The comments of Judge Hilary Manley at Manchester Crown Court were greeted with dismay by the top ranks of Merseyside Police.
On Tuesday, she laid bare the "unhappy" history of an investigation that left 24-year-old Liverpool man Lewis Jones free to snatch a six-year-old from a field in Droylsden, Tameside, where she was playing with her friends.
Jones, formerly of Brocklebank Lane in Allerton, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years over the prolonged sexual assault, which left the little girl bloodied, bruised and psychologically scarred. But it emerged during his sentencing hearing how he had already been under investigation by Merseyside Police, for no less than two years, after grooming a 12-year-old schoolgirl into a sexual relationship by posing as a 14-year-old boy.
