JAILED child molester John Porteous - known as The Beast In The Belltower - is claiming HE is a victim.

Alleging a miscarriage of justice, he is asking the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to overturn his conviction - and has applied for legal aid.

Porteous, 71, a housefather at Quarriers Children's Village in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, was jailed for eight years in November 2002 for sexually abusing two boys in the belltower of Mount Zion Church in the 60s and 70s.

One victim, David Whelan, 46, said: "He was found guilty in Scotland's highest court." Child abuse campaigner Sandra Brown said: "The sentence wasn't long enough."

Porteous became the first paedophile to use a loophole created by changes in indecency laws to have three years knocked off his eight-year sentence.