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Original poster

Man I know caught in paedophile vigilante sting

38 replies

lolaflores · 14/05/2019 17:51

a video went up on FB of a person being confronted by paedophile hunters. It was in the town I grew up in.
A friend posted it and she told me to watch carefully.
So the man is pictured and hey presto...i went to school with him.
Very very shocked.
But.
I knew him as a lad that was of a very high IQ but low social functioning if that makes sense. He hung out with us all, we all looked out for him, accepted him as he was and we all muddled along together.
The paedophile hunters set up a convo with him and a girl aged 15, which was one of them.
Then a date was aranged for them to meet and he is caught on film.
Cops are called
I don't know if they turned up or if charges have been brought.
I don't know what to think really.
He lives independently but his life isn't an average, adult life.
I cant defend him, I know..but he lacks something
Any thoughts on this as I feel in a very grey area

OP posts:
L1nkedOut · 14/05/2019 17:54

How is it a grey area? You may feel it wont feel grey to girl or her parents.
What you mean is you are shocked. It isnt "grey" because u knew h8m and ur shocked

Nicknacky · 14/05/2019 17:57

These vigilante groups should be banned. They are dangerous.

jinglybell · 14/05/2019 17:58

The paedophile hunters didnt set up a chat with him. He would have made initial contact with the decoy. He would have been told many times that the decoy was underage. He knew that, he persisted anyway and he got stung.

Serves him right.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 14/05/2019 17:59

How old is he?

Asmoto · 14/05/2019 18:01

Vigilante groups do more harm than good.

Look at your post - whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?

Trial by Facebook - lynch mobs - it's an awful society we live in.

Likethebattle · 14/05/2019 18:02

A close friend of mine was found with child porn on his computer and he admitted possessing the images in court. I cut him dead....in fact he is dead to me. No sympathy!

tillythedog · 14/05/2019 18:08

the exact same thing happened in my town yesterday, was broadcast live on facebook and then a follow up of the police taking him away. It is really scary how close it is to home, but I'm glad they caught him, however some situations are dangerous and should probably be left to the authorities to deal with!

ViolentGin · 14/05/2019 18:13

This happened to a man who I went to school with. Very low IQ, always a bit weird if I'm honest. I felt very uncomfortable when it all happened. They filmed him, knocking at his door him answering with his baby daughter (he had fled the 'sting'). His close family and friends flew to his defence saying it was wrong place wrong time. Hunters said absolute not, it was definitely him.

They removed the video the next day, eventually admitted there has been a mistake. His reputation was shot to shit though. I saw hundreds of people sharing the original post, everyone in our small town would have known. Not many would have seen the retraction.

Original poster
lolaflores · 14/05/2019 18:15

He is middle aged.
He isn't and has never been emotionally mature and always socially inept.

I do not know how the conversations planned out between him and the decoy but what he had been saying was filthy as the vigilantes repeated what hed said.
Dont know if this is the 1st time hes done this...
This is not a defense of him by the way.

OP posts:
bluebluezoo · 14/05/2019 18:17

These vigilante groups should be banned. They are dangerous

This. A welsh group “stung” a 13 year old boy a few weeks back. They’d matched the wrong person to the online profile, and gone to his house when the targetted person didn’t show to the arranged meet.

Not the first either. People and their families are needing protection because these people declare them guilty with no trial.

We have a legal system for a reason.

O/p I wouldn’t think about it unless he’s found/pleads guilty. Until them you have no idea.

Fionadragon · 14/05/2019 18:17

These vigilante groups are awful and the police put out a statement recently didn’t they? Asking for people to stop as it was hindering their own investigations.
We had one local to us, a man with LD was filmed, it was just disgusting, he clearly had been set up. All over FB now.

NannyRed · 14/05/2019 18:22

He’s a paedofile. A kiddie fiddler. A pervert. A nonce.

Sorry op, but what part of child abuse is gray to you?

BoneyBackJefferson · 14/05/2019 18:23

Its a shame that for so many people what is effectively a random group showing up at someone's door with a camera linked to the internet, claiming something has happened is enough to condemn someone.

Original poster
lolaflores · 14/05/2019 18:26

Nannyred the evidence of his perversion is corrupted though? And even if he is, he wont make the same mistake twice making him undetectable in future.
And if he isn't... well, hows he meant to prove that?

OP posts:
Nicknacky · 14/05/2019 18:43

There was a sheriff in Scotland who a couple of weeks ago called the groups “fraudulent” and was scathing in his opinion of them.

It was music to my ears. They are a nightmare for the community, causing disorder, and the police have to deal with them when in normal circumstances they can plan and arrange staffing for executing a warrant.

I execute warrants for indecent images of children frequently and it doesn’t make fb but we are out there doing it. We will never be able to catch them all no matter how many officers are working on it, sadly.

CoraPirbright · 14/05/2019 18:47

Agree bluebluezoo. There was also that famous example of a lynch mob turning up at a paediatrician’s house because they didn’t understand the difference!

OldUnit · 14/05/2019 18:48

Men. Angry

Original poster
lolaflores · 14/05/2019 18:50

Aren't they setting people up NickyNack? I dont know of it's clear now whether this person was looking with intent or if he got snared in a trawling exercise?
Meanwhile, the culprits who would be too smart to get caught put online are getting away with it over and over again

OP posts:
Raindropsonroses27 · 14/05/2019 18:55

Vigilante groups are fucking idiots. All they care about is the social media praise and adoration. If it was truly about protecting kids they would hand the evidence over to the police not plaster it on social media so the family of these so called pedos have to put up with the backlash. Not to mention cases of mistaken identity.

Makes me sick to see the idiot mob calling them heroes. So wrong on so many levels.

JuniFora · 14/05/2019 18:56

These mobs should be banned and prosecuted. It's up to the police to investigate and prosecute in accordance with the law.

Anybody who's found turning up at the door of an innocent person should get a mandatory five year sentence. It's only a matter of time before a family is burnt out of their home because these idiots have nothing better to do than hunt people down, often getting the wrong people.

Most of the men they appear to target seem to have learning difficulties of some sort, that's disgusting. You can't judge someone who doesn't know any better in the same way you'd judge those of us who do.

Asmoto · 14/05/2019 19:09

what he had been saying was filthy as the vigilantes repeated what he'd said

And what evidence do you have that what the vigilantes are 'repeating' is accurate?

As a pp said, we have a legal system for a reason.

A load of attention-seekers garnering 'likes' on Facebook from people who can't resist a bit of drama is not a justice system.

Original poster
lolaflores · 14/05/2019 19:38

My mother saw it. She knows his family. We all know how he is and how naive, gullible, etc. He is.
I would say he is vulnerable due to his lack of emotional and social skills.
I doubt he has even had sex to be honest. Never mind any kind of intimate emotional relationship.

OP posts:
Nicknacky · 14/05/2019 20:00

lola That’s certainly up for debate. I have seen text conversations where it is clear the suspect has instigated and pursued the conversation, and I have seen ones where the suspect says early on that they think they are talking to an adult and the decoy tries to convince them they are children.

My main issue is in the fb likes they are after.

HairycakeLinehan · 14/05/2019 20:04

Hate those idiot mobs but there’s no gray area OP, ffs.

bluebluezoo · 14/05/2019 20:09

He’s a paedofile. A kiddie fiddler. A pervert. A nonce

Where’s your evidence @nannyred?

A bunch of self appointed judge and jury have said so? You saw it on the internet?

I bet you’re the kind of person who also believes the police are corrupt and frame innocent people...