Police force criticised in Soham murders fails to meet intelligence deadline

THE police force that failed to keep records on killer Ian Huntley’s murky past is behind in a British drive for better intelligence handling, it emerged last night.

Humberside Police will miss a spring deadline to introduce new guidelines to improve all forces' use and management of information on potential suspects and risk assessment.

The force said the delays were because it wanted to take "extra care" over the introduction of the National Intelligence Model (NIM) following recent criticism of its data systems.

Chief Inspector Keith Povey told the Bichard Inquiry an independent probe arising from the Soham murders that Humberside was one of six forces out of 43 nationwide that was behind.

He also revealed a "sad" picture of vetting procedures across police forces.

Humberside has been criticised for its intelligence handling of Huntley after he was at the centre of nine sex allegations in the 1990s.

The force failed to retain any of the records created, including an intelligence report warning he was a "serial sex attacker". In December 2001, Huntley was given the all-clear by police to work as a school caretaker in Soham, where he murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.