A MOTHER who attacked a paedophile convicted of raping her two daughters last night spoke of her relief after walking free from court.

Jacqueline Wilson said she "just snapped" when she tracked Cameron McIvor to his Darlington home after he was bailed so sentencing reports could be prepared.

Last night, Home Office advisor Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate said McIvor should not have been allowed back on the streets once convicted.

He said: "It is very serious that while he was awaiting sentence for rape he was released on bail.

"The maximum sentence is life imprisonment and the judge was taking a risk that he could re-offend."

David Hines, of the North East Victims' Association, also attacked the move - and the resulting seven year sentence handed down to McIvor.

He said: "No one likes to see vigilantes in this country, but that's the way things are going because sentences are so pathetic. Everybody can see it, but the judiciary.

"What was this man doing out on bail anyway, if he had been convicted of rape? They could have done the reports while he was in prison."

Mrs Wilson, 37, burst into McIvor's house and knocked him to the ground. As he looked up he saw her holding a double edged razor as she repeatedly punched and kicked him.

She took the law into her own hands after he was convicted of raping her daughters, Clare, now aged 18 and Samantha, 20.

Following the attack, Mrs Wilson admitted assault causing actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing at Teesside Crown Court. Sentencing her yesterday, Judge Michael Taylor took pity after hearing how McIvor - described as a "grandad figure" - befriended the family.

He then raped both daughters over a four year period when they were aged between eight and 12.

He sentenced Mrs Wilson, of Melbourne Street, Stockton, to a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Afterwards she spoke of her relief. "This has been hanging over me for a long time," she said. "I just snapped. All the frustration boiled over. We now know McIvor had a history of child abuse before he ever moved near us - why weren't local families told?

"If we had been warned, my daughters would never have suffered as they have and I would not have been driven to act as I did."

In a rare move, Clare and Samantha have agreed to waive their legal right to anonymity in order to express support for their mother.

"She did what any loving mother would do and it's a disgrace that she has been prosecuted," said Samantha.

"We received no counselling or help, but everyone seemed to be bending over backwards to help McIvor. In court, I was accused of making the attacks up in order to claim compensation."

Clare said: "I decided to tell what McIvor had done to me because I wanted other girls to be protected from him."

After the attack, Mrs Wilson attended the local police station with her solicitor.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, told the court: "She said she wanted him to say sorry for what he had done."

Defending, Tim Roberts, said: "She inflicted these injuries in circumstances of quite exceptional background provocation."

He said that as McIvor had befriended the family, Mrs Wilson felt she had unwittingly exposed her children to his sexual demands.

"For a mother to realise she has visited that upon her daughters is bad enough, but then there was the ensuing two-year wait for the case to come to court."

Mr Roberts added that McIvor's injuries after the attack had not been serious.