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Excerpts:

A woman who made international headlines after brutally stabbing her elderly paedophile neighbour to death has finally revealed her true motive for the grisly crime.

Sarah Sands killed Michael Pleasted, 77, in a frenzied attack after discovering the man next door was a child sex offender with three young victims in the neighbourhood – including her own 12-year-old son.

At the time, no one knew the vast extent of the man’s horror past, having groomed and assaulted countless boys before changing his name upon release from prison. He’d lived in his East London flat for 16 years before his monstrous behaviour caught up with him again.

During her trial, Ms Sands said learning of Pleasted’s past was the reason she killed him after snapping, but now for the first time she and her son Bradley have revealed the truth.

“I did what any mother would do because he did this to my son Bradley, my little boy,” she exclusively told Britain’s The Sun newspaper.

When he offered her son Bradley, a job at the community centre where he worked, she thought it would be a good opportunity.

“Mick was a role model,” she told The Sun. “I had no reason not to trust him. I thought Bradley was safe.”

The predator next door began grooming her son before abusing him in the shop and his home, just metres from his unknowing mum.

Bradley abruptly quit his job and became moody, Ms Sands recalled. Eventually, he revealed what had happened to him.

“I found him pulling out his hair, rocking, shaking and crying. I felt sick and heartbroken.”

Ms Sands called the police and they suggested she move, so she packed up her kids and went to stay with her mother.

Later, a heavily intoxicated Ms Sands returned to her home, got a knife from the kitchen and went to confront Pleasted.

The mother-of-five stabbed him five times, killing him.

“I never dreamt I’d be capable,” she recalled “I have no pride in it but at least I know he can’t hurt anyone else.

“I’m not a bad person but I know I did a bad thing. I’ve never denied that and I’ve been punished.

“I’d never kill again. I don’t see myself as a murderer. But I don’t regret what I did. I was a mum desperate to protect my children.”

During her trial, the shocking extent of Pleasted’s life of unspeakable crime emerged – he had abused countless children over almost three decades.

But due to a loophole, he never had to disclose his convictions to housing authorities or the community organisation he worked for.

And when concerns first emerged about his closeness with children, police didn’t bother to check a database that would’ve revealed his name change and his sick record.

That record began in 1970 when he first attracted police attention.

Over a span of almost 30 years, Pleasted – then known as Robin Moult before legally changing his name – was convicted 24 times for various child sex offences.