IN this column yesterday we said that Merseyside Police had serious questions to answer over their handling of Peter Chapman, the man who murdered 17-year-old Darlington student Ashleigh Hall.

And it has become increasingly clear since then how strongly our readers feel about the police’s actions leading up to this horrific crime.

Like us, they do not understand why it took Merseyside Police nine months to sound a nationwide alert when Chapman went missing from his home, even though he was registered as a dangerous sex offender.

Like us, they do not understand why he was allowed to surf the internet in search of vulnerable young victims.

Like us, they have serious doubts about whether the sex offenders’ register means anything.

We welcome the Independent Police Complaints Commission being asked to investigate the monitoring of Peter Chapman. That investigation must take place and we look forward to the findings being made public.

So far, Merseyside Police has said that an internal review was carried out following Chapman’s arrest and “a number of procedural improvements were identified and subsequently implemented”.

What were those improvements?

Did they involve disciplinary action being taken against those officers who were supposed to be keeping a close eye on Chapman?

The Ashleigh Hall case has exposed a shambles at the heart of Britain’s procedures for dealing with the worst type of criminals imaginable.

Now we expect the Government to take action to make sure that paedophiles like Chapman are placed under meaningful scrutiny.