Maria Stubbings' family on 'woeful' police failings

The police regulator has called for greater controls on people who return to Britain after serving sentences abroad for murder.

A report by Independent Police Complaints Commission criticises the way Essex Police handled the case of Maria Stubbings.

She was strangled in Chelmsford in 2008 by her former partner, Marc Chivers, who had spent 15 years in jail in Germany for killing another woman.

Officers failed to inform Ms Stubbings that Chivers was a convicted murderer until after he became violent.

Maria Stubbings' brother, Manuel Fernandez, said that it was "woeful" that the investigation has taken two years.

Her daughter, Celia Peachy, accused the police of incomprehensible failings.