Judges break with convention to defend themselves against Reid
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The Home Secretary John Reid faced a backlash from senior judges over his criticism of "lenient" sentencing after a week dominated by the row over the paedophile Craig Sweeney.
Keith Cutler, a serving judge and secretary of the Council of Circuit Judges, broke with long-established convention to defend his colleagues from attacks over the sentencing of sex attackers and other serious offenders.
In a separate challenge to the Home Office, leaked minutes of a private speech by Britain's most senior judge revealed his concern that more prisoners will be held "indefinitely" because of the clamour for longer sentences.
Judge Cutler, who represents 600 judges in England and Wales, said his colleagues were "dispirited" by the furore over sentencing after Sweeney was told he could be considered for parole in just over five years, despite receiving a life sentence for assaulting a three-year-old girl.
The judge told the BBC: "Some of the judges felt that there was quite a silence and that there was no one speaking on behalf of the judges to the public through the press and we are thinking that we must perhaps change that and that the tradition where a serving judge should not speak to the press is something which perhaps should be reviewed, because what otherwise happens is you have retired judges being asked to give comment on things that perhaps they're not quite up to date on.
"It's much better for a serving judge to be able to give a view, obviously not being able to comment on the individual case itself."
His comments came as minutes of a meeting addressed by the Lord Chief Justice earlier this year, leaked to The Observer, revealed his concerns that prison overcrowding could be exacerbated by media pressure to avoid prisoners reoffending after being released early.
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers said: "It is inevitable that some who are released will reoffend."
He added: "There is a danger that such media coverage will lead to an approach of playing safe that will leave indefinitely imprisoned men and some women who have served their penal terms and who do not, in reality, pose a risk because of the difficulty of being satisfied that this is the case."
Further pressure for the Home Office came from the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, who warned that prisons could be forced to show "house full notices".
The prison population has hit near-record levels, with Friday's total hitting 77,785, just 38 short of the all-time high reached in October. She told The Sunday Times: "We are looking at a system where prison numbers are rising inside what is already a hugely pressured area."
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "It is no wonder that judges are breaking their time-honoured silence in face of the relentless and ill-informed abuse that they have received from government ministers.
"It can only be hoped that ministers realise they are playing with the very fabric of our criminal justice system by seeking to score cheap points against the judiciary."