Sweeney case police face action

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wales/6197615.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Two police officers could face disciplinary action over the case of Craig Sweeney who abducted and sexually assaulted a three-year-old girl.

Convicted paedophile Sweeney kidnapped the girl from her Cardiff home in January - two days after his licence expired for a previous conviction.

An official report has criticised the way the agencies dealt with the case.

South Wales Police confirmed two serving officers would face a disciplinary hearing.

A force spokesman said: "The professional standards department investigating South Wales Police's response to the abduction of Child A can confirm that two serving police officers will face a disciplinary hearing.

The South Wales Echo reported that the officers were a superintendent and an inspector.

Repeated assaults

Sweeney, 24, snatched the girl from her home in the Rumney area of Cardiff on 2 January.

He drove her to his flat in Newport and sexually assaulted her before assaulting her again in a lay-by near Swindon.

He eventually lost control of his car early on 3 January and crashed between Hungerford and Marlborough nearly 90 miles away from the girl's home.

Sweeney abducted his victim from her family home in Rumney

She had suffered "significant other injuries" from the sex attack and asked medics looking after her: "Is the nasty man gone?"

Sweeney was jailed for life in June, but his sentence caused controversy when he was told he could apply for parole in five years and 108 days.

In July, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said part of the girl's "terrifying ordeal" could have been prevented.

The watchdog partially upheld a complaint by the girl's family about the speed with which South Wales Police responded to their daughter's abduction and recommended officers face a misconduct panel.

And on Tuesday, an official report into the case revealed Sweeney was accused of making inappropriate comments to three children and touching one of them on her bottom while on licence in August 2005.

He was not sent back to prison after the allegation was examined by the probation service in Gwent where he was under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa).

The report into Gwent Mappa said his supervisors over-relied on informal arrangements and identified a "national problem" with the type of accommodation used to house such offenders.

The report made 20 recommendations for changes in the way offenders are dealt with.