CHILDREN taking part in foreign exchange visits could be at risk of neglect or abuse at the hands of paedophiles, a senior police officer warned yesterday.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Gould said he was ''horrified'' to discover children as young as eight staying with host families who had not been vetted to find if they were suitable.

He highlighted the case of a 12-year-old Spanish boy staying with a British family where the father was a serious schedule one sex offender. In another case, a youngster was given a cupboard under the stairs to sleep in during an exchange visit.

Mr Gould, who has been given a #20,000 Home Office grant to research the problem, said children taking part in school exchanges or town twinning association trips and youngsters working as au pairs or attending language schools could be at risk.

Children's charities last night welcomed Mr Gould's research and called for measures to tighten the industry. Ms Anne Houston, director of Childline Scotland, said that of the 20,000 children counselled by the charity every year, one in five were victims of neglect, or sexual or physical abuse.

Ms Houston added: ''If you think of the number of children who are being abused or neglected in their own families in this country then it's as likely to be happening elsewhere.

''Parents need to be convinced that any families children may be going to live with are safe and that there are sufficient safeguards. That comes back to the agencies which set up these trips and we need to know what steps they are taking to vet families.''

Mr Gould said: ''When I first started to look into the situation it was like taking the lid off a very large can of worms. The closer we looked the bigger we realised the problem was. There is no specific child protection legislation or regulation for this industry. There are no rules covering the recruitment of host families and no vetting of criminal records.

''In many cases when parents let their youngsters go on a foreign trip to stay with a host family, they have no idea of the environment they are entering.

''Even the host families themselves can be at risk, for example if you have a 12-year-old French boy from a disruptive family who is an abuser himself and the family he stays with are not aware of his background.''

Mr Gould, who works for the Avon and Somerset Police child protection team, said there were no restrictions on who could set up an agency offering to arrange foreign exchange visits for children. Many agencies advertised trips in local newspapers or delivered leaflets to homes.

He added: ''It is even possible for organised gangs of paedophiles to set up and run an agency without anybody knowing of the immense danger. We know of some instances where known paedophiles have been hosting children for quite some time.''

He said there was no guarantee companies that organised trips made home visits to vet families.

Mr Gould said he hoped to see new legislation introduced across Europe to govern the way exchange visits were organised.

Mr Richard Tobias, chief executive of the British Incoming Tour Operators Association (BITOA), representing host family agencies, said BITOA would welcome a voluntary scheme for its members.

He said: ''Eighteen months ago we set up a working party to look into this subject and we will produce a code of conduct which we will insist our members abide by.

''Some of our members have received complaints, some of which, on the face of it, are quite damning. They include overcrowding in homes and bedrooms, dirty homes, inadequate meals and even uncorroborated reports of sexual interference, although the BITOA has received no complaints directly.''