“Paedophile hunters”

[Yellowdaffodilss]

I remember quite a few years ago now, these paedophile hunter’s started appearing on social media. Videos of them meeting people who had been talking to what they believed were underage children. I remember thinking , oh wow they’re out there protecting our children. Maybe a naive view , I don’t know.

But now , more and more , I see it becoming a regular thing and I am seeing time and time again that the so called predators they catch ( not all the time, there are times that they are grown adults knowing what they’re doing ) are very clearly people with additional needs / autism. I find it disturbing to watch - I have seen young adults panicking and not really knowing what they’re doing or the implications . It’s clear that the messages in the videos I have seen are between the “ culprit” and an ‘underage child’ discussing meeting up , when yes they have been clear they are underage but it is also clear that it has not been sexual talk and these people are not understanding that what they are doing is wrong.

I remember years ago my sister and her friend talking to a lad of around 19. My sister and her friend were chatting and asking if the lad liked the friend and he was inviting them around to his house for a sleepover and to watch movies. ( my sister told my mom as she was worried ) I went through all the messages and could see it was not sexual . This lad thought they were friends . I looked at his profile and he was clearly autistic and his emotional and mental age was probably the same as my sister and her friend. I spoke to his mother who was so thankful that I messaged and confirmed he was quite severely autistic.

My son is autistic and always been drawn to girls as friends rather than boys . He also always gets on with those younger because he is on their level more. He wouldn’t even know how to talk sexually - he’s got a very limited understanding. I can’t stop him having a phone , he’s now 18 . Luckily I’m very aware and have spoken to him about this and keep tabs on him but it’s very hard. This kind of thing really worries me.

It makes me think whether these groups are doing more harm than good. They’re outing people publicly , and for those who are vulnerable with no understanding then it could do so much harm. I get that parents should be monitoring phone use but quite frankly not all parents do.

I do also wonder - can charges be made if there is no ‘real’ victim - it’s an adult they’re talking to … I guess it could get the culprits investigated more and maybe find out more things but other than that is it not just vigilante behaviour? And also , is their real good intention there from all of them or is it a case of getting social media famous ? Could it even be that they target those who they can see are more vulnerable as it will be an easy ‘catch’ ?

I watch a group that find paedophiles and confront them at their homes. They have alerted police too so wait with the person until the police arrive. They have a log of the chat between the adult and the child. They are very successful in that those they meet are always arrested and a lot convicted. The ones I’ve seen the hunters are as polite as they can be and always make sure the person is safe and will help them if they need it. But at the end of the day most of these men have a long history of child grooming on line. I saw one where the man admitted he’d been grooming and meeting up with children for years. I guess it depends on who you watch but the hunters I see do everything by the book. There’s no violence whatsoever and despite being in front of these men manage to keep their cool. As a survivor of csa myself I welcome the time that is put into finding these men. Being ND can’t be an excuse for befriending and sexually chatting to a child knowing full well they are under age. It’s abhorrent and disgusting on all levels.

Even though I have outlined that there are positives (and negatives) to the predator hunters, I have to say that if the police did their job and dedicated more time and funding to finding, convicting and preventing and punishing genuine, active paedophiles, if the system was good and the offenders engaged in therapy and prevention methods and the padeophiles monitored and dealt with fairly and adequately, it would be so much better for everyone.
In the real world this does not happen. The police mostly do not want to comment on their lack of attentiveness for obvious reasons, but I've watched a very good (probably BBC) documentary that narrates and explores their inadequacies and flaws of the system. You can tell it is a true account because they admit failures but do demonstrate the actions they are taking simultaneously.
Offenders of these offences are not checked up on properly and sexual harm prevention orders are not applied rigorously and are often sporadic. Not fair!!!!!

The hunters only tend to show the worst of the worst, as a. They get more views, and b. The less sexual ones often back out of meeting up. I believe Stinson hunter in his early days caught one who wasn’t being sexual, he still got a criminal record.

No the whole thing needs to culminate in a meet to trigger police action there and then….. handing over a few transcripts of conversations isn’t enough….. the meet up with the ‘child’ has to happen for a stronger conviction, hence they go through with meeting and call police once it’s active

I know this isn’t what this chat is directly about but I don’t think pedophiles can change. It’s like being gay or straight. You can’t change your attraction to young children if that’s how you feel. Therapy won’t work.

Might not have been sexual in nature but he still may have been breaking bail cobnfitions or similiar…. We aren’t privy to the full story

Record the meet-up and hand footage into police. There is no need to post it online. You’re missing the point.

This begs a different question here - if someone says they’re older but aren’t … is there a crime?

I mean there is a crime in black and white - underage and over the age - but how old was your friends son , how old did he believe the girl was - was their anything to say that she wasn’t ?

It’s like the stories you hear of men meeting women in clubs , sleeping with them finding out they’re underage . If an 18 year old goes to a club , meets a girl who says she’s 18 and sleeps with her then finds out she is 15 - is he a paedophile ? I find that so scary ! Not for me , but in general.

I knew of someone in school who was 15 and was sleeping with a 19 year old. This was before social media , she did not look 15 . She told him she was 18. She got pregnant , he didn’t want a baby , she then told him she was 16 ( at this point she was ) , he broke up with her and she threatened to phone the police on him and report him .

Well obviously but if it was handled in the correct way (ie by trained professionals not fame hungry, internet morons) then by the time it reached the press the evidence would be out there and a fair verdict given. Live Facebook stings by untrained idiots who often don’t have a brain cell between them and are doing it for all the wrong reasons…it’s not fair on anyone. Including the victims.

He had no previous convictions which helped in him getting such a light sentence. It was public info.

Presumably a police officer could be there at the meet instead of a bunch of bullies. Still shows the same intent.

The idea that sex offenders get any better with therapy or intervention is for the birds. Most of them reoffend, and therapy tends to make them worse. It’s rather like therapy for domestic abuse, it makes for a more manipulative offender (my view)

No, that wouldn’t be considered a crime in the eyes of the law. It’s a bit like how these hunters lie they’re 10/11 but really are in their thirties and forties. While it’s a lie, the intent is there. The first is a lie but intent is not shown.

There's one group that does that.

They went to a station i cover at work. Sat down with cops and then handed over files, print outs, USB sticks then left the station. Cops who dealt with them were amazed & impressed with the sheer amount of work they'd done

Thats the way it should be done.

The lack of reading comprehension on this thread is a good example of why vigilante justice is problematic

Posters who are jumping straight to "well if they say sexual stuff" when it was clearly stated it was about non sexual talk, reading "he talked about sexual fantasies" with no elaboration to be "he fancies children" etc

I don’t either .

I remember years ago watching a tv show with a paedophile who said he hated the way he felt , that he hadn’t acted on anything and was scared he would as it felt overwhelming so he went to the police and asked to be locked away and was told they couldn’t do anything because he hadn’t done anything . He told them he felt like if he had the chance he wouldn’t be able to stop himself and they said they couldn’t lock him away .

I don’t think the vigilantes care about children. They like violence and a feeling of power, being the big I am etc, plus I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them need their own hard drives looking at tbh.

Lots of cases where it is absolutely clear that older party is at fault. This is one of the oldest excuses “she did not look 14”. Men who are adults are expected to work it out. Not this kind of excuse

Absolutely !

Ultimately, claiming any sort of condition as a defence to a crime generally won’t wash. Prisons have lots of people who identify as ND. They get the same sentence as a NT counterpart and that’s right, IMO. The victim of whatever crime has been committed isn’t less affected because of the perpetrator’s medical history.

If you know right from wrong, are capable of forming and maintaining a secretive and abusive relationship and can take steps to stay under the radar (thus showing you know you’re doing something wrong), then no claims of any condition should be allowed in mitigation.

I’m not sure who you have watched but certainly doesn’t sound like the group I watch. They have already alerted the police before they knock the door. They hand all the evidence they have over to the police as soon as the police arrive. None of their faces or identities are revealed on camera. They take special care not to make a big public show of what they are doing so the person they are speaking to are kept as safe as possible. But at the end of the day these monsters deserve everything they get. The young lives that have been ruined by these men is more than you and I can comprehend.

Oh please! Such ignorance about learning disability on this thread. They may not understand what they aresaying but have seen it elsewhere, they may not understand that one number is bigger than another and that means the person is older/younger.
No one is saying disabled people should get away with grooming or abusing children.

Right, ok, but why does it have to end up on social media? The answer is, it doesn’t. They do that because they’re nothing more than attention seekers with too much time on their hands. They could film the meet up and hand all their evidence over to the police rather than make it public.

It’s still considered grooming as the child is underage even if it’s not dirty chat

I’m on the fence. I see your point totally. But I also think when the evidence has been there for a long time and police are taking too long to make arrests, courts are too long to come to trial how many more kids are getting abused while they get their evidence that at times is staring them in the face . I get all the issues all the services are faced with I really but it’s not good enough. Children need protected and these vigilant groups some will show evidence of reporting the nonce to police and police not acting on it at all. So I see why the feel they need to sort it themselves too. Think if it was your child being targeted, you would want immediate action.