Paedophile convicted by evidence of sting operation loses court challenge

● Justices dismiss human rights appeal ● Private life defence inadmissible

A convicted paedophile has lost a Supreme Court challenge over the use in criminal prosecutions of evidence gathered by paedophile hunter groups in covert sting operations.

Yesterday, the UK’S highest court unanimously dismissed an appeal which argued using such evidence was a breach of an individual’s human rights.

It said the interests of children have priority over any interest a paedophile could have in being allowed to engage in criminal conduct.

Mark Sutherland was convicted in August 2018 of attempting to communicate indecently with an older child, and related offences, after evidence collected by a paedophile hunter group was handed to police.

He brought a Supreme Court challenge arguing his right to a private life, enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, had been breached.

The court was asked to rule on the issue of whether prosecutions based on evidence gathered in covert sting operations by paedophile hunter groups are compatible with a person’s human rights.

In the ruling, a panel of five justices unanimously dismissed Sutherland’s appeal and said the public prosecutor was entitled to introduce evidence obtained by a “decoy” at Sutherland’s trial to try to secure a conviction.

Announcing the court’s decision, Lord Sales said the court held there was “no interference with the accused’s rights” under Article 8 – which provides the right to a private life and correspondence. The court also found that Sutherland had “no reasonable expectation of privacy”.

Lord Sales said: “His communications were sent directly to the decoy. There was no prior relationship between the accused and the decoy from which an expectation of privacy could be said to arise.

“In addition, the accused believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old child, and it was foreseeable that a child of that age might share any worrying communications with an adult.”

The ruling says that in 2018, Sutherland matched up on Grindr with someone who, when he communicated with them, claimed to be a 13-yearold boy.

He sent sexual messages and images to the person and they later arranged to meet at Partick station, in Glasgow.

In reality, the person Sutherland was communicating with was not a child but a “decoy” – a member of a paedophile hunter group called “Groom Resisters Scotland”.

Two other members of the group confronted Sutherland at the arranged meeting, broadcasting the encounter on social media and handing the evidence to the police.