... indecent assault on an 11-year-old and other accusations of unlawful sex with underage girls. This information was not highlighted when Huntley applied for a caretaker's job at a Soham school. Chief Constable David Westwood said the information was deleted because none of it led to convictions. His actions have been criticised by other police, including Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir John Stevens. "With the Data Protection Act you have to push it to the nth degree," he said. "The policy here is to hold on to things as long as we can - if someone's being investigated for rape and there is a possibility they're a murderer, we have a duty to hold on to that. "We have to think about the public interest and that the public interest is met." The independent information watchdog said the fault was with the police, rather than the Act. Assistant information commissioner David Smith ...

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