From our Antipodean correspondent

A reader in Australia sent the link to this sickening article which appeared in The Herald Sun.

A FATHER who bashed a man caught molesting his son, 10, is facing a prison sentence, while the boy's attacker walks free.

In a highly unusual case, Shane Thomas Davidson was spared jail despite pleading guilty to molesting the boy on State Of Origin night last year.

Judge Ian Dearden told Beenleigh District Court the sentence was reduced because the young victim's father had wrongly taken action into his own hands and badly beaten Davidson.

"There is no place in our community for a vigilante approach," he said. Davidson was sentenced on Monday to a nine-month intensive corrections order. The boy's father is awaiting trial on one count of grievous bodily harm, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Today, the father's brother told Radio 4BC's Greg Carey that his sibling snapped after the boy repeated his claim that he had been molested to his mother and then to friends from across the street.

"My brother just lost it then; he dragged him (the sex offender) outside", the brother said.

He said he arrived at the scene to discover "my brother in handcuffs sitting in the back of a police car". He said it was up to the public to decided whether the pedophile had suffered enough for his crime.

The brother said the pedophile's abuse of his nephew had "absolutely put a wedge in all of our hearts". Child safety campaigner Hetty Johnston yesterday slammed the sentence for Davidson.

"In this case, they've got it woefully wrong," she said. "What the offender did was totally unnatural." In handing down his sentence on Monday, Justice Dearden said adult offenders who committed sex offences against children must serve actual jail time – unless exceptional circumstances were found to exist.

"This is one of those rare and exceptional cases," he said. "When an individual takes the matter of punishment into their own hands, the offence committed by the person may be far, far more serious and, therefore, have far more serious consequences then the original offence."

Pip pip