THE distraught mum of a schoolgirl knifed to death by a paedo lodger is too scared to visit her grave after her partner was attacked in the street.
Lucy McHugh, 13, was stabbed almost 30 times by Stephen Nicholson to “silence her” after she told him she was pregnant.
The 25-year-old had been staying with “best friend” Richard Elmes – Lucy’s stepdad – and her mum Stacey White when he repeatedly raped the youngster.
Grieving Stacey, 31, is now too terrified to even visit her daughter’s grave after receiving abuse from online trolls in Southampton, Hants.
She said: “All I want is for us to be able to process what we have heard in court and grieve for our little girl, not have to live how these people are making us.”
Richard, 22, was allegedly assaulted by two men outside a nearby shop just days after Nicholson was jailed for life for the murder and rape of the teen.
A family member said: “The whole situation is scaring me. It is so dangerous.
“There is a vendetta against Richard and Stacey. Stacey fears for her life, she doesn’t even feel she can go to Lucy’s grave for fear of being attacked.”
Hampshire Police Wayne Grant, 27, and Charlie Whitemore, 22, both of Southampton, have been charged with causing grievous bodily harm.
They will appear at the city’s magistrates’ court today following the alleged assault on Sunday that left Richard with injuries to his head and arm.
Lucy bled to death after being left with catastrophic knife wounds in woodland nearly two miles away from her Southampton home in July last year.
Carer Nicholson had been living with with the family after Richard took in his childhood friend when he was released from jail.
Nicholson then “exploited” vulnerable Lucy and began raping her in May 2017 with her when she was 12 and he was 23.
Social workers were told claims of Lucy’s inappropriate relationship but decided not to investigate more after a “difficult” conversation with her mum.
Jurors heard Stacey and her partner told teachers and social services Lucy had a “teenage crush”.
But the teen had been keeping diaries and notes that laid bare Nicholson’s perverse “sexual interest” in underage girls and warned him she had a “hold on him”.
The killer then lured her to woodland near a sports centre and raped her before knifing her 27 times in the neck and upper torso.
Her butchered body was found the next day by a dog walker – with her bloody clothes dumped in a small stream nearby.
Nicholson has now been caged for life with a minimum of 33 years after being convicted of the “execution-style” murder.
He was also found guilty of sexual activity with another girl, aged 14, in 2012.
Sentencing, Judge Mrs Justice May said: “This was a pitiless attack on a child following months of sexual exploitation.
“The prosecution has described it as an execution and I am satisfied this is correct.
“The combination of [Nicholson’s] cold narcissism and hot anger dictated that she had to be put out of the way and he saw to it that this was done.”
