Neighbours who are a risk to kids children

But opponents say it will lead to vigilantism and violence as well as infringing civil liberties.

As detectives continue to search for the murderer of schoolgirl Sarah Payne the anger of thousands of people against her killer grows.

Many visiting the spot where her body was found say the person responsible should be hanged or locked up for life.

The mood in many towns and villages throughout Sussex is bitterness that someone was able to snatch a little girl from outside her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, kill her and then dump her body.

There is also growing anger that there are 160 known sex offenders registered with Sussex Police and living in communities around the county. People fear that once a person has struck once, they will strike again.

The decision by the News of the World to name and shame every single one of the 110,000 known sex offenders in England and Wales during the next few weeks has been met with a mixed reaction in Sussex.

Those in favour say residents have the right to know who is living in their area while others say it will lead to people taking the law into their own hands and a rising tide of vigilante attacks.

Instead, opponents say, when paedophiles are jailed they should stay locked up for life and well away from local communities.

The Sussex branch of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders said the move by the paper was irresponsible and would only serve to cause even more problems.

Area spokesman Michael Barnes said: "This is precisely what we don't want. Our organisation, the police and social services work closely together to monitor those people who are on the national sex offenders' register and living in our area so we can be aware of what they are doing.

"If they are named and their photo is published then they are much more likely to go into hiding and change their name.

"The paper may say it is against vigilantes, but anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that if people are aware of an offender living next door to them, then something is likely to happen.

"When Robert Oliver was discovered living in Brighton a couple of years back there was absolute outrage. In the current climate, the situation could become violent."

Sussex Police has also raised concerns about possible reprisals.

A spokesman said: "We do not condone any violence, no matter how justified the perpetrators feel they are in carrying it out."

Chief Probation Officers chairman Gill Mackenzie said: "If I thought for one minute that this would protect children, I would be all in favour of it.

"But I have a real concern that this could deflect attention from the more likely source of abuse, normally the sort of abuse from someone unconvicted who is known to the child."

National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders policy director Paul Cavadino said: "It could drive these offenders underground and seriously damage the efforts of the police and probation services to keep them under supervision."

But those in favour of naming and shaming say it is the only option left for residents until tough new measures are introduced by the Government.

Dee Warner, from Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said today: "I am sick to death of people going on about the rights of paedophiles. What about the rights of a child to stay a child?

"I do not believe this will encourage more people to attack paedophiles but at least it will give people the chance to take any necessary precautions.

National Association of Ex-Offenders chief executive Mark Leech said: "Sex offenders are completely different to other types of offenders and the damage their offending causes can ruin people for decades."

"The horror of the current approach is that we have to release them at the end of their sentence, even if all the evidence suggests they will simply go out and re-offend - our children deserve better protection from us than that."

Murdered Sarah's mother, Sara, said today: "I don't condone in any way any vigilante attacks.

"But parents have the right to protect their children and children have the right to protect themselves.

"There's no way a child should come forward and say someone has hurt them only to find that ten years down the line that person is back on their street again.

"Paedophiles can't help themselves. We need to help them stop by looking after our children."

Parents who found they had a paedophile in the area could take action by walking or driving their children to school and taking it in turns to watch the school playground, she added.

Tricia Porter, from Goring, is campaigning for a Safety Houses scheme that will provide safe havens for children who feel they are in danger and need somewhere safe to go.

She said: "I'm not sure about naming paedophiles because that could mean people are going to start going to their homes and causing problems which will stretch police resources when they are already busy looking for Sarah's killer.

"But there should definitely be a change in the law so that our streets and communities are safe."

A Home Office spokesman said the naming of offenders was something which should be left to the professional judgment of the police.

An indication that feelings are running high came last week when a hostile crowd gathered outside a house in Crawley where a man arrested and released on bail by police investigating Sarah's disappearance was believed to be staying. Police had to be called to the scene and a man in the house who had no connection with the investigation was taken away for his own safety.

Other national papers have taken the step of naming paedophiles in the past.

In 1997 the Daily Record in Scotland launched its Charter for Children campaign which named known paedophiles and called for a series of measures to protect children from sex offenders, many of which have now been implemented.

The paper called for:

A national paedophile register;

The legal right for communities to be told when a paedophile moves into the area;

Vetting and supervision of all adults working with children;

Tougher jail terms for paedophiles, especially those who re-offend;

Compulsory treatment for offenders in jail;

Tighter controls after release;

A national register of children's groups;

Improved rights for the victims of paedophiles.

The paper said similar schemes of naming known paedophiles and where they lived operated in the US and New Zealand and it was time the UK followed suit.