An innocent family say they have been the victims of a witch hunt after their next door neighbour was exposed as a paedophile.

Gary Neil Hudson, 47, of Ricklings, Basildon, was jailed by Basildon magistrates for three weeks after he admitted making indecent pictures by downloading computer images of young boys.

The family of his neighbour, 40-year-old Gary Symons, who is single and lives with his mum, said today people are mistakenly thinking it's him.

Gary Symon's sister, Julie Tyndall, 32, who also lives in Ricklings, claims she was confronted by a group of parents on her mother's doorstep asking where the paedophile was.

She said: "One of the neighbours said 'you've got a brother called Gary.' I can understand people being upset.

"We've all got children but the paedophile is not even here, he's in prison. My brother is a perfectly ordinary nice chap.

"It's quite distressing that people can confuse our family with such a sick crime simply because my brother has the same Christian name as this other man."

Convicted paedophile Gary Neil Hudson has been ordered to sign the sex offenders register.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.