Maria Colwell was killed by her stepfather in Brighton 30 years ago this month.

The seven-year-old's death sparked a huge outcry when it was discovered everyone knew about her but nothing had been done because of a lack of liaison.

After the public inquiry into her death which reported the following year, Brighton and Britain were united in agreeing it should never happen again.

A report has now been produced by Lord Laming on what went wrong in the case of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie. Once again lack of liaison is blamed.

It's not as if Victoria's was the only other shocking case in the last 30 years.

There have been many other cases of abuse, neglect and murder across the country. Some of them have been in Brighton and Hove.

What's to be done? In the Maria Colwell case, all the social and other welfare workers involved were seasoned and caring professionals with wide experience of looking for signs of child abuse.

More money to help hard-pressed social care departments might help find some of the solutions but not all.

It seems clear that each social care area should have a commissioner in charge of children at risk to provide the co-ordination that often seems to be lacking.

You can never say never in cases of child cruelty. But the authorities can and must take action.

These are most distressing crimes. For them to go unchecked is unforgivable.