Human rights laws are being hijacked by ‘thoroughly bonkers’ minority groups looking to boost their self-interest– according to the UK’s human rights supremo.

Trevor Phillips, who heads up the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, argues that the laws had ‘fallen in to disrepute’ and some of the calls for prosecutions were nonsense.

Mr Phillips was speaking to mark Human Rights Day, and listed a catalogue of disputes he called ‘nonsense on stilts’, including:

• Prison service vans that travel 90 miles to take a prisoner 90 yards

• Paedophiles freed to leer at children in the very parks where they have committed horrific crimes

He also revealed he had dropped his coffee when he heard the National Secular Society wanted to use the act to prosecute councillors in Devon for saying prayers before their meetings.

“Almost every morning I am confronted with examples of how the Human Rights Act is being used which any reasonable person would describe as thoroughly bonkers,” said Mr Phillips.

“Human rights should help us better protect vulnerable people who are targeted with violence because of who they are, or who suffer because our police, local councils and courts don’t take their calls seriously or provide enough support to get them justice.

“But while we must defend human rights tenaciously, it is also essential that supporters of human rights recognise and address the reasons why these great principles have fallen into disrepute.

“For too many people nowadays human rights have come to mean the defence of the rights of unpopular minorities – of criminals, terror suspects and illegal immigrants – at the expense of everybody else.”

Meanwhile, Thomas Hammarberg, the European commissioner for human rights, also attacked government plans for a British Bill of Rights.

He claims any ‘weakening’ of the Human Rights Act would encourage autocratic governments in other countries to ignore human rights laws and undermine the efforts of other European countries.