A JUDGE has sparked outrage by ordering a father to pay compensation to a drug dealer he beat up after catching him supplying heroin to his two sons.

The sentence has been branded a "scandal" and "ridiculous" by a leading politician and a drugs expert.

Respected New Forest businessman Roger Dorrington punched James White, whom he had barred from seeing his boys, 15 times in the face.

But 24-year-old Mr White complained to police - and Dorrington was arrested for assault.

Dorrington, 48, from Blissford, near Fordingbridge, will now spend 100 hours working alongside criminals for taking the law into his own hands.

He also has to give £250 compensation to Mr White, who suffered cuts and bruises.

Dorrington said after the case at Southampton Crown Court: "There is no justice. I am definitely the victim here, not James White. I've been ordered to pay £250 compensation to him, but I'm not going to on principle. I'd rather give £1,000 to charity.

"Friends have been ringing me up in support, saying they would have done the same as me in attacking White. I have no regrets."

New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne branded the episode "a scandal", saying he would seek to raise it in the House of Commons.

He said: "If you found yourself in the position of Mr Dorrington what you have done? I would have garrotted him with his own intestines."

Dorrington pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to assault occasioning actual bodily harm - although he said he would have pleaded not guilty and risked prison had his father not been critically ill in hospital.

Katherine Hunter, defending, said: "The victim knew he was not allowed at his home and perhaps understandably Mr Dorrington was outraged to see that Mr White had been on his premises."

Judge David Griffiths told Dorrington: "Detection, charging, punishment is a matter for the criminal justice system and the courts - not for individuals.

"But I do understand, given the circumstances in this case, how you lost your temper and with that in mind I'm not going to send you to prison."

Dorrington was also ordered to pay £250 costs.