And now, in England, a suggestion to imprison people who are merely charged with being pedophiles, even though they have not been convicted as such. This comes from none other than the lord chief justice, Lord Woolf himself. Earlier this month he outlined his idea for a new type of "civil detention." The Guardian reports that Lord Woolf's remarks were made during a radio interview.
His remarks took lawyers, civil liberties bodies and government departments by surprise. Lord Woolf has been regarded by successive governments as an arch liberal and has often warned ministers against trampling on individual rights.
Lord Woolf's comments was seen yesterday as an encouragement to the government to consider extending to paedophiles its controversial plans for the detention of dangerous people with personality disorders who have committed no crime.
John Wadham, director of the civil rights group Liberty, said: "I'm very surprised that the lord chief justice, whose role is to protect and safeguard our fundamental rights, should be suggesting provisions that will undermine and damage those rights."
[Lord Woolf said:] "And it may be, although this would be a huge infringement on the individual's rights, but we have got to think of the rights of those who would be offended against as well, if a case is made out that this person is a danger, that we would have to have some form of protective custody."
Paul Cavadino, director of policy at Nacro, the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, said it would be extremely difficult to assess the threat posed by an individual who had yet to commit an offence. "I can't see how it is realistically possible to judge that somebody is dangerous unless they have acted in a way that shows they are dangerous. In practice, that means that they have either committed an offence or attempted to do so."
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