An inquiry has revealed that social services could have done more to protect a three-year-old girl who was murdered by her mother's boyfriend.

Thomas Duncan, 33, was jailed for life after he admitted killing Kennedy McFarlane. Duncan, who is unemployed, hit the girl on the head in the bedroom of her home in Dumfries, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

The girl died in hospital because of swelling in her brain. A doctor said her injury was the equivalent of a 20ft fall or a road accident.

After the case it emerged that an independent inquiry into the girl's death had concluded that child protection agencies could have done more to protect her, said a report in the Glasgow Evening Herald.

Earlier the court had been told that Kennedy had turned up at her playgroup with bruises weeks before.

The judge Lord Bonomy heard that staff at the playgroup also reported behaviour changes in the previously happy, pleasant, little girl.

Her mother turned down an offer of social work help and took her daughter away from the playgroup.

Social services planned to hold meeting to decided what should happen next - but before it was held, the youngster was dead.

Keith Makin, social services director of Dumfries and Galloway Council, said: "There are lessons to be learned here and we are acting upon them."

Outside the court, Kennedy's natural father Chris McFarlane, 31, a data processor, of Dumfries, said he thought social workers could have saved his daughter's life if they had acted more quickly, said the Herald.