Paedophile who killed `was not properly monitored'

A catalogue of errors was made by social workers in the supervision of a convicted sex offender who went on to kill a boy, a report concluded yesterday.

Thirty-four-year-old Steven Leisk, a paedophile, brutally strangled Scott Simpson, 9, from Aberdeen, with a scarf last July - two months before a supervision order on him was due to end. The order had been imposed following his earlier release from an 18-month sentence for sexual offences involving a teenage boy.

It was Leisk's fourth conviction for sexual offences against children, yet an independent report published yesterday into the handling of the case revealed that Aberdeen city council social workers had failed to monitor him properly. It says there was a ``clear failure'' on the part of a social worker, who has not been named, to comply with the requirements of National Standards. However, it adds, it is not possible to conclude that the failure resulted in, or contributed to, "the terrible conclusion to this case".