The only way for some good to come from a tragedy is to try to stop it from happening again. The public inquiry into the murders of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 included a damning indictment of police IT systems to which government and local forces have been trying to respond.

The Police National Computer (PNC) holds only conviction data, so more nebulous intelligence records, such as the earlier allegations against Huntley, are only available upon specific request to the force concerned.