Police who bungled hunt for sex attacker over six years face sack

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said the managers failed to make the case a priority as Reid stalked Wandsworth, London.

A report found the officers did not allocate sufficient resources to catch the attacker or get a grip on the sprawling case during a bungled six-year inquiry.

It focused on the failings of senior managers as other crimes in the borough – robberies, street crime and burglary – were given priority, and the sex inquiry was allowed to drift.

The officers, a superintendent and two inspectors, will now face a misconduct panel after independent officials undertook a step-by-step review.

It is the second time Scotland Yard has been hauled over the coals by the IPCC over officers failing to tackle sex attackers.

Earlier this year the force was criticised for failing to take the victims of taxi driver rapist John Worboys seriously and not working harder to link his crimes.

Deborah Glass, of the IPCC, said managers were responsible for a "sustained failure" to tackle a pattern of offences in one London borough.

She said: "The failure to take a serial sex offender off the streets of London years earlier is a shameful chapter in the history of the Metropolitan Police.

"When considered alongside the failings in the case of John Worboys, their overall effect on the confidence of the victims of sexual offences in the police response cannot be overstated.

"That is damaging not only for victims, but for the many dedicated officers who have worked hard to make a difference."

Football coach Reid, 45, was jailed for life last year for 27 sexual offences, many of which took place along the A24 corridor in Clapham, Balham and Tooting.

Police suspect he could be responsible for a further 100 crimes in

which women were attacked in the street at night and indecently assaulted.

Independent officials questioned eight officers under caution after an internal review found police missed chances to stop Reid in 2002 and 2004.

Reid was caught within hours of the case being passed to detectives at the force's specialist crime directorate in January 2008.

The report said Wandsworth officers focused on the wrong man and persisted even after DNA checks ruled him out.

Officials criticised the work of a superintendent responsible for "crime management" in the borough for three years during which dozens of offences were apparently brought to his notice.

They found the superintendent, who will face a misconduct panel,

cleared more than 50 files off his desk in December 2005, telling a

more junior officer he did not want to see them back.

The two detective inspectors, who were responsible for the borough's Sapphire unit, which specialised in sex crimes, will face a misconduct panel after allegedly failing to act on a 2004 crime report identifying Reid and for allocating insufficient resources to the inquiry.

A chief superintendent received "words of advice" for failing to allocate enough resources and A detective sergeant received the same low-level punishment for failing to identify Reid as a suspect during a four-week review of the inquiry in October 2004.