The Home Secretary, John Reid, was accused today of sticking his nose into legal affairs after publicly calling on the Attorney-General to refer the sentence of a convicted paedophile for review.

Lord Goldsmith, QC, said yesterday that he had requested the file in the case of Craig Sweeney, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a three-year-old girl. Sweeney, 24, was sentenced to life but was told that he faced a minimum sentence of five years and 108 days.

The sentence dismayed the victim's family - who described it as "an insult". Mr Reid called it "unduly lenient" and said he would write to Lord Goldsmith asking him to refer it to the Court of Appeal.

But Lord Goldsmith’s office later issued a statement stressing that any decision would be made purely on the merits of the case and not in response to "political or public pressure".

A spokeswoman added: "He will only refer a sentence to the Court of Appeal if he believes that it falls significantly below what any judge could reasonably have passed.

"Calling for the file in no way implies that there will be a reference by the Attorney. Still less does it imply any criticism of the sentencing judge."

Criticism of Mr Reid's intervention came from Lord Morris of Aberavon, QC, who served as Attorney-General in the late 1990s. He warned that political interference could prejudice any eventual appeal.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The Attorney is the guarantor of the public interest and has a statutory responsibility. It is for him to determine whether the matter should be referred, and then for the court.

"Even if we have a dozen Cabinet Ministers making statements, that doesn’t help, I fear. Indeed, there is a possibility it could do harm... One forgets, of course, that the guilty man will be represented by counsel in the Court of Appeal. He will make the point that he can't get a fair hearing."

Sir Oliver Popplewell, a former High Court judge, also criticised Mr Reid, saying: "I think it's unwise for the Home Secretary to poke his nose into legal affairs."

Sweeney, from Newport, South Wales, carried out the assault on January 2, just two days after the expiry of his licence for a previous sexual assault on a six-year-old girl, for which he had served 18 months of a three-year sentence.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Sweeney was still living in a half-way house when he snatched the girl from her home in the Llanrumney area of Cardiff as her mother spoke on the phone. He took her back to his accommodation in Newport before sexually abusing her.

He then set off along the M4 into England, where he carried out another sexual assault in a lay-by in Swindon, before a police patrol noticed him driving through a red light with his lights off and gave chase. They followed him for 13 miles at speeds of up to 100mph before he swerved violently down a bank in Wiltshire.

The officers, who until then been unaware of the kidnapping, found the girl lying at the side of the road where she had been thrown from the car. After her rescue, she asked doctors: "Has the nasty man gone."

Mr Reid's intervention was backed by Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton South, who said: "I think the Home Secretary has got every right to articulate public concern.I think that there are huge numbers of people out there, not least the children’s charities, who are saying ‘This is not good enough’.

"We have seen repeatedly lenient sentences where in practice paedophiles are being let out within five years or even less to go on to repeat their paedophilia. Surely that’s got to be reflected in more serious sentences than are currently the case."

But Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "The reason why Craig Sweeney... appears to be eligible for parole as quickly as he will be is because of new legislation which this Government has recently introduced.

"Since April of last year, any offenders, such as Mr Sweeney, on what are called determinate sentences are automatically releasable after 50 per cent of their sentence is served.

"I think (Mr Reid) needs to be quite careful on charging in on this and capturing headlines to offset what appears to be an unduly lenient sentence when the reasons for that are all to do with recent legislation which many of us opposed."

Mr Clegg added: "It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Attorney-General feels aggrieved, because - as we’ve discovered in the last few days in statistics released from his office - there is actually a very established and tried and tested method of challenging unduly lenient sentences.

"I think the Attorney-General has taken over 300 cases to appeal and won up to two-thirds of them. There is a quasi-judicial process under way which the Attorney-General is responsible for, and to have (the intervention of) a Home Secretary - particularly a Home Secretary who has a lot on his plate to deal with the beleaguered state of the Home Office - is not the best way to restore public confidence in a system which is really at quite a low ebb."

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure