TODAY The Argus shines a light into the investigation into the abuse of teenage girls for very good reasons.

The moment that the police were told about Osmon Koroma and Max N'Gasa their awful crimes should have been over.

To hear that two more victims fell prey to them in the following years is the worst condemnation of the police's work on this case.

Two years after the initial complaints vice-principal Heather Ward raised concerns and still that was not enough. No doubt these cases are complicated and difficult to deal with for both officers and the CPS.

But the force then reviewed the case in the autumn of 2014 in the wake of the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal and started the investigation that led to the pair being arrested and charged last year.

It should not have taken this trigger for the depraved pair to be finally hauled before the court.

So chief constable Giles York was right to brand the initial investigation as inadequate when speaking to the police and crime commissioner.

He told Ms Bourne this in October last year so it would be right to now to hear how she is echoing The Argus in holding the force to account over this- for that is the nature of her role.

The force must do better - it finally did in this case, but devastatingly not before more abuse was allowed to take place.

And that is the tragedy here. That teenage girls have been let down and will have to live with what they have been through.

To let it happen again here in Sussex would compound what is already a blight on the force.