Foreign criminals are still slipping into the UK with police clueless about past crimes
Coroner slams police for failing to join the dots in inquest into Alice Gross' tragic murder at the hands of a Latvian criminal
A SHAMBLES over convicted killers still coming to the UK with no checks was exposed yesterday at the inquest into the murder of schoolgirl Alice Gross.
There continues to be no routine screening of migrants’ criminal records, a Home Office chief admitted.
But today authorities admitted they would not have discovered his previous conviction for murder in Latvia discovered even if he was arrested in Britain today as a suspect in a sex crime.
Checks on suspects' criminal records abroad are too "patchy" allowing murderers to go under the radar here, coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said.
Alice, 14, fell prey to a sex killer who had served seven years in Latvia for murdering his wife.
Evil Arnis Zalkains, 41, who ambushed her in 2014 in Hanwell, West London, hung himself.
Zalkalns' conviction for battering his wife to death in 1998 was deleted from the police database in his native Latvia after eight years after his release from prison in accordance with their laws.
It remained on Interpol's database – but those records are not trawled by the automated computer system used by British police forces to shed light on a foreign suspect's past.
Det Supt Mike Forteath, an expert on police procedure, testified that few police knew at the time how to access foreign criminal databases.
Home Office expert David Cheesman confessed under a grilling from the coroner that little had changed, as full-proof criminal record checks are not being carried out on them when people arrive at airports.
Dr Fiona Wilcox said she was “exceptionally concerned”.
Alice, 14, was ambushed on a canal towpath in Hanwell, West London in August 2014.
Her body was discovered wrapped in bin bags in the canal a month later.
Zalkalns was found hanged in a park days after the discovery.
related stories
The jury inquest into her death is due to finish hearing evidence tomorrow.
The inquest at London’s High Court continues.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team?
Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368