lives."

Police previously said Walker only had one police record, a caution for assaulting his former wife.

But Ms Lawrence said she thought it was a "one-off" and said Walker had told her he had been "vetted" in the past.

The distraught mother, who appeared with Stacey's older sister Emma Hammond, said: "There was absolutely nothing, looking back, that would ever have aroused any suspicion at all.

"I have analysed everything, absolutely everything, and know I don't know what his intentions were; whether he was this good guy and he genuinely did mean the things he said and did, or whether it was all a big plan to lead us into a false sense of security."