Mob beat up paedo slur victim

A vigilante mob have been jailed after storming the home of a man wrongly branded a paedophile and battering him and his son.

Christopher Peters was so terrified after locals on his estate falsely called him a pervert that he put in CCTV.

Mr Peters - cowering indoors after an earlier assault - answered his door, expecting police. But James Nicholson, 19, ex-soldier dad James Snr, 52, and Andrew Smith, 23, rushed in to attack him and son Anthony late at night in Hythe, Hants, in March.

Nicholson Snr, of Hythe, got 42 months for GBH and burglary and his son 28 months for ABH, GBH and two other offences. Smith, 23, got 32 months for ABH and GBH. All had previous convictions.

Southampton crown court judge John Boggis QC stressed Mr Peters was "not and has never been a paedophile".