HERE we go again, another child dead after suffering appalling injuries at the hands of her parents while everyone, from social services, to the police, to our health care system, let her down.

We are told lessons will be learned from the appalling case of two-year-old Ainlee Walker. Until the next time, I suppose.

Ainlee missed 37 health visitor and hospital appointments, yet still alarm bells didn't ring. Neighbours complained and police were called out to her home more than 50 times over two years, yet still no one did anything. A concerned child protection nurse wrote to social services several times and received no reply.

The case was repeatedly passed on and overlooked while the toddler, who was covered in cigarette burns and had 64 separate injuries over her tiny body, which was so undernourished she looked like a famine victim, endured a living hell.

Sadly, it all sounds too familiar. We have read too many similar stories over recent years, each one exposing huge faults in our social services system and an appalling lack of communication between social workers, police and health care workers.

If the tragic case of Ainlee Walker tells us anything, it is, surely, that we need a complete overhaul of our child protection system which, among other things, should give social workers more powers to enter homes and act where they are concerned about a child's welfare.

And perhaps we should also take a look at our legal system, which decrees no one can be charged with Ainlee's murder because each parent blames the other. That Ainlee's mother and father received just ten and 12 years respectively for manslaughter for the brutal killing of their daughter is the final insult to this two-year-old's memory.

Ainlee's screams fell on deaf ears. We all let her down. The least we can do now is act to ensure it cannot happen again.

DOES Nicole Appleton think that by telling the story of how record company bosses forced her to abort her baby by Robbie Williams for the sake of her band, All Saints, we will feel sorry for her? Nicole was 23 at the time, big enough to have sex and get pregnant and certainly big enough to tell a record company boss that she was keeping her baby if that was what she wanted. After all, look at all the other female stars who were recording and performing while pregnant at the time. Nicole, now 28, clearly still can't bring herself to take responsibility for her actions. She makes out that she was a young innocent, ruthlessly manipulated by the brutal record industry. In fact, she exposes herself as pathetic, weak, selfish and cowardly.

DAME Diana Rigg has just been voted the sexiest television star of all time. Now 64, I wonder if this will be welcome news since, just last week, she complained that, after years of being noticed by men, she hit middle age and suddenly became invisible. Being reminded, yet again, of just how incredibly sexy she used to be is probably not what she needs now. But the rest of us can at least comfort ourselves with the thought that our middle age won't come as such a huge disappointment.