What do you think of “paedophile hunters”?

[Username721]

Just curious really.

Are they doing the work of the Lord? Or is vigilante action never ok? Leave it to the police or is this sort of thing everyone’s business?

Also the police do not do nothing. I had another employee who got woken up by a police raid as his flat mate had indecent images. His work laptop was taken originally until the flatmate confessed.

My concern is there amateur vigilantes the law is very pedantic they leave themselves wide open to cries of entrapment
case collapses and accused goes to ground

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11891741/Nine-charged-extreme-body-modifications-footage-penis-amputations-livestreamed.html

I would like to know why this castration cult are arrested and not the Dr, librarian and School teacher type.

At least they are all men in this situation.

Obviously.

Wow. What case was that? Sounds bonkers.

A man local to me killed himself after a sting operation was streamed on FB by vigilantes. He had a family. It raises difficult questions.

I question their motives and their methods and the type of people who seem to revel in this type of work aren't good people themselves.I knew a person (a few years ago now,) who worked with CEOP and the NCA. He was always very suspicious of them. Especially their needs to make everything so public which could jeopardise a chance of a conviction. The lack of care taken when exposing innocent family / friends to harm from vigilantes etc. He also said it was suspicious that when handing over evidence to the authorities it was surprising how many of these hunters didn't have their own devices with them.

I believe that there are people who get their own sick kicks from being on the other side of the glass, who enjoy the possibility of violence who may even enjoy the thrill of pretending to be something / someone they're not. Hell that's what 95% of people on the internet do.

For me I think that the internet has led to a lot of people being exposed to horrific things that can change them, especially men and women under the age of 50 who have grown up around the internet and all the horrors it can imagine, I can only imagine the damage done to their minds. I wonder if we knew just how many of our friends, families, neighbours, people walking past you on a sunny day had seen or done horrific things that they pray never see the the light of day would we really be that surprised?

I don't think exposing people for clicks and likes makes them any better than the people they "hunt".

They apprehended a young man in my town and put his name and face all over Facebook. The man in question has a cognitive disability and the mental age of around 12. He was abused and neglected as a young child, including sexual abuse. I know this as I'm friendly with his (adoptive) mum. I am not excusing him by any means, of course not and I would be supportive of them providing evidence to the police to deal with. He needs to be held accountable. But he himself is a vulnerable young man and a victim of abuse and I can't agree with them plastering his face all over social media and the mob mentality about it all. I can't stand the thought of a group of them apprehending him.

This was a year ago and he hasn't been charged by the police. It's had a devastating impact on his poor Mum. It wouldn't have even made it to the paper at this point if it was only the police involved and she'd have had a long while to come to terms with it. Instead, it was immediate abuse on social media before she even knew what was going on, feeling unable to leave the house. Their tactics are just awful.

I’ve seen a couple of documentary-style programmes on this. Regarding the streaming it online (and thus jeopardising a conviction), have they ever explained why they do this?

Dangerous vigilantes looking for an outlet where they can be justified and even praised for indulging in their thuggish natures. Always surprises me how these people who are so invested in this cause never ever seem to spend years training to become social workers/counsellors/play therapists/specialist police officers. They never seem to open their homes up to foster children. Never volunteer in shelters or with victims of CSA or raising money for charities that support CSA survivors… no, their big hearted support for the cause is limited to acting like thugs.

@Username721 - if they genuinely wanted to help then I think they'd pass on any information they had, and how they'd acquired it, directly to the appropriate channels and not livestream it in the hopes of scaring up a public lynching.

I know of a mentally disabled man who lived with his elderly mother. He was caught by one of these groups who posed as a 14 year old girl online. They exchanged pictures etc. He didn't have the mental capacity to understand what he did wrong. They turned up at his house, published the video on local Facebook groups, and he and his mother were hounded out of their town.

Obviously what he did was wrong, but you could also argue that a vulnerable man was baited into the situation by a reckless group of individuals.

I haven't really thought about this before but how do they know they are talking to adults?

I think mostly it's self interest which is why they have to video themselves. As someone else mentioned, it's a questionable 'hobby', what is their real interest.

I have no issue with them doing it and handing the evidence over to the police. But filming it and sticking on YouTube as monetised videos means (to me) that's it's more about getting a social media presence and making money. That doesn't sit right with me.

The police do do something BUT not enough.
There was a documentary on it not too many years ago and sexual harm prevention orders happen, and I think the police also monitor online activity of people not already convicted, so like dating sites with children on.
There are not enough police and not enough enforcement.
They don't monitor the online activity of anyone enough.
The documentary was insightful but frustrating because there werent enough people convicted even when they had child pornography/photos on their devices.

I've watched loads of them on Facebook & I have no problem with what they do, they treat the offenders no matter how bad the evidence is with courtesy & if anything was to kick off have to protect the offender from being attacked. The sentences that the offenders get are a complete joke & the police don't have the time to carry out sting operations on the number of offenders caught by the hunters.

I think they’re attention seeking.
But I’m also 50-50 about vigilante ‘justice’.

I believe if people were happy with the way the justice system dealt with sexual offenders and paedophiles, they wouldn’t need to resort to vigilantism.

Its the whole ‘justice not only needs to be done, but needs to be seen to be done’

At justice isn’t being seen to be done in this matter, which leaves people angry and resorting to this kind of thing.

Sexual abuse convictions are shocking, and the ones which are convicted have just as shocking sentences

I like the idea of them. We have one locally he lives about a mile away. When he ' hunts' its not in a mob like way.
Hes very calm and collected.
He has a wife and dcs.

I witnessed him 'catching a paedo' last summer at a huge kids play park. He was very discreet and about an hour later the police arrived.

One less dirty nonce on the streets.

I'd have thought being a paedo hunter is a pretty good cover for being a paedo tbh, hiding in plain sight.

The police DO have undercover online operatives.
I applied to be one . (I'm already in the police)

IMO hunters are dangerous, publicity seeking wannabes who have little idea of what they are doing or the danger they put innocent people in .

Had lots of experience of this work wise .

One example :

I went to a Hunter group gathered outside a house . Trying to incite a riot and handing me all their "evidence "

The subject of their hunting was a young man with Down syndrome. He had a mental age of 8 .

They had lured him into conversation and he had said "do you want to kiss me ? Do you want to do sex with me ?"

He had a mental age of 8 . 8 . They got nasty when I wouldn't lock him up for their cameras and live feed . My colleague had to step in and threaten the ringleader with arrest because he as so aggressive toward me because I wouldn't do what he wanted for his moment of glory on his fb live feed .

I've had several other experiences of these groups - most don't know their evidential arse from their elbow .

Leave it to the professionals. Please . The glory hunting actually prevents a proper investigation in 9/10 cases .

I worry it's dangerously close to entrapment.
I also worry about the vigilantes themselves posing as kids and having sexual discussions, it really wouldn't be much of a shock if I found out some of them get off on it.

Police do similar.operations, but they have guidelines, people watching over them and I would assume they have professional councilling etc if they need it.. Hunters dont..

They are generally glory seeking attention seekers who hamper any real prospect of conviction because they have no idea of evidence, the evidential chain , what constitutes entrapment .

I'll
Name change now as I am a police officer with years of service.

They do not help. Generally speaking.

Thick people who very probably are protesting too
much

It will only be a matter of time before someone kills themself due to the actions of these morons. Some may say well one less dirty nonce on the streets but what if it isn't the dirty nonce in question? What if it's their partner or child who has had to go to school or work after their parent/partner has been plastered all over Facebook? Can you imagine.

There is a justice system in this country for a reason. It might not be a perfect system but it's better than relying on these glory hunting idiots who do it for their own egos. The people who love them are often as thick or thicker than they are. Some of the groups even have t-shirts and merchandise made. It's sick. Nothing to do with protecting kids and all about inflating their ego.