IRISH campaigners have criticised thriller writer John Grisham for suggesting that men convicted of viewing indecent images of children should serve shorter prison sentences.
Grisham (59), pictured, sparked a storm after claiming that some people who look at abusive images "probably had too much to drink" and "pushed the wrong buttons, went too far and got into child porn" websites.
He said prisons were now filled with "60-year-old men... who have never harmed anybody, would never touch a child".
Grisham, whose bestsellers based on the legal world include A Time To Kill and The Firm, insisted that he had "no sympathy for real paedophiles". However, the Irish group One in Four, which works with victims of child abuse, rejected the writer's comments and said indecent images of children can be a "pathway" for people to sexually assault children in their own social network. "There is no such thing as 'child porn'. What is at issue is images of children being raped, tortured and sexually assaulted. These are real, live children, many of them very young," the group's executive director Maeve Lewis said. "People who view these images are supporting a vicious worldwide industry which preys on vulnerable children who are forced to perform horrific sexual acts."
She criticised Grisham's belief that inebriated "innocent middle-aged men stumble across" sites, saying most convictions globally relate to individuals who have stored and shared hundreds of "vile" videos and images.
The author was accused of showing "a complete lack of understanding of the nature of sex offending".