Spotting child-molesting perverts while they are young enough to be changed should be a major priority now, a new report from an Oxford psychologist has said.

It urges action to prevent teenage sex offenders - whose behaviour might be changeable - from becoming the next generation of paedophiles.

Richard Beckett, a forensic psychologist at the Oxford Forensic Service, is producing a 200-page Home Office study on child abuse which claims the most serious potential paedophiles could be treated if picked out at an early age.

He said tell-tale signs of potential child molesters include an unhealthy interest in rape and pornography at an early age, a failure to form serious adult relationships, and a criminal record including four non-sexual and two sexual offences.

He said men under 21 carry out one third of sex attacks in Britain - and some of them will go on to become paedophiles.

His concerns have helped prompt a pioneering sex offenders' project in the county, backed by the Home Office, which will start off by looking at 11 to 18 year olds showing sexually concerning behaviour.

These include indecent exposure and voyeurism as well as too keen an interest in rape and pornography.

Trudi Annetts, a social worker with the Thames Valley Project, said early intervention gives a better chance of changing the pattern, rather than leaving it too late for anything to be done.

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