Paedophile hunters and vigilante justice

A former MP was arrested on Saturday following a sting operation by amateur "paedophile hunters".

Sussex Police confirmed they had a 66-year-old suspect in custody after "footage circulating on social media" showed "a man in Brighton being detained on suspicion of engaging in online sexual communications with a child". The 30-minute "confrontation" was live-streamed on Facebook, said Brighton and Hove News. The man has not been charged.

The case has highlighted the role of amateur law enforcement groups and the ethical implications of putting vigilantes on the frontline in the battle against child sex abuse.

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Supporters see them as a valuable resource that could be harnessed by police to become, with support and guidance from the authorities, an even more effective force for good.

To their detractors – who include many child safeguarding professionals – these groups are a menace. Their amateur stings can potentially tip off paedophiles and give them time to destroy crucial evidence.

How do online paedophile hunter groups work?

Dozens of paedophile hunter networks operate across the UK, under names such as London Overwatch, Predator Exposure, Dark Justice, Creep Catchers and Letzgo Hunting.

Volunteers create fake profiles on social media sites or messaging apps and pose as underage children. To abide by laws against entrapment, they wait to be approached and do not try actively to turn the conversation towards sex.

After laying the groundwork with weeks or even months of online chat, the sting operation culminates when the would-be predators suggest meeting up for sex. Expecting to meet their underage prey, they are greeted instead by members of the vigilante posse armed with chat logs.

These encounters are generally filmed and in some cases viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, as vigilantes verbally confront and harangue their targets while they wait for police to arrive.

How many convictions are secured this way?

Figures published by the BBC in 2019 demonstrate how online "paedo hunter" communities have become instrumental in convicting child sex offenders.

A call for information in 2018 – the most recent year detailed data on the impact of paedophile hunters in the UK has been released – revealed that of the 403 people prosecuted for attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming that year, 252 of those cases involved evidence gathered by paedophile hunting groups.

The number of cases involving paedophile hunter evidence had more than tripled in the space of two years – rising from 57 in 2016 to 179 in 2018 – while the proportion of cases involving this evidence had also grown, from less than 25% of cases in 2016 to more than 60% of cases in 2018.

Despite deep reservations from the policing and legal communities, the growing number of convictions involving volunteer evidence is testament to serious efforts in the paedophile-hunting community to make sure their work is professional and lawful.

What's wrong with leaving it to the police?

Many amateur groups see themselves as an unofficial auxiliary to overstretched and underfunded police forces, and – contrary to the stereotypes of angry mobs "taking the law into their own hands" – aim to ape the authorities as closely as possible.

Yet their tactics often exceed the boundaries of the law, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for online child abuse activist groups, Assistant Chief Constable Dan Vajzovic, told the BBC.

He warned some were "perpetrating offences including extortion, blackmail and exhibiting violence against those that they are targeting", while these prosecutions "diverted police resources from more significant offenders".

This argument has been seized upon by the vigilante groups and their supporters, who say that they are eager to work more closely with the police.

What can go wrong?

The dangers posed by vigilantes also extend beyond the actual point of confrontation. Videos of such showdowns accrue thousands of views, likes and shares online, usually accompanied by a stream of heated comments.

Last year The Spectator reported a member of London Overwatch claiming the live-stream interview with the suspect while they wait for policy to arrive "is an essential part of the process – the shame of being outed as a paedophile discourages would-be future offenders".

But many fear that publicly "outing" suspected paedophiles against this backdrop could expose suspects and their families to retaliation and encourage further amateur witch-hunts. Naming and shaming suspects who have not been charged or convicted has particularly worrying ethical ramifications.

A father-of-three had his life "ruined" after being wrongly accused of being a paedophile in a sting, said the Lancashire Post. Unable to go home to his wife and children or stay with relatives, "he was left to return to his barber shop where he holed up in a tiny toilet room for four days fearing gangs would break into his shop and attack him".

Other cases include people being misidentified and wrongly arrested. In June 2023, two "paedophile hunters" became the first in the UK to receive prison sentences for vigilantism, after they forced a father to the ground and "berated and humiliated" him live on the internet, said the BBC.

As well as the inherent dangers of mixing inflammatory allegations with vigilante justice, there are risks that volunteers' amateur techniques or imperfect knowledge of the law could let criminals slip through the net.

Last November, the Police Service of Northern Ireland warned paedophile hunters were slowing down police investigations and could even prevent criminal justice outcomes.

It follows concerns over the type of evidence gathered by these groups, which "leaves potentially serious offenders free to move away without any legal controls on their movements or where they can seek employment disappearing without trace", said Belfast Live.