IT has been a great week for justice, has it not? Saddam Hussein captured and Ian Huntley found guilty of the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Each in his own way has been responsible for acts virtually impossible to contemplate.

Saddam, torturer and mass murderer, who ruled Iraq by fear, found in a hole in the ground, bearded, unkempt, looking for all the world like Ben Gunn, abandoned by Long John Silver on Treasure Island. Huntley, the evil, sexual predator, who ended the lives of two 10-year-olds and went to extraordinary lengths to lie his way out of trouble. He should be found in a hole in the ground, too, but won't as the UK does not endorse the death penalty.

Saddam may well travel the same escape route as international human rights activists are pressing for him to be tried "fairly", a gesture denied the thousands he tortured and executed.

These monsters are behind bars but their influence on people connected with their lives will run and run. In Iraq, the capture of the toppled dictator triggered celebrations in some parts; anger and resentment in others. It would appear that while the majority of Iraqis welcome Saddam's capture, others still loyal to him aren't going to fade away.

Attacks against the Americans daily grow more ferocious and deadly, and the job of rebuilding a united Iraq, already a Herculean task, has not been made easier by Saddam's arrest. Where will he be tried? Who will sit in judgment? Surely it has to be the Iraqis, as it was they whom he terrorised; their country he ruined. But what about those still loyal to him. Will they make an effort to derail the judicial process; even try some daring attempt to free him, using hostages to barter?

I shouldn't think anyone will care if Ian Huntley rots in jail but subsequent revelations of the appalling errors which allowed this violent man with a history of sexual attacks to be employed as a caretaker at a village school demand some serious questions to be answered.

On his native Humberside, Huntley came to the notice of the police on no fewer than TEN occasions for alleged sex offences, including rape, unlawful sex and indecent assault. He was investigated but never convicted. When he applied for the job in Soham, he told people querying his background that he sometimes used his mother's maiden name of Nixon. Cambridgeshire Police say they asked Humberside Police to check their records for both names. Humberside declare they were asked only for Nixon, but that Huntley's alleged sex offences would have expunged from the computers anyway under the Data Protection Act as he had never been convicted. No charges brought would mean details wiped out, thus creating a void where employment vetting was concerned, though one could be forgiven for thinking the name would have rung a few bells in the Humberside cop shops.

Huntley escaped the net and Holly and Jessica died. So how many other Huntleys are there out there? Maybe it has not been such a great week for justice after all.