Oxfam workers involved in a prostitution scandal in Haiti could be prosecuted in the UK for sex crimes, a former senior United Nations official has suggested.

Andrew MacLeod, the former chief of operations of the UN’s Emergency Coordination Centre has claimed that “predatory paedophiles” were now targeting charities in order to “access children” in the developing world.

Mr MacLeod, who now works for the charity Hear Their Cries, added that if aid workers had engaged in sexual activity with under-age children they could be prosecuted in England for breaking international sex tourism laws.

“The impact of sex tourism laws make it unlawful for anybody to have sex with children under the age of 16 anywhere in the world or aid, abet or support that,” Mr MacLeod told the Today programme.

“If they were adults, this man should be charged in front of the courts in Haiti because prostitution is illegal.