In the end, no-one was looking out for Danielle Reid. Her short, unhappy life ended in November last year when she was murdered by Lee Gaytor, the boyfriend of her mother, Tracy Reid. Reid and Gaytor's brother, Christopher, disposed of Danielle's body in the Caledonian canal, Inverness. She was five years old. Detective Inspector Stephen MacKay, who saw Lee Gaytor convicted of murder yesterday, and Reid and his brother convicted of perverting the course of justice, said it was a harrowing case that had touched his officers and the people of Inverness.

It should touch and distress all Scots. This was a crime that belonged in the pages of a dark, Victorian novel, set in a time when children were an expendable commodity. When they disappeared, no-one cared. Danielle disappeared from a busy Highland city for three months. Her body was not found until January this year, after police were alerted to her murder. Her mother had taken her out of Crown primary school in early October last year, on the pretext that the family (surely a misnomer) was moving to Manchester. Police believe the real reason was to protect Reid and Lee Gaytor. They were drug abusers and did not want to risk Danielle telling the school. Gaytor was also hitting Danielle and they did not want her going to school with evidence of her injuries. She was not on a council at-risk register but, a year before her death, Highland Council social workers had been alerted by an anonymous

caller concerned about Reid's conduct. After following up the call with Danielle's nursery school and medical practice, no further action was taken. By the time social workers were involved again, Danielle was dead. After a member of Reid's extended family had contacted the council in November, social workers checked with the school and the medical practice, and went to her home. No-one answered, so they left a note.

Arthur McCourt, Highland Council's chief executive, said social workers had followed child protection guidelines, but conceded that ''good practice'' would have suggested follow-up visits. If all of this sounds familiar, it is no surprise. Jack McConnell highlighted the failings in the child protection system in February this year after a review into the death of three-year-old Kennedy McFarlane (killed by his stepfather, Thomas Duncan, after months of abuse went unnoticed) found that more than half of Scottish chidren at risk of abuse or neglect were not given adequate protection. The crisis in social work has left many posts unfilled and staff carrying heavy caseloads. The breakdown of the nuclear family has removed the protective planks of stability and loving care from many young lives.

Alan Miller, principal reporter of the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration, recently said it was not uncommon for children coming before hearings who had perhaps five people acting as parents. ''Some youngsters hardly know who is looking after them from one day to the next,'' he said. Danielle was one of them. Her story is not unique. It has shown that monitoring procedures for the vulnerable are inadequate. Presently, the onus is on parents only to register their children at school and a health centre. They can disappear, like Danielle. In some cases, their existence is not even known to the authorities. As things stand, if a child moves school there is no requirement on that school to keep track of its former pupil. Danielle's case demonstrated how that loophole could be abused. Since there was no new school, no-one asked for records, and she disappeared. That loophole must be

closed. On a wider front, the executive is examining ways to tighten monitoring, perhaps using a form of computer-linked ID card, to keep track of - and, crucially, protect - children at risk. The first minister says we hold the future of each vulnerable child in our hands. We failed another child in Danielle Reid. That can no longer be tolerated.