THE handling of paedophiles is the most vexed area of British law.

On the one hand, there are understandable reasons why their names should not be widely circulated. Circulation would promote vigilante action. This will drive the paedophile out of the sight of the authorities where he will become a greater danger. It will also create a climate of fear where innocent people are targeted - as happened in Portsmouth where a paediatrician was attacked because her job title started with the same four letters as paedophile.

No one - absolutely no one - wants a paedophile in their community. So where are such people to go: a boat in the middle of the North Sea as in Victorian times? Have we really not advanced? But, on the other hand, there are understandable reasons why communities should know if a paedophile moves into their area.

If a toxic gas were released into a district, the police would be touring the streets with loudhalers urging everyone to take their children indoors and bolt the windows until the danger passed. Any parent who let their child continue to play out would be rightly condemned.

But, following a High Court judgement on Friday, if a toxic human is released into a district, the police are allowed only to tell a paedophile's landlord of his past. They are banned from informing anyone else - even education authorities.

The judge himself agrees there is a "high risk" of the paedophile reoffending. So the parents who, in their ignorance, allow their children to play out on the fields in front of his windows are putting their children in danger. Bizarrely - unbelievably - rather than helping those parents protect their children, it is now the police's duty to protect the paedophile's privacy and anonymity.

The judge's desire to balance these two positions is understandable and commendable. However, his attempts have failed. Within five days of his order, word had got out. Innocent people had had their homes attacked with bricks; the paedophile appeared to have disappeared and the community is in the grip of fear.

And the law looks an ass - although this time it is not of its own making but because it was trying to reconcile the irreconcilable.

This is a vexed issue. But with the right balance unable to be found, the law must look at coming down on the side of parents who want knowledge to protect their children and on the side of communities who do not want to have in their midst a paedophile with a 30-year career behind him.