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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask what you think about paedophile hunting groups?

98 replies

MumMumMumm · 03/01/2019 10:47

Since the channel 4 Stinson Hunter documentary in 2015(?) It's everywhere isn't it. Social media is full of copycat groups who pose online as child decoys and track down suspected sex offenders, some of the group's are well organised and relatively 'professional' but some not so much.

Overall I do think it's good that people are taking a stand against potential SA, but I can't help but feel sorry for the wives/families of those who get 'stung' as the videos are live streamed to the thousands before the police have even had chance to look at the evidence.

Thoughts?

OP posts:

ShoppingList123 · 03/01/2019 12:43

To be fair to the group's they do seem to make sure there evidence is 100% before confronting. They never instigate conversation and make the decoys age known straight away and continue to repeat it throughout the conversation. They don't engage in sexual chat either. Of course they could be just saying this but they print out and screenshot all chat logs so would they take the risk of lying ?

ShoppingList123 · 03/01/2019 12:44

Groups. Their

CripsSandwiches · 03/01/2019 12:45

They just love the drama and feeling of self righteousness. Leave it to the police.

Hello2019 · 03/01/2019 12:46

I've found an article about it - apologies the boy was 14 not 13. It was a suspended sentence, the vigilante group made a big deal about him being spared jailed.. see below.

"Sentencing him to 12-months behind bars, suspended for two years, Judge Gary Burrell QC told that his wife standing by him was one of the factors that had spared him an immediate jail term.

The judge said: "You have the support of your family.
"In particular, your wife who states, 'I still love my husband and want to support him through the difficult time he is going through, including working on our marriage'.

"In this case there were no real victims. Nevertheless you did not know that and you thought you were in contact with a 14-year-old boy.
"You sent photos which was a particularly stupid thing to do."
"You are very lucky to have that support from your wife. She has stood by you in these most difficult of circumstance"

Shamalamalam · 03/01/2019 12:46

I don’t like them, but it totally depends on the group

One of the big groups confronted someone locally, did it all by the book and passed everything to the police rather than plastering it all over Facebook - bloke was convicted.

Off the back of that a group set themselves up here and they had absolutely no idea what they were doing

Live-streamed themselves on Facebook confronting their suspect at home, showed his house, his kids and his wife

It was awful for his poor wife and kids who had no idea what he was up to - their house was vandalised and his wife was targeted and they jeopardised any court case.

easyandy101 · 03/01/2019 12:47

Going but any video I've every seen they appear to groom mentally ill people and it's all for views rather than any sense of duty to the community.

I've known a couple of people involved with this and they, in particular, are not genuine at all

What do you call someone who willingly surrounds themselves with child sex? A pedophile hunter

Daffodils07 · 03/01/2019 12:48

Someone I know husband has just been caught by hunters.
The thing is they got him right outside his childrens school.
And repeated to him that you have children that go to 'that' school.
I'm not totally against these hunters if doing it for the right reason and lawfully.
But it's the families esp children(that have no idea and have done nothing) that if they do what these hunters did above will now most likely have problems with peers,neighbours and people that just want to be nasty.

BlancheM · 03/01/2019 12:50

Hello the wife might have seemed lovely to you but she's revealed her true nature in standing by her husband. Birds of a feather flock together.
I'm disgusted but not surprised in the least by the judge's surmising.

PushHop · 03/01/2019 12:55

I've never seen the problem until an old classmate was targeted last year. They filmed it all, him arriving at the set-up spot etc and posted it all over social media. He was arrested. His family were immediately defending him, saying it was a case of mistaken identity. The hunters said absolutely not and they had proof they were willing to post. And then he was released without charge because there was no evidence and the hunters deleted their video. No apology though. He wasn't a friend of mine but was harmless, he has SEN and was an easy target. I felt awful for him. It genuinely was mistaken identity.

Constipatedcat · 03/01/2019 12:57

There was a Facebook local 'sting' last year. The same evening some dickhead put a brick through an elderly neighbour's window.
They are glory hunters on a power trip.

CallMeSirShotsFired · 03/01/2019 12:57

not surprised in the least by the judge's surmising.

Shock horror, male judge gives leniency to male accused
Hardly new news (see how many male rapists have been portrayed as the poor hard done by innocent lambs! If only their pesky victim hadn't been asking for it etc)

Nicknacky · 03/01/2019 12:59

callme

Several of my accused recieved similar sentences by female sheriffs. They have sentencing guidelines they have to apply, not personal opinion.

CaptainMarvelDanvers · 03/01/2019 13:00

My cousin is a member of one, he’s not very bright and he wants to be famous. He also has an half-brother who beat his girlfriend half to death and said cousin went on Facebook defending him and slagging her off.

The type of people getting involved in these things is more to do with them than it is protecting the rest of society.

I don’t have much sympathy for the people getting caught, though I do feel sorry for their families. There was someone not too far from me whose husband got caught and was arrested. Not even an hour after it was live streamed there was mob outside her house while she had young children inside. She and children are victims too.

BlancheM · 03/01/2019 13:06

Nick, I assume that callme was talking about UK law. We have sentencing guidelines which must be adhered to also, but the judge's words quoted here were his opinion. He actually sees the female partner standing by as a positive and used it to apply leniency rather than believe she was actually putting any children of hers in a vulnerable position, open to abuse.

Nicknacky · 03/01/2019 13:12

Blanche Every summing up has opinion of sorts in it, they can’t read verbatim from a script.

My point was that the poster had said that he wasn’t jailed BECAUSE he had family standing by him when rightly so, it was one of the factors that was taken into account when it comes to sentencing.

My other issue was the poster (call me) who was made a comment about it being a male judge. That was what I was referring to when I mentioned personal opinion.

GirlfriendInAKorma · 03/01/2019 13:27

One of these groups 'caught' someone in our small town. The guy they caught had learning difficulties... which obviously adds huge complexities to the situation.

His family (who are lovely) suffered a lot of abuse off the back of it and I don't think his mum has ever really recovered from it.

BlancheM · 03/01/2019 14:34

Nick, PP was correct though. It's no secret that the UK criminal justice system is still deeply patriarchal and misogynistic.

Wordthe · 03/01/2019 21:53

Judge Gary Burrell QC told that his wife standing by him was one of the factors that had spared him an immediate jail term
the fact that his wife stood by him just tells us that he is very manipulative
so the judge is saying that because this paedophile is particularly clever and good at gaslighting we shouldn't punish him

NameChanger22 · 03/01/2019 21:59

It would be better if the police did a bit more to catch them, but the police seem a bit too busy for crime. Maybe take some police away from football matches, let the football companies pay for their own security and put the police back where they belong.

Hoopaloop · 03/01/2019 22:09

They seem to be about one level above the people they are hunting.

Nicknacky · 03/01/2019 22:11

namechanger The officers who execute the search warrants for these offences are not the officers you see at football matches. I do many search warrants every year for these crimes and I haven’t worked a football match in nearly ten years.

Letsmoveondude · 03/01/2019 22:33

I’m sort of unsure about them.
I feel uncomfortable that they are adults pretending to be children for the purposes of what they do. It just seems like something complete sleazeballs would use as an excuse to live out their fantasies. I honestly wouldn’t trust anyone involved in it.

But then, my attitude has changed somewhat, there was a man about 10 years ago, who befriended my sister (my sister had a picture of my DD as her profile pic on Facebook- my DD was only about 1) so he’s hanging around her, getting her into clubs, and it’s clear that he has a circle of young girls around him all with similar situations. He started to say to my sister, how about you offer to babysit for your niece, I’ll come round with a couple of bottles of wine and help you. This was a man in his late 30s, all a bit suspect- and my sister wasn’t allowed to babysit my daughter anyway. But it was strange, I went on his Facebook from my sisters page and found some comments about being allowed someone in his flat because she was over16 or something.

My sister refused to believe that he was weird and I was just being a horrible bitch of course. He disappeared a while after but was known to hang around very young girls and call them all his nieces... early last year he was caught by a group of paedophile hunters. It turns out that he had been doing the same thing for absolute years and in quite a few different areas, he will be in prison for quite some time as he bit one of the hunters fingers off, and many in the local area know exactly what he’s been up to.

EmeraldShamrock · 04/01/2019 01:36

Hello2019 That is horrendous. I am grateful these hunters exposed him. A pp said the hunters are as bad as the peados, Not in my eyes, not even a tiny bit.
I don't know how she can stick by him. I truly trust DP of 13 years but if something like this came to light and there was proof, I would kick him to the curb, he would not see our DC again, I would fight him tooth and nail. Sexual abuse effects children for decades.
There is no way I would stand by someone who could do this.

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