AN MP is to challenge the Government in the Commons tomorrow over the case of the child murderer, Dominic McKilligan.

The convicted sex offender murdered 11-year-old Wesley Neailey in June 1999, after being discharged from a North-East young offenders unit.

McKilligan is now serving a life sentence.

Last week, an official report revealed a list of errors by 16 agencies and social services departments, which led to McKilligan being "lost" by the system.

He was sent to the Young People's Centre at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, after being convicted in 1994 for indecent assaults on teenage boys in Bournemouth.

Upon his release, McKilligan, who was 18 at the time, moved to Newcastle - but local police and probation officers were not informed.

By a quirk of fate, his sentence expired one day before rules requiring sex offenders to be registered and requiring them by law to tell the police of any change of address, came into force.

Last week's report, by the Bridge Childcare Development Service, was set up by County Durham, Newcastle and Bournemouth social services departments.

Tomorrow, the Neailey family's MP, Jim Cousins, will call for inquiries to ensure that the catalogue of disasters revealed in the case does not happen again.

The Newcastle Central MP said: "We clearly don't have enough places of care for the limited number of young people who commit sexual or violent offences.

"At the moment, there are about 500 places and that is not enough either for their protection or for ours."

What was shocking about last week's report, he said, was that there were 16 different agencies, involving about 200 people, who failed to communicate properly.

"Clearly that is a nonsense," said Mr Cousins.

He said that it was the shortage of specialist accommodation in Bournemouth which led to McKilligan being transferred to Aycliffe - and it was from that the confusion arose.

In the debate tomorrow night, Mr Cousins will press ministers to demand that Durham County Council and Newcastle Mental Health Trust carry out their own inquiries urgently, to draw lessons for the future.

''We must ensure that people don't fall through the net," he said.