THE case of Roy Murray, the Merseyside GP who molested young women patients over two decades, almost beggars belief.

Despite concerns being raised over and over again, Murray was allowed to carry on as a doctor until he was finally called to account in 2004 and jailed.

Why on earth was he not stopped sooner?

The report that was finally published yesterday reveals a catalogue of management failings that has an all-too familiar ring to it. Change a few names, change a few other details, and it could be a report into any one of a dozen failures on the part of social services, the caring professions, law enforcement agencies, to prevent a tragedy.

The pattern is the same, of individuals aware that something is not as it should be, but seemingly unable or unwilling to pull all the strands together to make a convincing case for immediate action.

Even worse in this case, some individuals seem to have behaved in a manner breathtaking in its blindness to what has been going on.

The report names no names, but we hope it is not too pious a hope that those people have paid for their negligence with their jobs.

It may come as small comfort for those women who have been humiliated at the hands Murray, but at least no-one has died as a results of this latest debacle.

The current senior management at NHS Halton and St Helens, and St Helens PCT, have made all the right noises about it never happening again.

Words uttered in the best of good faith, no doubt, but they do come under the heading of statements of the blindingly obvious.

We just hope the lessons really have been learned properly.