A judge who caused a storm of protest by West Country MPs when he released a convicted paedophile on bail bfore sentence has hit back, accusing them of being 'at best ill-informed.' Sentencing Keith Morris, of Ilsington, to imprisonment for public protection, Judge Graham Cottle said: 'I do not intend to respond to comments made by some West Country Members of Parliament uttered in the aftermath of my decision to grant you bail save to say that they were, at best, ill-informed.' He said there was never any prospect that Morris would pose a risk because of the stringent conditions imposed. In the furore that followed his decision last month he said the press and public had 'conveniently' overlooked the fact that Morris had been living at the same address for nearly a year since being arrested in May 2006. 'As I expected, you have behaved yourself impeccably and you have respected the trust placed in you to abide by the stringent conditions that were attached to your bail.' A further advantage was that the pre-sentence report had been prepared more quickly than had Morris been in prison. 'The decision to remand you on bail was largely in recognition of the fact that judges have to be reminded from within their own ranks of the responsibility which they bear to do what they can to address the problem of overcrowding in our prisons.' But Teignbridge MP RIchard Younger-Ross, maintained that the decision was made for political reasons. 'Judges are entirely right on say that politicians should not interfere in the judicial process, but it is entirely wrong for a judge to put children at risk by making a political statement and releasing a person on bail as opposed to remanding them in custody,' he said. Sentencing Morris, Judge Cottle took another swipe at MPs, saying: 'As your case has attracted more than its fair share of ill-informed and inaccurate comment and in the interests of heading off more of the same I will explain the meaning of a sentence of imprisonment for public protection.' He explained that Morris would serve a minimum term of four years before being considered for release. 'The minimum term is often misunderstood as meaning the term you will serve before you are released. 'For members of the public to be mistaken of that view is perhaps understandable. 'Unhappily, it is frequently the case that those with far less excuse continue to misunderstand the meaning and effect of a sentence of imprisonment for public protection. 'It means that the sentence is unlimited in time.'