A CORONER has criticised the tagging system that was supposed to be monitoring a man when be stabbed to death a popular Southampton teenager.

Rikki Johnson, 19, was in breach of a curfew that the tag was supposed to be monitoring when he murdered Lewis Singleton, 18, in an unprovoked attack in Woolston in March 2007.

At the inquest into his death Southampton coroner Keith Wiseman heard from both Hampshire police and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight probation service who said they were powerless to have reacted quickly enough to take Johnson off the streets.

Officer in the case Det Sgt Richard Sellwood said : "We have no immediate power to take them off the streets and put them in front of the court. Only to report them to the probation service."

"He was in breach at the time (of the murder) and in many of the weekends before.

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Coroner Keith Wiseman, who recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, said: "The real flaw in the system is the inability to deal with someone sensibly within 24 hours. One could always be faced with a system where someone like Johnson would be back on the streets before too great a period of time had elapsed. Sadly members of the public are still very much at the mercy of people like him and how they choose to behave."

Chief probation officer Barry Crook explained that Johnson, of Honeysuckle Road, Southampton, had been assessed as medium risk and defended electronic tagging as successful in seven out of ten cases.

Following the verdict, Lewis' mum Jen Singleton, 44, called for an overhaul of the tagging system.

Johnson was sentenced to 15 years for Lewis' murder. Accomplice Sercan Calik, 18, of Burgess Road, Bassett was jailed for eight years for manslaughter while Harvell Mason was sentenced to two years for violent disorder.