CROSS-border pursuit of paedophiles who groom youngsters on the internet and go on to assault them is easier in France and elsewhere in Europe than it is in England and Wales, the Lord Advocate has said.

Frank Mulholland QC spoke of the anomaly at Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee during an evidence gathering session on the sexual exploitation of young people.

He said that while justice for terrorist acts such as the Glasgow Airport attack could be pursued across the UK's internal jurisdictions there were problems with crimes such as sexual exploitation.

A Crown Office spokesman later added: "There can be barriers in dealing with cross border offences with other parts of the UK. While Scotland has jurisdiction over Scottish nationals who have committed specified sexual crimes in a country outside the United Kingdom, it does not have jurisdiction over a similar crime if it was committed elsewhere within the United Kingdom.

"So for example if a Scottish national was to groom and then travelled to meet and rape a child in another country in Europe or further afield, Scottish courts would have jurisdiction over both offences.

"If the same Scottish national had groomed, travelled to England and raped a child, the Scottish court would only have jurisdiction over the grooming charge and not the rape."

Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham told the committee that Police Scotland was currently in the process of setting up a new national unit to lead on the most serious child sexual exploitation cases.

Mr Mulholland also said children and families have to be better educated to the dangers of internet grooming and predators who hid behind innocent social media identities.