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The family of Leah Croucher have criticised a Government pledge to tighten supervision of sex predators, saying a "vague" promise to review services may not be enough to avert another tragedy.

Probation chiefs were warned that failures to track sex offenders risked another killing like that of Leah, 19, who was snatched in 2019 by fugitive rapist Maxwell, 49. He murdered her and stashed her dismembered body in a loft, where it lay undiscovered for nearly four years. Leah's parents John, 50, and Claire, 49, called for urgent action to "keep others safe" after a coroner identified failings in Maxwell's monitoring.

Earlier this year Tom Osborne, senior coroner for , Buckinghamshire, said Maxwell "was in breach of the terms of his probation and was able to kill Leah when it was known he was a predator and a danger to females". He called for a "fundamental review" of probation services in a Prevention of Future Deaths Report (PFDR) following an. Leah's family hoped new Justice Minister James Timpson would address their fears - but it was instead passed to a regional Probation Director. It means any review would be confined to the area, raising concerns that it would not identify flaws across the UK.

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And in a statement John and Claire's legal team said they were "deeply concerned that this is not being taken seriously enough by the Police and Probation Service". They said they feared other families could face the same heartache "as well others who have suffered at the hands of known offenders who were inappropriately managed".

Through their legal team at Howes Percival, the family said: "This was an opportunity to undertake a wholescale review of the management and monitoring of sex offenders within the community and for the new Labour government to assess the state of offender management and demonstrate that they are truly committed to ending violence against women, girls and vulnerable persons. We have little confidence that the vague, local reviews promised within the response to the coroner will achieve any noticeable, let alone effective, change."

Leah's family faced an agonising four-year wait before her badly decomposed body was discovered in the loft of a home where handyman Maxwell, 49, was working. The convicted rapist - who had a "predilection for young females" - killed himself in a bike shed two months after Leah vanished. At the time of his death he was being hunted by cops over an unsolved sex attack.

But he had slipped through the net when probation officers and police lost track of him and failed to assess him as a "high-risk" offender despite a sickening rap sheet going back more than 20 years. John and Clare said they were "haunted" by Leah's final moments in which Maxwell raped her, dismembered her body and hid her remains in plastic bags.

Today, responding to the coroner's PFDR, the Regional Probation Director for the South Central Probation Service said it was acknowledged they should "oversee a piece of work to review the effectiveness of the multi-agency processes for monitoring sex offenders and for information exchange between police and probation".

But Leah's family said: "We are disappointed that the minister did not take the opportunity to order a fundamental review and delegated his duty to respond to the Regional Probation Director. Whilst wider Probation and Policing practice could not be explored during the inquest into Leah’s death due to the law being inadequate to question whether victims like Leah have had their human rights breached, the minister was not confined to considering the position solely in relation to Thames Valley. We are concerned that these issues are not confined to the Thames Valley area and there is a lack of assurance that lessons will truly be learned and disseminated."

Leah disappeared on February 15 2019, as she walked to work in the Furzton area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. In total police searched 3,500 houses, carried out 1,500 lines of inquiry, examined 1,200 documents, 1,600 messages and took 500 statements. But despite the extensive probe, cops made just one cursory visit to the address where Leah's body lay undiscovered for three years and nine months.

The "unremarkable" four-bedroom semi-detached house in Loxbeare Drive, Furzton, was less than half-a-mile from where Leah was last seen alive. Leah's disappearance was too much for Hayden, who was diagnosed as bi-polar. He took his own life just one day before the nine-month anniversary of his half-sister's disappearance. Leah's family have said they are still seeking answers about what action was taken to arrest Maxwell before the attack.