AN inquiry into the death of teenager Melissa Strickson today said communication could have been better between the police, education and social services.

The official report said the 13-year-old's death was 'unpreventable' and that the agencies involved needed to draw up a protocol to work together in the future.

But Melissa's father Vic, of Tythebarn Street, Darwen, today branded the 12-page document a "whitewash" and said it had provided them with no answers.

He said the family were contemplating launching legal action against social services for a breach of the Human Rights Act, which states everyone has the right to have their life protected.

The Area Child Protection Committee, which is made up of health and education organisations, the police, social services and independent child service providers, spent almost a year compiling the report since her death.

Melissa died in October last year after running away from home with three other girls and taking refuge at home of self-confessed white witch Sally Corkhill, of Sudell Road, Darwen.

She had a massive overdose of co-proxamol tablets and was pronounced dead on arrival at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

Corkhill, 41, was sentenced to two years in jail after pleading guilty to four abduction charges and two of administering a controlled drug.

She was cleared of manslaughter.

Her lover, Lee Harrison, 31, also of Sudell Road, received nine months on four charges of child abduction.

The report said that communication between the agencies involved was 'satisfactory', it could have been improved and the strategy for supporting the family could have been better co-ordinated.

It also stated that more could have been done to discourage adults who allowed young people into their homes when they should have been in school.

The report said that 400 people had been reported missing in Darwen in the year before Melissa's death, and that the overwhelming majority of children had returned home safely.

It concluded that Melissa's death was therefore not predictable, but 'unpreventable'.

Vic said: "In my opinion it's the biggest report into nothing you can imagine. It is a total white wash.

"I was expecting something substantial, but it is only 12 pages long and answers nothing."