Why did no one listen to her cries for ‘mummy’?

It really does make you despair.

How on earth could those in charge ignore “obvious” warning signs and allow a monster to work in a nursery school where he went on to rape a three-year-old child?

An official report released this week into Paul Wilson’s vile crime makes for grim reading.

Concerned staff at the Little Stars Nursery in Birmingham repeatedly told the local council and Ofsted that they were deeply worried about the “unnatural” relationship that had developed between Wilson and this vulnerable child.

He was seen taking her into an adult toilet and was found alone with her in the area where the kids took afternoon naps.

She was deeply distressed and crying for her mummy, and yet no one listened.

That image of a bewildered little girl sobbing her heart out after being horrifically abused is utterly chilling.

The report has found that the child was “failed by those responsible for caring for her”.

You can say that again.

I would also add it was criminal that a predator like Wilson was allowed anywhere near little ones in the first place, and someone should be held to account.

His crimes only came to light because of a separate incident in which he tried to groom a 13-year-old girl online one of a staggering 22 other victims all under 16.

The police became involved and unearthed the attack on the little girl at the nursery, because this disgusting pervert had filmed the abuse on his mobile phone.

It honestly makes you weep. Can you imagine how her parents must have felt when they were told what had happened to their child?

You have to wonder how such a person was hired by the nursery in the first place. Perhaps because, as has come to light, he wasn’t subject to the proper criminal records checks.

I know we all tut and roll our eyes about political correctness, health and safety and police checks on almost every aspect of our lives, but anyone who works with children has to be honest, decent and trustworthy, and must be beyond reproach.

In this case, the system failed a little girl and her family in the worst possible way. Wilson was jailed for life, but all of them are also serving a sentence and they will never be the same again.

Meanwhile, there will be the usual platitudes about “lessons being learned” and “this must never happen again”.

But while people in charge are failing miserably to protect children, there will inevitably be more disgusting attacks on innocent little ones.