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Ray Hadley said a grandmother who ended up in a police cell for outing a paedophile in her home town deserves a ‘medal’, and not the criminal conviction she received as her story gains attention around the world.
Maxine Davey, 59, held up signs along a busy stretch of road warning residents child sex predator Edward James Thomson was living in the Central Queensland neighbourhood of Calliope, near Gladstone.
Thomson was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail after being convicted of rape and multiple counts of indecent treatment of children under the age of 16 last year.
But he was released after just 12 months. An appeal against his conviction was dismissed earlier this year.
Ms Davey filmed the outside of his home, where his property and vehicles could be identified and shared the clip to Facebook.
Ray Hadley believes Maxine Davey should be given a medal instead of a criminal conviction after she outed a paedophile in her home town
Maxine Davey, 59, held up signs along a busy stretch of road warning residents a child sex predator was living in the Central Queensland neighbourhood of Calliope, near Gladstone
As a result she was found guilty of one count of unlawful stalking and narrowly avoided time behind bars. She was also fined $2,200.
‘She should have a medal draped around her neck not a criminal conviction,’ Hadley said on his 2GB morning show. ‘For identifying the filthy low bludger.’
Hadley labelled the charges put towards Ms Davey as a ‘disgrace’, and said if it weren’t for her, residents wouldn’t know there was a sex offender living among them.
‘We owe her a great debt of gratitude,’ the radio broadcaster said.
Ms Davey said she was ‘shocked’ after finding out she’d broken the law, and was sorry for her actions.
But many, including the victims of Thomson, have labelled her a ‘hero’.
‘I just wanted to hold up a sign, publicise the fact that other parents (need) to be aware, but then I stepped over the line and broke the law,’ Ms Davey told A Current Affair.
Edward James Thomson was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail after being convicted of rape and multiple counts of indecent treatment of children under the age of 16 last year.
‘I crossed the line by posting it. I posted it and it was online for two hours and 35 minutes before I quickly removed it.’
She spent three-and-a-half hours in a jail cell before she was charged, and was staring down the barrel of a potential five-year jail term.
When Thomson was approached by the program last year, he said the incident with Ms Davey had ’caused a lot of stress for the whole family’.
But Radley said he had no sympathy for the offender.
‘Can you understand how reprehensible it is, given … there’s no remorse, there’s 12 months in jail – a paltry sentence – and he’s got the audacity to tell (journalist) Dan Nolan, ”It’s caused my family a lot of stress”?
‘I think you raping a little girl may have caused your family a bit more stress than what Maxine Davey has done.’
Hadley said he’d seen Ms Davey’s story make headlines in news all around the world including in New York, London and New Zealand.
‘I hope in my lifetime legislators in Queensland decide that the laws regarding paedophiles are totally and utterly inadequate in relation to sentencing,’ he said.
Ms Davey, a grandmother-of-seven, has lived in Australia for 41 years and never had a crime against her name.
The grandmother-of-seven (pictured) was charged and narrowly avoided jail time after she filmed the offender’s home, identifying vehicles in his front yard
The breast cancer survivor who is now living on a support pension said the judgement ‘hurt’.
‘I’m really devastated by it all. I’ve never considered myself a criminal and I’ll have this charge against me for the rest of my life.’
Sexual assault survivors who were victims of the 41-year-old have rallied behind Ms Davey and say she should be seen as a ‘hero’ not a criminal.
‘It is absolutely ridiculous how the justice system works. She shouldn’t be put through this. This is not fair,’ one victim said.
‘I believe she is honestly like a hero. It absolutely breaks my heart that she’s trying to do the right thing (as) a human and she’s absolutely being torn apart for it,’ another victim said.