TWO officers from Lancashire Police have been sent to help investigate the deaths of the five women in Suffolk.

A detective constable and a Home Office Large Major Enquiry System (HOLMES) indexer, responsible for recording large volumes of information, have joined officers from nine other forces in a country wide effort to track the "Suffolk Ripper".

According to police chiefs Lancashire Constabulary, almost twice the size of Suffolk Constabulary, has the expertise and the capability to provide that reinforcement needed.

Det Supt Mick Gradwell, who has headed major cases such as the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy, said: "We are not just capable but we have the capacity to assist.

"The Home Office Large Major Enquiry System was brought in after the Yorkshire Ripper case to ensure better liaison between different forces.

"Mistakes were made as he had been in the system on a number of occasions but the problem was that they were using paper documents.

"For instance, if the card with Peter Sutcliffe's name was out it could have been overlooked where as the HOLMES system is an electronic data generator which stores records such as CCTV, number plate recognition, mobile phone records and financial records."

He added: "The senior experienced investigation officers are trained to the same level throughout the country so the skills are transferable.

"We all work to the same practices and work to a mutual aid agreement, no matter what happens, whether it be a terrorism case or a major public order.

"We have a specialist major force investigation team who deal with major incidents so we would be able to deal with an incident of this scale if it were to happen here in Lancashire."