Police and social workers missed chances to protect a 13-year-old girl who was stabbed to death by a man after she threatened to reveal he had been sexually abusing her for more than a year, an independent review has found. Social workers did not take effective action even after Lucy McHugh’s school flagged up their concerns that she had an older boyfriend who could be sexually exploiting her, the review concluded. The review, overseen by the Southampton Safeguarding Children Partnership, also found that police ought to have delved deeper when they learned that Lucy’s killer, Stephen Nicholson, 26, who had a history of violence, was tattooing children. Nicholson, a care worker and lodger at the teenager’s home in Southampton, was jailed for at least 33 years for murdering Lucy. He lured her into woods near her home in Hampshire in July 2018 and stabbed her 27 times before hiding the weapon and trying to burn the clothes he had been wearing. His trial at Winchester crown court heard that Lucy’s school had raised concerns that she was spending time unsupervised with an older man. The trial judge, Mrs Justice May, questioned why social services had not intervened. The review found that agencies including children’s social care were aware of Nicholson’s criminal history. A “learning report” produced by the reviewers said the concerns correctly raised by her school did not progress further than the “front door” to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub. The report said this “resulted in no multi-agency sharing of information held by police, the school and children’s social care.” It added: “The referrals needed to be treated as one of child protection. If this had happened, a strategy discussion could have been convened concerning the risk this man posed. This did not happen and was a missed opportunity.” The report said a lack of “professional curiosity” was a frequent theme emerging in such cases. It said in this instance there was “a lack of further investigation by police” when Nicholson came to their attention before Lucy’s death, “not least when it became known he was tattooing underage young people”. It added: “By not following up on the concerns expressed about this man, an opportunity was missed to consider the risks he presented to [Lucy] and other young people.” Of Nicholson, it said: “He was well known and appeared to be well liked and trusted in the local community. This man was, however, also well known to police, and children’s social care did have knowledge of elements of his background. Before being sentenced to life imprisonment, the perpetrator had numerous previous convictions, which included theft, battery, criminal damage, domestic violence and possession of cannabis.” The report acknowledged that as a result of Lucy’s murder, “a number of partner agencies have changed procedures to enhance the way in which children are safeguarded”. Supt Kelly Whiting, Hampshire police’s district commander for Southampton, said the force was “‘identifying improvements”, adding: “We are already developing a trauma informed approach to dealing with all incidents involving children.” Rob Henderson, Southampton city council’s executive director for wellbeing (children and learning), said: “On behalf of the council I would like to apologise to the victim’s family, friends, and all who knew her, for the council’s shortcomings identified in the report. We have already made changes in a number of the areas highlighted.” Nobody at the city council has been disciplined over the case. A spokesperson said: “Our focus has been on learning and changing the way we operate when dealing with highly complex cases such as this.” Hampshire police said no disciplinary action had been taken.