Anthony Rice, 48, who was “too dangerous to be released in the first place”, had made complaints that his human rights were being infringed by members of the Parole Board and police and probation officers monitoring him.

An official report uncovered a catalogue of failings in the prison, probation and police services that allowed Rice to murder Naomi Bryant, 40, nine months after he was released on licence from a 16-year jail term for rape.

Andrew Bridges, the Chief Inspector of Probation, said there were “substantial deficiencies” in the way Rice was supervised by a panel of probation and other officials in Hampshire specifically set up to monitor violent and sexual offenders.

Rice was sentenced to life in 1989 for rape and indecent assault, offences committed only two weeks after he had been released from an earlier prison term. He served 16 years before being released from an open prison on licence in November 2004.

Months after his release he killed Ms Bryant, the mother of a 14-year-old girl.

The report is a further blow to the reputation of the Probation Service as it follows a similar highly critical inquiry that found serious failings in the London service’s supervision of Damien Hanson, who killed the financier John Monckton at his Chelsea home. Latest figures show that between March 2004 and last month, 26 people being monitored by the Probation Service were convicted of murder, 12 of attempted murder and 43 of rape.

The Chief Inspector of Probation admitted that one third of offenders considered likely to be at risk of causing serious harm to the public were not being supervised adequately.

Yesterday’s report found that the Parole Board had placed an “increasing focus” on Rice’s human rights rather than on protecting the public.

When he was released, the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) was also distracted by considering Rice’s complaints that the conditions of his release were infringing his human rights.

“On balance Anthony Rice should not have been released on licence in the first place and once he had been released he could and should have been better managed,” Mr Bridges said.

Mr Bridges uncovered a series of failings before Rice was released and when he was supposed to be under supervision. He found no mention on his prison record of his convictions for sexual offences against children. When the Parole Board considered him for release it did not have full knowledge of his criminal behaviour, including his attacks on children.

The panel considering his release received over optimistic reports on his progress — in a similar way to the case of Hanson.

In January 2001 a psychologist examined Rice’s record and concluded that there was a 72 per cent likelihood that he would be convicted of a sexual offence again within 20 years.

But because he had made “significant” progress and was showing evidence of changing his “distorted” attitudes towards women, his overall risk level was judged to be “high” rather than “very high”.

When Rice’s probation file was transferred from London to Hampshire in September 2004 an important part of it, which drew attention to his potential risk to female staff, was mistakenly archived.

The final form of his parole licence for release had 12 conditions, including a curfew and a ban on contacting or approaching lone women without his probation officer’s approval.

But several conditions suffered from a “lack of clarity”, making them hard to enforce and breaches difficult to prove.

The Mappa panel then changed some of the conditions without authority from the Parole Board. In February the panel discussed a letter from Rice’s solicitor complaining that two of the conditions contravened his human rights.

The report said that though the panel refused to alter the two conditions, “again more attention was paid in the meeting to the fairness and proportionality of the restrictive interventions, rather than their effectiveness in keeping risk of harm to a minimum”.

Barrie Crook, the Chief Probation Officer for Hampshire, said: “We fully accept that more could and should have been done to manage the risks posed by Anthony Rice.”

John Reid, the Home Secretary, said the Government would consider the report carefully and make improvements through legislation if necessary.

Serious offences committed under probation supervision in England and Wales, from April 2004 to March 2005:

26 murders
12 attempted murders
15 manslaughters
43 rapes
20 arson with intent to endanger lifes
4 kidnappings
100 other serious sexual or violent offences

OTHER KILLERS WHO WERE ON PROBATION

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