Police have been criticised over their handling of the case of a 12-year-old girl whose family claim was stalked by a man on the Internet.

The Northern Echo revealed last month how Cleveland police had received a complaint from the girl's grandparents after she was sent pornographic images by an older man she met in a chat room.

The youngster, who the Echo has chosen not to identify, had arranged to meet the man before her family discovered what was going on and stopped her from making any further contact.

Last night the family, who live in East Cleveland, said they had been disappointed with the police's response almost six weeks after their initial complaint and accused them of not taking it seriously.

The girl's grandmother said: "The police said they were going to try and prosecute this as a crime but we've been told so many conflicting things by them.

"They said they would examine our granddaughter's computer and formally interview her but neither has happened yet.

"I am disappointed with the way they have handled this and our concern obviously is that if this man has targeted our granddaughter then he must have done the same with other children."

The grandmother said that police had given her the name of the man in his 40s they believed may be responsible, although it was unclear whether detectives had actually made physical contact with him.

The dangers of so-called Internet grooming have since been highlighted by the case of 12-year-old Shevaun Pennington who ran off with a US marine after meeting him on the Internet.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland police stressed that inquiries were continuing.

She said: "Unfortunately these things take time. We are carrying out subscriber checks in relation to this man's e-mail address and telephone number and are waiting for the companies concerned to come back to us."

The police spokeswoman added that during the course of inquiries the name of a man from Plymouth had come up, but subsequent checks on him with local police had proved negative.

She said: "What we want is the man responsible and his computer and when we have traced him we may well come back and examine the complainant's computer."

Changes to the law to make grooming a child with intent to have sex an offence are due to come into force next year.

Until then experts say it will remain difficult to bring a prosecution in such cases unless a meeting actually takes place or some form of harassment can be proved.