A charity worker's crusade to have convicted child abusers jailed for life has been given a massive boost.

In just four days, John Clark collected a staggering 4,000 signatures for his petition designed to force a change in the law.

Now Mr Clark hopes to get a million petitioners to sign to press Parliament.

"People have been very supportive, everybody has been really brilliant," said Mr Clark, a trustee of the charity Poverty Aid International.

Mr Clark and a colleague set up a stand in Darley Street and were asking Christmas shoppers to sign their petition.

"We have had people crowding around the stand wanting to sign the petition.

"People who I have never met before have come up to me and told me terrible stories of how they were abuse victims.

"At one point I was crying."

Volunteers from the charity, based in Millergate, launched the campaign after hearing about the effect of abuse from some of the dozens of underprivileged children they take on caravan holidays each year.

On their first day, the campaigners picked up 1,000 signatures. The second and third days were spent in Newcastle city centre and then Mr Clark was back in Darley Street on Wednesday.

The next stage of the bid will see Mr Clark take his stand to Accrington and Preston in Lancashire and to Grimsby in north east Lincolnshire.

He says convicted paedophiles can never change their ways and the only way to deal with them is life behind bars.

The aim is to get a million names on the petition to press Parliament for a change in the law.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.