A SECRET report into the Soham murders inquiry reveals that senior police officers leading the search for Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were paralysed by ineptitude, indecision and inaction.

The document, written at the time of the murders in August 2002, shows that the killer Ian Huntley was officially “eliminated” as a suspect six days into the investigation.

Extracts from the report have been obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act. Despite the new legislation, much of the 70-page report is covered by public interest immunity certificates, issued by the courts, and remains barred from disclosure.

Within the sections released by Cambridgeshire police, substantial parts have been edited, often to protect the identities of police officers.

But the chapters that have been made available contain scathing criticisms of the men leading Cambridgeshire police during one of the largest murder inquiries in British policing history.

They are accused of conducting “a poorly focused investigation”, not recognising they were dealing with a major incident and allowing “fundamental lines of inquiry to go unnoticed”.

The report has prompted widespread change in Cambridgeshire, which is one of the rural police forces facing possible reform or merger to enable it to deal with larger operations. Plans for the future of smaller forces will be published this year.

The report, written by an experienced Scotland Yard detective, states that senior ranks failed to act on valuable evidential leads being gathered by officers on the ground.

Acting Detective Superintendent David Beck, who led the inquiry, is shown to have refused a request to deploy extra officers on the night the girls, both 10, went missing from their homes in Soham.

He did so “on the basis that there could be an innocent explanation for the girls’ disappearance”.

There was “a lack of clarity around who was running the investigation” and Mr Beck was unable “to maintain control and knowledge of the overall strategic direction of the investigation”.

The document adds that leads which were categorised as “high-priority” were not acted on for more than a week.

Huntley, the school caretaker later convicted of murdering the children, was formally “eliminated” from the inquiry when officers accepted a false alibi provided by Maxine Carr, then his girlfriend.

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