I really like Channel Four news, but they seem way off the mark with their Ruth Kelly and that "sex offender" allowed to work in a school scandal. Has the editor and Jon Snow been overdosing on the Daily Mail or something?

In last night’s programme, they revealed the details of the “sex offender” Paul Reeve at the centre of the story. According to their own report, he was put on the sex offender register for once having looked at child porn on the net, which he claimed to have done accidentally. Again, according to their own report, he certainly convinced someone of his mistake and his intention not to do it again, and that was why he was given the letter from the DfES saying that his case had been examined and that, in light of the evidence, he had been given permission to work in a school. He told the school that he was on the sex offender’s register when he applied for, and was given, the job.

Paul Reeve was given a caution when he was caught during a massive police operation into child pornography. He was not charged and did not go to court. He probably agreed to the caution in order to avoid a damaging court appearance. But of course, in the hysteria that currently surrounds anything to do with children, we can’t possibly give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not saying this bloke should or shouldn't be allowed to work as a PE teacher in schools. It's not up to me. It's up the school, yeah? Or not apparently. It's up to Channel Four and their fellow media crusaders who obviously know more than everyone else when it comes to child safety. We can sleep peacefully in our beds, knowing that out children are safe, though God help any of us who ever, however unwittingly, trespass onto the wrong side of the law.