Judge slams ‘paedophile hunt’ group

A JUDGE criticised a ‘Wild West’ culture of paedophile-hunting as he spared a man who tried to groom underage girls from jail.

Christopher Bradford, 36, was attacked by members of vigilante group N-Force Justice – who had posed as 14-year-olds online in messages to him – in a confrontation live-streamed on the internet.

Members travelled more than 200 miles from Leeds and broke into Bradford’s girlfriend’s home in Swindon, where they are alleged to have beaten him up. Eight men were arrested after a report of an assault.

In the online exchanges where he believed he was talking to teenage girls, Bradford had asked them to call him ‘Daddy’, sent them sexualised messages about underwear, encouraged the exchanging of pictures and made plans to meet one of them at a cinema complex.

But after Bradford admitted at Swindon Crown Court to attempting to engage a child in sexual activity, Judge Robert Pawson slammed the ‘mob-handed’ vigilantes. He said: ‘They should have gone to the police. We do not live in some Wild West town where vigilantes can go round acting as self-appointed policemen.’

Bradford was yesterday ordered to abide by a four-month curfew, be subject to probation supervision, register as a sex offender and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.