A SENIOR detective repeated calls for a register for people convicted of child cruelty following an inquest into a baby's death.

Det Chief Insp Andy Reddick was speaking after an open verdict was recorded by North Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle into the death of 26-day-old Sarah Anne Butler.

She died in the arms of her father Steven, who fell asleep holding her in a chair at the home he shared at the time with Sarah Anne's mother Deborah Robson, in Murray Road, Chester-le-Street, on November 25, 2001.

Ms Robson said she went to bed at 11pm, leaving Butler sitting holding Sarah Anne.

She awoke at around 6am the following morning to hear Butler wailing and when she went into the lounge she saw him holding a 'limp' Sarah Anne in his outstretched arms.

The inquest in Durham was told Sarah Anne only returned home from hospital the previous afternoon.

Home Office pathologist Dr Nigel Cooper was unable to ascertain the cause of death, but he said it was possible it was sudden infant death syndrome, smothering, or suffocation. His post-mortem examination revealed Sarah Anne suffered ten rib fractures that appeared to have been inflicted a week or two before death.

Butler was arrested and although he said he was unaware how Sarah Anne died, he went on to admit a charge of child cruelty relating to the broken ribs. The itinerant fairground worker, now 31, was jailed for 18 months at Newcastle Crown Court last year.

Det Chief Insp Reddick told the inquest that inquiries revealed two previous partners of Butler claimed he was responsible for non-accidental injuries to their young children, one in Norwich and the other in London, in 1991 and 1994, when he was abusing solvents.

Neither woman reported the incidents for fear that their children would be taken from them by social services.

Ms Robson told the inquest she knew nothing of the previous incidents, and had no doubts about him looking after Sarah Anne.

Det Chief Insp Reddick said Butler, recently released from prison on licence, is believed to be living in the London area.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Chief Insp Reddick said: "From December there's no way of keeping a check on him, as we are able to do in the cases of people on the sex offenders' register.

"He'll be a free agent from December and we can't monitor his future movements."

Durham Area Child Protection Committee reviewed the case last year.

A committee spokesman said: "We wrote to the Home Office in July last year expressing our concerns at the lack of proper tracking and accountability processes for offenders in this sort of case and we certainly support Det Chief Insp Reddick in his bid to have this shortcoming addressed."

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said the issue may be addressed as a result of a recommendation of the recent Bichard Report following the inquiry into the Ian Huntly case, after the Soham murders.

"Bichard called for information about people who have abused, not just children, to be kept on a national intelligence system.

"That system may take a few years to come into place, and while not a child abuse register as such, it will be a national intelligence register."