British police failed to send alerts on 135,000 foreign criminals' convictions to their home countries, it can be revealed today. Almost 200 killers and rapists were among the huge number of European offenders whose UK court records were missed by a catastrophic computer glitch, potentially putting lives at risk. The Home Office knew about the problem six years ago but tried to hush it up and the massive backlog of files is still being sent to police forces across the continent, most to Poland, Ireland and Romania. It means dangerous predators could have returned to their home countries without the authorities knowing about their convictions, and gone on to commit further crimes or been allowed to work with children when they should have been barred.