HERO OR RECKLESS VIGILANTE?
The man on the right is Stephen, who posed as a child online to snare this paedophile. He’s one of a growing number of ordinary citizens who say they’re doing the police’s job for them. But is he a . . .
whom he’s close to, thought he’d gone mad at first. ‘I was doing it for nothing. now they are really proud of me.’ He adds: ‘I know close friends who have been abused and have seen the impact it has.
‘I get angry when people try to argue against us and say “leave it to the police”. Well, the police aren’t doing enough.’
After following the exploits of other hunters for months, in February he decided to start a group. He bought a £50 decoy phone and later recruited two friends to film the stings and scout the locations. now there are four members of TrAP community, and last week Dure launched an arm of his group in northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, this summer, Home Secretary Amber rudd issued a £20 million grant to extend an initiative where detectives infiltrate chat rooms and forums, much like the hunters. The funding was preceded by a year-long pilot, led by norfolk Police, where 43 people were arrested and 19 charged. But those figures are dwarfed by groups such as Dark Justice — run by just two people — who claim 130 arrests and 61 convictions in less than three years.
cain Watson, a 31-year- old taxi driver from Gateshead, splits his time between navigating the quickest routes through newcastle and hunting paedophiles for Guardians Of The north.
Like Dure, he agrees theirs is a complex line of work but argues that the few who don’t follow a strict code of ethics — eschewing violence and working to ensure convictions — risk ruining it for the many who do.
Guardians Of The north was established in April last year and is made up of seven women and three men, including Watson. They command a Facebook following of more than 65,000 and Watson estimates they’ve caught 150 sexual predators in the past 16 months. They are also taking steps to having members checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Watson describes a case of theirs that caused real children to come forward and make statements against an individual.
‘We want the public to know 100 per cent we are doing it for the kids,’ he says.
Watson, who was a victim of abuse himself, first heard about the group after they ambushed someone he went to school with.
‘ Someone suggested being involved might bring me closure. I do feel much better about myself. As long as they are talking to us, who knows how many children are potentially being saved?’
His first sting as a decoy earlier this year was his most memorable: ‘The adrenaline was pumping. When you see them you immediately think of the videos and things they’ve sent to what they think is a child. I have no doubt this guy I caught was talking to others online. [catching him] was a level of satisfaction I had never experienced.’
He SAYS they and Dark Justice, which also operates around newcastle, have worked hard to establish a good relationship with the police.
‘It has got to the point where there is a standard way of doing things. Most of the police officers on call have dealt with us before and know exactly how it works. On record, they have to tell us to stop doing what we’re doing. But we’ve seen officers out of uniform, and been contacted by officers from other forces and ex-police officers who’ve said it’s brilliant, carry on. They praise us unofficially.’
Both Dure and Watson say they would work more closely with the police if that were an option, and foresee a change coming soon. According to Dure, things could come to a head before then.
‘One day a hunter will die doing this,’ he says. ‘They know what we are up to now. Someone will come with a weapon.’
Jim Gamble, former head of the child exploitation and online protection centre (ceOP), says: ‘I understand why members of the public become so frustrated that they resort to doing this work themselves. There are far too few police, far too many offenders and the maths doesn’t work out.’
He calls for a nationwide police campaign to recruit volunteer special constables to be trained as digital detectives. They’d be a ‘citizen army’ working in police stations under their supervision.
‘Why couldn’t the butcher, the baker, candlestick maker, librarian or Tesco supervisor volunteer?
‘If vetting and a psychological assessment demonstrates they have the right attitude and strength of character, why wouldn’t we train them and support these public-minded citizens to engage in making everyone safer?’