Police confess to catalogue of blunders over Huntley

A police chief admitted yesterday he had been "foolish" to blame his force's destruction of records on Ian Huntley on data protection laws.

Hours after Huntley's conviction last year, David Westwood, the Chief Constable of Humberside, said the records of previous sex allegations against Huntley had been destroyed because it would have been illegal to keep them.

At the Bichard inquiry into how Huntley was able to get a job at Soham College, he said yesterday that the excuse had been wrong. Mr Westwood said he had misinterpreted a phone call he made to the data commission authorities. "It was ill-advised and I made a mistake," he told the inquiry.

"I could try to justify why I made a mistake. I do not intend to try to justify why I made a mistake. It was my mistake and I made it."

Mr Westwood faced calls last year for his resignation because of his force's errors.

He told Sir Michael Bichard, the chairman of the inquiry: "I can assure you of my passionate commitment to drive through all the changes... that arise as a result of your inquiry.

"I owe it to you and the Home Secretary and the parents of Holly and Jessica to do that. I give you my assurance that I or my force will not be found wanting."

Mr Westwood's comments came at the end of his testimony to the inquiry, which is examining the vetting procedures surrounding Huntley's employment as a caretaker at the school of his victims, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Huntley was given the job despite being accused of a string of sexual offences, including four rapes and the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl. The hearing was told that a police request for Humberside Police to vet Huntley before he was taken on as caretaker may never have been sent.

Tom Lloyd, the Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire, "accepts" that his force "more likely than not" never sent a fax to Humberside Police asking for a vetting check on Huntley.

Mr Lloyd, who is understood to have updated his original statement to the inquiry, will give evidence on Thursday.

Mr Westwood said he had "misinterpreted" advice from the Deputy Information Commissioner, David Smith, in a telephone call.

Details of Huntley's first contact with the Humberside force, relating to his admission to underage sex with a 15-year-old girl, were not recorded on its database. "It is my view that incident should have found its way on to the intelligence system," said Mr Westwood.

He said that a misconception among officers that intelligence was being transferred from their crime reports to the force's main intelligence database was "a clear management failure".

Humberside Police did not realise it had come into contact with Huntley 10 times in the period before September 2003.

The inquiry continues.