“WE sincerely apologise” was the response of the safeguarding authorities slammed in a Serious Case Review into the deaths of three generations of the Buckley family.

Chairman of the South East Wales Safeguarding Children Board Simon Burch said the authorities were sorry for areas that “fell short of the standards expected” when dealing with Kim Buckley, her daughter Kayleigh, 17, and six-month-old granddaughter Kimberley who were murdered in an arson attack by Kayleigh’s “possessive” boyfriend Carl Mills in 2012.

Gwent Police, Torfaen Council social services, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service were today held to account after a Serious Case Review was published, criticising agencies for failing to recognise and address the triple murderer’s behaviour as “sexual exploitation and domestic abuse”.

The review ruled that had Mills’ history been “properly researched”, it is likely that action would have been taken that would have protected the Buckley family, who died in their home in Tillsland, Coed Eva on September 18, 2012.

Mr Burch said service providers had learnt from the tragedy and continue to improve.

He added the reports were “thorough, independent and probing” and identified “several areas where service providers could and should have acted.”

Sue Evans, chief officer of social care at Torfaen Council, said; “I apologise on behalf of social services and the council for us not carrying out our responsibility as we should have at this time.”

Mrs Evans said social services did meet with the family to make both Kim and Kayleigh aware of how “unsafe” the relationship was.

“It was difficult to change that relationship. This was a naive young woman who was besotted.

“We’ve learnt an awful lot from this case.

“The grandmother was doing her best to protect her daughter but apart from locking her daughter up in a room, it was very difficult.

“She was finding ways to meet the perpetrator even without a computer and mobile phone.”

Assistant Chief Constable of Gwent Police Lorraine Bottomley said a national police computer database came into effect in 2012 and Gwent Police signed up straight away.

Prior to this, it would take around three hours to carry out checks at different police forces through an email process.

An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report sounds that officers responsible for dealing with an allegation of criminal damage three weeks before the murder failed to utilise information from previous incidents involving Carl Mills and the Buckley family, and failed to use the resources available to them.

ACC Bottomley said: “It was definitely not the best of systems however we what we didn’t want to do is have nothing in place.

“It’s not that people didn’t [check the system] but it’s just that it took a long time, it was most definitely better than having nothing at all.”

She added that Gwent Police has not waited for the Serious Case Review to come out today and has been implementing changes since the incident and the completion of the IPCC report in December 2013.

When asked if Gwent Police had even spoken to Mills about his behaviour, ACC Bottomley said: “Once we were aware of who he was, officers did have him in to speak to him.”

She added Kayleigh was also spoken to but “there were denials.”

“I’m confident that we’d have the information at our hands [now],” she added. “It’s impossible to look into the future and say what will and won’t happen but the tragedy of those three generations of the family being murdered lies solely with Mills and the actions he took.”

Mr Burch added that he was “frustrated” with how long the process had taken to get the reports out but said there was a “very complex” set of circumstances surrounding the Serious Case Review and Domestic Homicide Report, also published today.

Mr Burch added that he met a member of the Buckley family yesterday and asked what she wanted from today’s hearing.

He said: “She said ‘I just want people to learn from this’.”.

He concluded: “Those deaths were a terrible tragedy. As the authorities responsible for safeguarding, we’re confident we have stronger systems available.”