FORMER hardman Rod Jones would be mayor of Middlesbrough - not former Robocop Ray Mallon - if a class of local children had their way.

Youngsters attending the town's Langbaurgh School voted the 54-year-old charity worker in as mayor in an on-line mock election supervised by the University of Teesside.

In the real race to be mayor, Mr Jones picked up 297 votes and came last out of the six candidates in the election.

Former detective superintendent Mr Mallon swept to power with a landslide 26,362 postal votes.

Twenty-five pupils who took part in the mock election gave him 54 per cent of the vote.

His nearest rivals, Mr Mallon and Sylvia Connolly, deputy leader of Middlesbrough Council's Labour group, both collected 17 per cent of the poll.

"If I could have got a similar vote from their mothers and fathers I would have walked it," said charity organiser Mr Jones.

Brian Loader, co-director of the community informatics research and applications unit at the university, said: "Rod Jones was quite pro-active from the start and responded via the e-format to the children's questions.

"He was quite interactive, and young people may have responded to that and put him top.''