Paedophile hunters: Are they doing more harm than good?
They perceive themselves as the pursuers of justice, trapping suspected paedophiles by posing as young boys or girls on internet chat rooms.
But today police warned off anyone in the West Midlands tempted to take the law into their own hands.
The National Police Chiefs Council today spoke out after reports of paedophile hunters continuing to operate in our region.
In July, a vigilante group filmed an interview with a suspect in Wolverhampton before police arrived.
Footage of the confrontation, viewed by more than 13,000 and uploaded, shows a group of angry people gathered around an address in Low Hill as police drive away.
One officer tells the person videoing the scene: “We can’t afford for this to kick off now because we haven’t got the staff.”
Police are continuing to investigate the suspect picked up by officers.
In 2015, the Express & Star told how a married father of six who drove off with the so-called Paedophile Hunter Stinson Hunter clinging to the windscreen of his car after he had turned up hoping to meet an under-age girl was jailed.
But experts today said people who mean well can often do more harm than good.
Paedophile hunters operate by posing as victims and then arriving at scheduled meeting points or turning up at homes armed with a mobile phone camera.
A call is made to police – but as they wait for the officers arrive, the suspect is questioned in public.
The scene is often greeted with angry people who can be heard hurling abuse on the video, often uploaded to the internet.
The work of the paedophile hunters has been widely praised by members of the public.
A poll commissioned by the Express & Star in 2014 revealed that 96 per cent of readers agree with the methods of those involved.
A total of 20,000 readers voted after the work of the paedophile hunters were highlighted.
Today police have today distanced themselves from the work. Fears have even been raised by the National Police Chiefs Council that the work of vigilante groups could lead to a suicide.
Chief Constable Simon Bailey, National policing Lead on Child Abuse Investigation, told the Express & Star: “The police service is committed to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse in all its forms.
“We have invested in more undercover resources and other covert resources to catch those seeking to groom children online and we are already starting to see more of these offenders being brought to justice.
“We understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should get in contact with the police so we can investigate and bring people to justice.
“So called paedophile hunters are taking risks they don’t understand and can undermine police investigations.”
Chief Con Bailey said vigilante groups can damage police investigations or even wrongly accuse someone.
He said “Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them.
“It can jeopardise ongoing police investigations and these people have no way of safeguarding child victims.
“It also leads to people who have been identified going missing or raising concerns for their safety.
“This can divert significant resources into protecting suspects, which would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting them.
“There is also the risk of wrongly accusing someone - if someone is wrongly accused of being a paedophile in a hugely public way that makes people who live with them, live near them, work with them assume they have committed the offence,” he said.
“The temptation to kill themselves may be just as great even if they are innocent; that is an appalling consequence to contemplate.”
Anyone who has concerns about online grooming should report them to their local police, to The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre at ceop.police.uk, or to Crimestoppers.
Paedophile hunters: We want to work more closely with the police to stop these vile criminals
Type ‘paedophile hunter’ in YouTube and hundreds of videos come up.
It was a craze started by Stinson Hunter – today it features dozens of groups.
They target the suspected offenders, luring them to public places for ‘meets’ where they are confronted. Police are then called.
Stinson started planning his operations from a flat in Stourbridge.
He later gained notoriety with the airing of the Channel 4 documentary The Paedophile Hunter, which showed how he and his team caught potential sex offenders.
At the time Hunter, who now lives in Preston, said: “I want to show people how this is happening and shock people, to be honest.
“It’s out there happening as you look at your computer screen. I’ve done what I wanted to do with my videos – show what’s happening to get a reaction and highlight an issue.”
Another group operating is Internet Interceptors.
The group has five people working for it, including one man from the Black Country, called Gordan.
He claims the group has carried out more than 90 operations, resulting in 43 convictions.
He said: “I understand the police are under immense pressure and suffer from cut backs but they need to be working closer with us and stop meeting us with hostility.
“Internet Interceptors have over 80,000 people on our Facebook page and our videos hit the 800,000 plus views mark.
“The public know exactly what the deal is regarding these cases as they follow the process from start to finish.
“It’s about time the police started being honest with the public.
“I’ve said this before – the day the police acknowledge what we do, I’ll walk straight into Bilston street [police station] with my case load and work 30 hours a week, free of charge
“We’ve never got the wrong person and don’t proceed with an investigation until we’re 110 per cent it is that person.”
