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Child abuse allegations are ``easy to make`` and might be motivated by claims for compensation, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, has warned.

Lord Woolf said he was expressing concerns passed on to him by investigators at the Criminal Case Review Commission – the body which looks into miscarriages of justice – over a number of paedophile convictions.

The allegations involved "very old offences" from former residents of children’s homes, he said. Many of the recollections "may not be accurate", he added, especially when they were "tempted" by awards from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.

Lord Woolf went on to say in an interview with The Independent newspaper that allegations were easy to make as abuses are committed in private, and in many cases involved one person’s word against another’s.

He also called for judicial discretion in ensuring juries did not hear overtly prejudicial evidence, adding: "With paedophiles it can be very difficult. The natural reaction is one that we have got to protect the children and juries will be affected by this. It may be that in some respects, in relation to some sexual offences, the balance has gone the wrong way already."