The Inspector

What a shame that the senior police officer in charge of combating child exploitation talked about "predators" when calling for a more constructive approach to working with men who are sexually attracted to children.

Elsewhere in his interview with the BBC Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) comes across as a sensible chap. And his suggestion that we deal with more paedophiles in the community rather than chucking them in jail and throwing away the key seems to make a lot of sense in view of the sheer numbers involved (and the fact that our jails are already full).

But to suggest that predatory paedophiles should remain "at large", as the tabloid press would put it, is surely pushing the argument too far. If, as is claimed, there are thousands of people in this country downloading child pornography every week then custody can't be the answer whatever Kidscape and others maintain. We already imprison more people than most other European nations - so we have to find an alternative to jail. But Jim Gamble has muddied the waters by using the language he did.