A TEENAGER who tried to murder a six-year-old girl was investigated by police a year earlier, after another schoolgirl claimed he attacked her.

Philip Hodges (pictured) received a life sentence at Cardiff crown court for the attempted murder, attempted rape and kidnap of a six-year-old girl in Newport last June.

Now the Argus can reveal that a complaint was made against Hodges to police just over a year before he attacked the six-year-old.

A pupil at Hartridge High School, in Ringland, told police she was attacked by Hodges. But no criminal proceedings were ever brought as a result of the allegation.

Now her mother says she wishes she had pressed for more action, saying: "Perhaps if something had been done when we wanted something done, he wouldn't have been in the position to attack anybody."

Police say that, after consultation with the pupil's parents and the school, officers felt the complaint could be dealt with by the school.

At the time Hodges was a pupil at the emotional and behavioural difficulties unit at Hartridge. The unit is not part of the mainstream school system and pupils are kept separate.

In the autumn of 2000 Hodges was transferred to a different specialist unit. But the girl's mother also contacted police a few months later - because she felt the school was not taking enough action.

She says her daughter was badly affected by the alleged attack - losing weight and even attempting to take an overdose.

She added: "My daughter is blaming herself for what happened to the six-year-old and it wasn't her fault.

"It was all down to circumstances. But I am angry at the way the school handled our complaint."

Superintendent Nigel Russell, of Newport police, said: "We liaised with the girl, her family and the school and agreed the course of action was that the school would take the lead.

"When there was an attempt to resurrect the complaint, because no further incidents had been brought to our attention, the decision made to let the school deal with the issue still stood.

"The decision to allow the school to lead on the matter is in line with normal working practices for incidents involving pupils in the same school.

"Clearly, if any of the people involved had known at the time of this first incident what Hodges was going to do a year later it may have had an impact on our decision.

"However, as we were unaware, it was dealt with on the basis of the information we had at the time and I have no reason to feel that decision was wrong."

A spokeswoman for Newport city council said: "Philip Hodges, like other students in the educational emotional behaviour disturbances unit was constantly supervised and the school did everything in their power to ensure that his and the girl's paths did not cross.

"He was transferred at the first opportunity to a project for disaffected pupils."