A PORLOCK shopkeeper has been left shocked and confused after someone stencilled the word 'paedophile' on the wall of his High Street shop.

Keith Roberts, of the Gift and Candy Shop, discovered the graffiti carefully stencilled above his window when he went to open up on Tuesday morning.

The discovery has made him wonder why anyone would want to be so spiteful towards him.

He is worried that another Keith Roberts could have appeared on the much criticised 'name and shame' paedophile list printed in a national newspaper.

That list has already led to half a dozen innocent people throughout the country being targeted by mobs and labelled as child abusers purely because they either have the same name or resemble someone featured in the newspaper's list.

Mr Roberts contacted the Free Press shortly after he found the graffiti in an attempt to warn other villagers that such acts were not confined to inner city areas.

He said: "It seems a bit premeditated as it is not as if kids have just come up and sprayed the word on the front of the shop. Someone has actually gone to the trouble of making a stencil.

"I can't understand why they've targeted me, though. I've been here six years and I don't think I've upset anyone."

He added: "My main concern is that someone with the same name may have appeared in the list published in the newspaper and I want people to know that Porlock is not immune to this kind of thing."

Inspector Rod Price of Minehead police said he did not want the graffiti to act as a catalyst for further attacks on Mr Roberts' shop and said he too was baffled by the "unpleasant" vandalism.

He said: "There has been no-one in the West Somerset area who has been listed as a paedophile by the newspaper and this comes as a complete surprise to us.

"I am particularly concerned that someone has taken it upon themselves do this and stir up trouble for a member of the community that is completely unjustified."

He said inquiries into the attack on Mr Robert's shop were continuing.

Photo: Steve Guscott.