Mercy for child porn smuggler

A self-confessed paedophile convicted of smuggling child porn from Amsterdam escaped being jailed in Belfast yesterday.

Lord Justice McCollum told Ian Magill, 49, that being in jail with other sex abusers might turn him into "a greater danger" to society. Magill, of Wellington Park, Belfast, was fined pounds 3,500 and given a two-year suspended sentence.

He was also put on the Royal Ulster Constabulary's sex offenders register.

Heathrow customs officers caught Magill smuggling two child porn tapes - including one he made himself - and three magazines from Amsterdam in August 1995.