Top judge calls for detention of suspected paedophiles

A controversial proposal by the country's most senior judge to lock up suspected paedophiles even if they have not committed an offence was attacked by civil liberty campaigners yesterday.

Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, suggested that a system of "civil detention" may be necessary to hold suspected child abusers, regardless of whether they had been convicted of a crime. He said a "very small minority of people" might have to be detained to protect the rights of the wider community.

But the civil rights group Liberty accused Lord Woolf of "flying in the face" of justice. John Wadham, the director of Liberty, said: "People should only be locked up for what they have done, not for what some expert, even Lord Woolf, thinks they might do."

The shadow Home Secretary, Oliver Letwin, added: "We all want protection for children ... but we must never slip into allowing somebody in authority to think of people as dangerous before they have committed any crime, because that way lies tyranny."

Lord Woolf floated the idea on BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, during a discussion on how to deal with the threat posed by predatory paedophiles arising from the the case of Roy Whiting, the killer of Sarah Payne. There was widespread concern when it was revealed that Whiting had previously been jailed for kidnapping and sexually assaulting another young girl and that on his release from prison the authorities believed he still posed a serious risk to children.

A Home Office spokeswoman said it would listen to Lord Woolf's proposal but a source said it was not under "active consideration".