A PANICKED Home Office has drafted a retired High Court judge for an independent inquiry over its handling of child sex abuse allegations.

Home Secretary Theresa May said yesterday her Permanent Secretary Mark Sedwill had appointed cross-bench peer Baroness Butler-Sloss to investigate her department’s missing files and mounting questions stemming from an eyes-only report filed last year.

Baroness Butler-Sloss, a former president of the High Court’s family division and chairwoman of the Cleveland child abuse inquiry, will join chief executive Mark Wanless of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in scrutinising the Home Office’s papertrail.