The RUC failed to properly investigate the disappearance of a girl murdered in Northern Ireland 14 years ago, a report claimed today.
Valuable evidence in the search for Arlene Arkinson's killer was unavailable because police could have arrested the chief suspect sooner, the report said.
Robert Howard (64), a serial sex offender who was with the 15-year-old on the night she went missing on the way home from a disco, was acquitted of the murder - two years after he was jailed for life for the killing of a south London schoolgirl whose body was found in a cement works in Kent.
The remains of Arlene, from Castlederg, Co.Tyrone, have never been recovered, despite searches of mountains and bogland near her home and on the border with Co Donegal.
A report today by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson claimed the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) failed to properly investigate her disappearance.
A spokesman said: "The CID did not respond with vigour to reports that a vulnerable person was missing, having last been seen in the company of a man who was a known sex offender.
"Together these aspects should have alerted them sooner to the possibility they were dealing with a potential murder inquiry."
Police took 46 days to arrest Howard when they could have detained him within two, according to a spokesman for the Ombudsman.
"The failure to do so sooner prevented the seizure of clothing he wore on the night of the disappearance and allowed for the opportunity to dispose of evidence," he added. "The early seizure and examination of significant exhibits would have had the potential to provide valuable evidence."
At one stage in the search headed up at the time in April 1996 by Detective Superintendent Eric Anderson, police officers dug up the back garden of the home of Arlene's sister, Kathleen Arkinson, near Castlederg.
She said today's report totally vindicated her criticism of the police handling of the case.
Ms Arkinson said: "They've never done enough, even now. But our family has never given up hope of finding Arlene's body.
Howard was cleared of murdering Arlene in June 2005. He had given her a lift with two friends from a disco in the seaside town of Bundoran, Co.Donegal. He insisted in court that Arlene got out of the car after he dropped off the others.
The jury at the trial in Belfast was not aware he had been convicted and jailed for life in October 2003 for the murder of Hannah William (14), from Deptford, south London, whose body was later found in a cement works in Kent. She had been strangled with rope after vanishing from her mother's home in April 2001.
Howard, from Mottingham, south east London, had a string of sex convictions going back 40 years. Gardaí and British police suspect he may be linked to the disappearance of up to six people.
PA