They are hysterical fear-mongers and absolutely the worst news source in the UK. Never trust a single word they publish because you can guarantee that it is there to serve their purpose, not the purpose of reportage.
Now bearing that in mind, put all knee-jerk reactions out of your mind and re-read the article.
In summing up, the Judge acknowledged that the behaviour of the child was inappropriate. Given what she did (joining an adult website under false pretenses, posing as an adult etc.), if he did not draw attention to this it would have been a serious miscarriage of justice and he would have deserved to have been disbarred as a result.
What he did not do was base his sentencing on this. It's disguised, but it is there in that very article:
Claiming the paedophile would not get the treatment he needed in the overcrowded prison service, Judge Atherton sentenced Dixon to a community order.
That was his reason for the sentence. No leniency was given to Dixon on account of the victim's behaviour.
Whether or not this is an appropriate sentence is a different matter entirely, but that is the reason why we have a judicial process - so that no one person can have overall control in just such a circumstance.
Oh, and in case you didn't spot it (although to me it's glaringly obvious) The Daily Mail's agenda here is to create the illusion that under a Labour Government, law and order have collapsed, with the implication that things would be better under the Tories.
It's one of their most common angles.
Pretty much second only to mandating the expulsion from the country of anyone foreign.]]>