A convicted child killer has launched a legal bid to halt an inquest into the death of a schoolgirl he was cleared of murdering.

A public inquiry into how a convicted sex offender was able to kill himself and his family in a deliberate house fire should not become a witch hunt, social workers warned today.

Welfare services involved with the family of registered sex offender Arthur McElhill, who killed himself and his family when he set fire to their Omagh home, were guilty of a series of failings, an investigation into the deaths found today.