REVEALED: PAEDO THE LAW COULDN'T CATCH

THIS is the pervert who enticed two 11-year-old girls to strip naked but escaped prosecution due to a legal loophole.

Mortgage consultant Don Buchanan, married with two children, tricked the youngsters, claiming they would win pounds 50 in a competition.

Buchanan, in his late 30s, admitted what he had done, but police were powerless to take action. Although downloading porn from the internet can carry a sentence of 10 years and taking indecent photographs of children is also illegal, it is not an offence in England to entice children to expose themselves. But in Scotland he could have been jailed for life.

The paedophile, from Minehead, Somerset, a children's sport coach in his spare time, has now closed his office in Watchet and gone into hiding with his wife Sarah, an assistant bank manager, and two sons, aged nine and 11.

His solicitor Keith Needs said: "They are currently away."

Last night the mother of one of Buchanan's victims told how when Buchanan was first confronted by police he said the girls, who had been delivering leaflets for him, were troublemakers and had made up the whole story. Later he confessed what he had done.

Det Con Cameron McConnell, the officer in charge of the case, contacted the Crown Prosecution Service for guidance on whether Buchanan should be charged with indecent assault, gross indecency, breach of the peace or harassment.

But the CPS wrote back saying no offence had been committed - because there was no physical contact, violence or threat. DC McConnell then wrote to the mothers of the victims to tell them Buchanan would not be prosecuted.

"There is nothing else I can do except to refuse the charge against him," he wrote. "This has been a most unsatisfactory conclusion."

Alan Levy QC, a senior barrister who specialises in children's law, said: "This man's intent was sexual gratification.

"It should be a criminal offence. The law can be changed quickly when Parliament thinks it is urgent - such as the Anti-Terrorist Bill."

Buchanan's solicitor said: "A gap in the law has been identified which David Blunkett has agreed to plug because of the publicity that the case has attracted."

But he admitted: "My client will probably not face prosecution however as the law does not work in retrospect."

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