Probe into Huntley vetting blunders

The inquiry into how Soham child killer Ian Huntley got a job as a school caretaker, despite a string of sex allegations, was under way.

The Bichard Inquiry will examine how Huntley was able to slip through the UK police vetting net, and the flaws in intelligence handling that led to him working at Soham Village College.

It was while working there that he abducted and murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002.

Counsel to the inquiry James Eadie was expected to outline the case and raise issues to be addressed for the future in a lengthy opening statement.

Chairman and former Whitehall mandarin Sir Michael Bichard officially opened the London-based inquiry last month with a 30 second silence in memory of the Cambridgeshire schoolgirl friends.

But the investigation, expected to run until March 30, was resuming in earnest, with the first witnesses to take the stand on Monday.

It will focus on how police intelligence was handled, vetting procedures, and why information was not shared between agencies that dealt with Huntley.

It will look specifically at how disturbing allegations of rape, indecent assault, and sex with underage girls in and around Huntley's home town of Grimsby were not shared between Humberside and Cambridgeshire Police forces.

After Huntley was convicted in December of double murder, Humberside Chief Constable David Westwood said his force had thought they were required to delete details of the previous allegations under the terms of Britain's Data Protection Act.

They included accusations of four rapes and an indecent assault on an 11-year-old girl.