Milly family receives hate mail

Milly Dowler was 13 when she was abducted and murdered

The family of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler has received hate mail from a jailed paedophile following a mistake by prison staff.

Paul Hughes was able to send the letter to Milly's mother in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, from his cell at HMP Liverpool.

Prison governor Cathy Jones has sent a letter of apology to the Dowler family, as has the Home Office.

Milly was last seen on 21 March 2002 near Walton-on-Thames railway station. Her body was found six months later.

Milly's mother Sally was sent death threats by Hughes, who was serving five years for indecent assault, just before Christmas last year.

'Human error'

He also claimed to have murdered Milly.

The killer of the schoolgirl, whose body was found near Fleet in Hampshire, has never been found.

Hughes, 36, became obsessed with the Milly Dowler case after he was jailed in 2002.

He wrote about 20 obscene letters of a sexually explicit and threatening nature to the Dowlers - all but one of them were intercepted by prison staff.

The family of the schoolgirl received the letter just before Christmas

He pleaded guilty to making threats to kill at a court hearing in February, and was jailed for a further five years at Guildford Crown Court last week.

A Home Office spokesman said on Sunday that Liverpool Prison's governor had sent a letter expressing her "deepest apologies" to the Dowler family.

A letter from the Home Office also offered an "unconditional and profuse apology to the family".

An investigation into how Hughes was able to target the family blamed "a human error by a junior grade staff member".

The spokesman said all letters written by the prison's 1,600 offenders were "scanned" by staff before they were sent.

"Under prison procedure, prisoners are not allowed to contact their victims. That applies for other victims as well," he said.

Detective Inspector Kevin McEntee, of Surrey Police, said: "This whole episode has been extremely upsetting for Dowler family who we have kept updated throughout this case.

"Surrey Police continue to support the family throughout another difficult time for them."