Man sentenced for confronting paedophile

tayport: Jody Petrie filmed man from his doorstep and posted footage online

A Fife man who went to a paedophile’s door and filmed him in a bid to expose his crimes in a Facebook video that went viral was yesterday spared jail.

Jody Petrie targeted John Majilton at his home in Tayport in the days leading up to his sentencing last summer.

Two weeks before the incident Majilton, a former postman, had admitted downloading a huge stash of child abuse pictures then sending one to someone he met online.

Petrie posted the video on Facebook, which has since been deleted, before following it up branding Majilton and his partner, Ashley Walker, “beasts”.

Depute fiscal Lynne Mannion told Dundee Sheriff Court Petrie had gone to the couple’s door with a jacket wrapped round his head to conceal his identity and stuck his phone through the gap when Miss Walker opened it.

She said: “The first complainer didn’t recognise him because of the jacket.

“When the second (Majilton) heard the commotion and came through the accused shouted ‘he’s a paedo’.”

She continued: “The witnesses managed to close the door and later that day police were contacted after the accused posted the video on Facebook.”

She added: “Many people had commented on the video and shared it, effectively making it go viral.”

Petrie, 31, of Garvie Brae, Tayport, pleaded guilty on summary complaint to a charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner at an address on Cowgate, Tayport, on June 25 last year.

He admitted that he turned up at the flat with his “identity concealed” by wearing a jacket wrapped around his head and placed his foot in the door to stop it being closed.

Petrie shouted, swore, uttered threats of violence and offensive remarks and made recordings of Ashley Walker and John Majilton on his mobile phone.

He then uploaded the footage on to social media whereby it was “viewed by the lieges” and “placed Ashley Walker and John Majilton in a state of fear and alarm”.

Defence solicitor Sue Williams said: “He realises this was totally unreasonable to take matters into his own hands.”

Sheriff Alastair Brown imposed a community payback order with 200 hours’ unpaid work.

Jody Petrie.