EMAILS warning probation staff about Anthony Rice, who later murdered a Winchester mother, were sent to the wrong address.

The error emerged at the inquest at Winchester Combined Courts into the death of Naomi Bryant.

It was also revealed that police had planned to follow Rice in the months leading up to the killing.

Officers were worried that when he had previously been freed from a long prison term he had reoffended within days.

Catherine Morgan, of Hampshire Probation Service, told the inquest about concerns at meetings between probation and police under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, Mappa.

The inquest also heard that Julian Perkins, manager of Elderfield hostel in Otterbourne, was unhappy that villagers would be told about Rice’s history of serious offending, and details were kept back.

She said: “Elderfield is situated in a small village and they have had a long-standing arrangement with the village that they will only take certain sorts of offenders.”

She added: “Rice was considered by us to be high-risk, a higher risk than most of the people there.”

He went on to murder Naomi Bryant at her home in Rowlings Road, Weeke, in August 2005. He had been released from a 15-year prison term nine months earlier. He was jailed for life in 2006.

Ms Morgan confirmed that Mappa meetings were unaware that Rice was a child sex offender.

Mr Perkins had told the inquest that he knew Rice committed offences against children, but not that he was a sex offender.

The inquest also heard about communication breakdowns between agencies involved in Rice’s release.

Jackie Owens, of London Probation Service, said she was unaware about emails from Hampshire counterparts detailing their worries.

The messages, from Ms Morgan, were meant for her, but a mistake in the address meant they were not received.

She said: “I would rely on my peers in Hampshire to contact me if there were any problems. There were a series of emails sent by Catherine Morgan to the wrong address, but there were no follow-up calls.

“If the issues had been raised with me then we would have discussed them, and had a conversation about whether or not Elderfield was a project that could manage his level of behaviour.”

Ms Morgan told the inquest: “I can’t recall any contact with Jackie Owens.”

Asked by coroner’s counsel Alison Hewitt why she had not made a follow-up phone call, she said: “All I can think is that Winchester is a busy office. When I didn’t hear, it slipped my mind.”

Patricia Boddy, a colleague of Ms Morgan at Hampshire Probation Service, said she lacked information on Rice.

She added that details of his offending history were stored in their ‘dead filing’ system and did not resurface until 2006.

She said: “I knew that some information had not got to us and I believed that it had never come to us so when I was handed this paperwork I was horrified.

“I had no idea that one of his previous convictions was against a child.”

She added that probation officers were not shown the Elderfield log, which noted Rice’s behaviour as “devious” and “rude”.

“If the log had been brought to our meetings, or we’d been told what was in it, that might have helped, but we weren’t given that information,” she said.

The inquest continues.