By BILLY ADAMS herald correspondent
LONDON - A small but powerful army is on the march.
One foot soldier, a boy of 4, struggles to lift a placard that reads: "Paedophiles - don't house them, hang them." A girl aged 3 holds aloft another sign: "Kill paedophiles."
These are the unwitting backers of a campaign to rid an area of the child molesters within their midst.
For seven nights a vigilante mob hunted down paedophiles, intent on hounding them out. Windows were smashed, missiles hurled, cars overturned and burned out. A policeman was injured. Five families fled.
All were innocent and wrongly identified, sometimes because they had the same surname as convicted paedophiles. It was hardly surprising. Many of the 20 targets had been identified purely on the basis of rumour and hearsay.
This week's riots in a sprawling housing estate in Portsmouth have earned chilling comparisons with a similar outbreak of hysteria in 17th Century Salem.
The allegations of a vindictive child, Abigail Williams, sent 20 harmless citizens to the scaffold. Those who wonder how such an outrage could have happened then should cast an eye over the modern-day witch-hunt which has infected the Paulsgrove estate in recent days.
Residents there are living in fear of paedophiles ... or their neighbours.
"I disagree with the tactics of these people marching through the street but I dare not say anything," says one teenage boy. "Because if I do I'm scared they will turn on me. And many people feel the same way."
The echoes of Salem, and all good witch-hunts, are loud and clear. Fuelled by basic human instincts of fear and prejudice, the mothers of Paulsgrove have taken the law into their own hands and embarked on an ugly campaign of summer madness.
"Everyone on this estate knows who the paedophiles are," says Katrina Kassel, mother-of-four and self-styled leader of the Peaceful Protesters of Paulsgrove (PPP). "They have approached children and asked them into their homes. We have 100 per cent proof that they are guilty and we don't go attacking innocent people's homes. I just want every sex offender to know that we are on their trail and will hunt them down."
Those people wrongly identified are passed off as "casualties of war."
The Portsmouth protests are the most visible aspect of a series of events that have their roots in the murder of 8-year-old Sarah Payne last month. When her body was found a nation grieved, and national debate focused on the threat to children posed by paedophiles.
In response Britain's biggest selling newspaper the News of the World launched a "naming and shaming" campaign, and published the names and photographs of 49 child sex offenders. Pledging to do the same each week until all 12,000 offenders on the register had been outed, it printed more pictures over the next two weeks.
Critics condemned the campaign claiming the paper's driving force was to boost flagging sales. Whatever its motives, the consequences have been all too apparent.
In recent weeks there have been a number of cases of "lynch law" across Britain. One man suspected of being a paedophile because he wore a neck brace was confronted by an angry mob of 300. He later gave his support to the newspaper campaign.
Other innocent men have been attacked or their homes firebombed. One family of five in Plymouth was forced to flee their home after a 60-strong mob descended on them, mistakenly believing the father was a paedophile.
Two men suspected of offences against children have committed suicide.
James White, aged 54, fled his home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, last month after it was reported that he had been charged with sex offences against young girls. He took a fatal overdose, and his solicitor claimed he was driven from his home by a vigilante mob which scared him to death.
John Potter, 49, was a millionaire who had built up the largest Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership outside the United States in Southampton. He was found at his home with a single bullet wound to the head. Potter had been under investigation by police for allegedly indecently assaulting two 15-year-old boys.
And yesterday there was fury when a paedophile convicted of indecent assaults on a 7-year-old girl walked free from court.
Judge Stuart Fish said Raymond Cullens, 51, who was "named and shamed" by the News of the World, had "suffered considerable adverse publicity," and in those exceptional circumstances handed down a 15-month suspended sentence. Eight years ago he was sentenced to 30 months in prison for assaulting three children.
One of his victims, Kim Hawksworth, now 22, was left furious by the latest verdict. "The sentence is absolutely disgraceful. To let him go free opens the floodgates for all paedophiles to plead not guilty at their trial."
Many groups, including furious police chiefs and child protection experts, have pointed the finger of blame for all this at the News of the World.
Last week the paper dropped its name-and-shame tactic, and condemned vigilante violence. Moderating its stance, it came up with a more considered range of policies designed to protect children which received the support of police and child protection agencies.
The paper continues to press for the setting up of a public register which would allow parents controlled access to information about paedophiles. It aims to emulate Megan's Law in America, which was named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl killed by a convicted sex offender who lived nearby, unknown to her family.
Executive editor Robert Warren claimed his paper's campaign had resulted in a "great leap forward" in persuading the British Government to reconsider the laws governing sex offenders. The campaign has been supported by the parents of Sarah Payne, who believe all paedophiles should be sent to prison for life.
But Labour MP Robin Corbett, chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, was unimpressed. He called on the Government to prosecute the paper for inciting people to riot.
He told Radio 4: "It was perfectly predictable when the News of the World started this what the outcome would be. I suspect they knew it as well. That is why I have asked the Home Office whether they will consider prosecution for incitement to public disorder offences."
And a spokesman for the Association of Chief Officers of Probation said: "The 'name and shame' campaign was wrong from the beginning. There's nothing that now makes it any better."
There are 12,000 people on the existing sex offenders register which covers all sex crimes. But critics say it is plagued by a series of loopholes, including the fact that no-one convicted before 1997 appears on the register.
Head teachers, doctors, youth leaders, sports club managers and others, including landlords, are notified on a confidential basis of the existence of a local sex offender. But a system of general disclosure is unlikely to happen. In a recent legal ruling, it was declared that it was in society's interests for the offenders to be allowed to live lawful lives.
That will provide no comfort to the mothers of Paulsgrove, where an uneasy calm has once again settled. Yesterday, after talks with council and police chiefs, the protesters agreed to suspend their nightly demonstrations.
But a violent tension remains. The protest group have pledged to stop their protests until Tuesday morning (NZT). They were due to meet today to discuss whether or not to hand their hit list of 20 suspected paedophiles over to the Portsmouth City Council.
Acting chief executive Roger Ching has promised that he will offer those named the chance to move out of the area. The council and the police will also campaign with the protesters for a change in the law regarding the release of paedophiles into the community.
And they will be praying that the lynch-mob mentality so quickly whipped up will disappear just as quickly as a tabloid newspaper's agenda.
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