CHILD SEX SCANDAL; Outrage as sheriff fails to jail sick web pervert.

A SHERIFF sparked outrage yesterday by failing to jail an internet paedophile.

Linlithgow Sheriff Court heard how Mark Goadby had downloaded 460 sexually explicit images of children onto his computer.

A social work report presented to the court also said that the 35-year-old, from Livingston, West Lothian, was "highly likely" to carry on his perversion.

But he escaped with a pounds 3,000 fine after Sheriff Hector Maclean told him: "I am satisfied there are mitigating circumstances which allow me to deal with this other than by way of a custodial sentence."

Yesterday Ian Gomech, Scottish spokesman for campaign group antichildporn.org, said he was angered by the sheriff's decision and insisted Goadby should have been jailed.

He said: "If people were not downloading the pictures the industry would not exist."

Goadby, who admitted downloading child porn from the web last June, was caught after his wife Anna found the sordid images and showed some of them to her workmates, who called the police.

A SCHOOL class assistant was last night behind bars after being convicted of sexually molesting young girls.

But Paul Johnston, 30, of Newport, Fife, only faces a jail term of up to three months for the assaults in an Angus school because of a mix-up in the procurator fiscal's office.

Sentencing at Arbroath Sheriff Court was deferred until May 20.

CAPTION(S):

SICKENING: Perv Goadby