A self-styled vigilante 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 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 a fellow creep he met online.
Petrie posted the video on Facebook — which has since been deleted — which then went viral on the social media site.
At Dundee Sheriff Court, fiscal depute Lynne Mannion said Petrie had gone to his door with a jacket wrapped round his head to conceal his identity and stuck his phone through the gap.
Police were contacted after Petrie later posted the video, captioned “horrible beasts”, online.
Ms Mannion said: “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 in 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 John Majilton on his mobile phone.
He then uploaded the footage on to social media, placing him in a state of fear and alarm.
Sheriff Alastair Brown imposed a community payback order with 200 hours of unpaid work.
He said: “One of the great difficulties about allegations of sexual abuse against children is that some members of the public, such as you, get it in to their heads that they can then do whatever they want in relation to that person.
“Then you go and put this on Facebook — and there’s no control over what happens to it.
“Other idiots get hold of it and the whole thing goes viral.
“It becomes a virus that infects society. I won’t tolerate you behaving like a oneman lynch mob. You are very fortunate not to be going to prison for this.”
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