It's OK, Stephanie, They Have The Answers Down Pat...

Stephanie, 33, said social services 'will have a lot of questions to answer', adding: 'It makes you stick sick to your stomach to think what Alfie might have been subjected to behind closed doors. Why didn't social services do more before it was too late?'

After all, they've had so much practice over the years, haven't they?

The family was known to social services - not least because Howell had an order in place preventing him from staying at the house, which he routinely flouted. Neighbours also made repeated calls to police after hearing screaming and crying coming from both inside and outside the family home.

A safeguarding review will now explore what more could have been done to save Alfie.

The people in charge of preventing these cases should have done their jobs. There. That's your review. 

And if it seems like déjà vu, well, it's what's always said in cases like this, as the people in charge of preventing cases like these scramble to distance themselves: 

Det Ch Insp Harding said the case had not been referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), because it "did not meet the criteria", despite officers' contact with the family.

If this didn't, what would? Maybe those criteria should change? 

Nigel Huddleston, MP for Mid-Worcestershire, described the case as "absolutely horrendous". "We must endeavour to learn lessons from Alfie's murder to help ensure that such a horrific event never happens again," he added.

Keep that phrase somewhere, Nigel, because I'd bet you (or some other MP) will be trotting it out again at the next preventable child murder. Just remember to cross out the name 'Alfie', eh?