Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, has revealed how a painful childhood helped to shape him into one of Britain’s most liberal judges who outraged conservative opinion by paving the way for the early release of James Bulger’s killers.

Woolf says he developed a strong desire to fight injustice during his schooldays at Fettes College, Scotland’s leading independent school, and reveals that he was bullied.

He believes that during the late 1940s and early 1950s he was the only Jewish pupil at the school – later attended by Tony Blair – but is unsure whether his ill-treatment can be attributed to anti-Semitism.

Appearing as today’s guest on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Woolf initially talks about being “teased” as a schoolboy, but later concedes to Kirsty Young, the presenter, that it was “at times bullying”.

This included being kicked down some spiral stairs on several occasions and an incident that led to him being repeatedly caned for an offence he did not commit. Woolf says he received eight severe lashes after he was mistakenly accused of being inside another pupil’s cubicle.

He was sent by a prefect to his housemaster, an ex-army disciplinarian, who said he should simply take his punishment and that any appeal could come only after his beating.

Woolf triggered a furore in 2000 – the year he was appointed Lord Chief Justice – by setting an eight-year tariff for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the juvenile killers of two-year-old Bulger.

Woolf’s reasoning at the time was that it was desirable to keep the boys out of a young offenders’ institution where the conditions were “so corrosive” as to rule out any hopes of a successful rehabilitation.

Defending his decision today, Woolf says: “Though I realise how strongly people feel about them, it is ironic how well they did inside probably because of the attention they had been given after the sentence. There is also a difference in a crime committed by children and one by adults.”

Woolf, who stepped down as the most senior judge in England and Wales in 2005, talks about the need for prisons to be “constructive” places.

“I fully recognise that people must go to prison,” he tells Young. “But prison can and should also be constructive. You also need to prepare people for coming out. When they do, it can be very stark for them, especially if they have no family.”

Woolf also discusses prison overcrowding and claims it is tough for inmates to be locked up for many hours each day. “It is not a holiday camp,” he says.

Woolf makes much of his religious beliefs, pointing out that he is an Ashkenazi Jew, while his wife, Marguerite, is a Sephardic Jewess. He reveals that the couple have chosen a joint burial spot in a Sephardic cemetery: “It is a matter of amusement that I told this to Marguerite on our wedding anniversary.”

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