March 1999 How this man’s evil drove my young son to suicide In 1996  John Meach, 50 of Abbingdon Road Oxford who was a bus driver, was convicted on 3 counts of indecent assault on a boy aged 10 before Snaresbrook Crown Court.   The victim had been abused over a 4-year period on 100’s of occasions.   He was jailed for 4 years. Yet despite the horrendous abuse he carried out the PAEDOPHILE John Meach has just enjoyed his first weekend of freedom after being released early from a four-year jail term imposed for relentless sex assaults on a young boy. His victim was so tormented by the thought of Meach being at large that he hanged himself. He was just 22. It is the latest in a long line of cases which have highlighted the inability of the legal system to deal with paedophiles. Now the victim’s mother is campaigning for tougher punishment for child abusers with the backing of her Tory MP, Iain Duncan-Smith, who is to raise the matter with Home Secretary Jack Straw. For years there had been a nagging feeling in her mind that her child was keeping something from her. He was withdrawn, sullen and reluctant to socialise, despite being 19 and having his own income from work.