VIGILANTE GANG: WE’LL HUNT DOWN MORE IRISH PAEDOPHILES
Chilling warning from Belfast-based group...
THE leader of an Irish vigilante group has vowed to expose more alleged paedophiles – after posting videos on Facebook of confrontations with two men in Co. Louth.
The head of the group, which calls itself Silent Justice, pledged: ‘I am going to catch as many as I can and I am not going to stop.’
Silent Justice has confronted three Irish men in recent months after posing as underage children on internet
discussion boards. The vigilantes were heavily criticised in August after a man they confronted in Co. Antrim took his own life.
However, on Sunday, the group published further videos of two men in Drogheda – who, it is claimed, had sent ‘ extremely disturbing sexual images’ of themselves to fictitious children. Silent Justice said it pretended to be between ten and 14 years old when posing as these children online.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail from Belfast, the head of Silent Justice in Ireland, James O’Neill – which is not his real name – said: ‘There are thousands of paedophiles in Ireland, they are on every street corner.
‘Ireland needs to wake up – these men are everywhere. It’s all online now... This is their sexual orientation, they are attracted to children and that will never ever change.
‘It is like me asking you to turn a gay man into a straight man – it won’t happen.’
Mr O’Neill added that ‘ the only remedy is death’, and said that ‘ with regards to these guys, I believe in the death penalty’.
He continued: ‘We have 16 decoys working for us. If you went to make a cup of tea, we would find between 70 and 140 groomers during that time. That’s how fast it is and that’s how many there are’.
On Sunday, Mr O’Neill and colleagues went to Drogheda where they confronted two men – one of whom admitted on camera that he had sent images of his penis to what he believed was a child.
The man said he didn’t believe he was a paedophile because the fictional girl, who he believed was 14 years old, had agreed to sex, meaning it was ‘consensual’.
When he was told it was against the law, as the legal age for sex in Ireland is 17, he did not accept it was any sort of sexual assault.
The confrontation between Mr O’Neill and this man at a Drogheda bus depot had been viewed more than 600,000 times yesterday evening. The second video showed a man being confronted outside his home and had been viewed more than 140,000 times. The shocking footage was also broadcast live on Facebook at the time.
Gardaí spoke to two men in Drogheda station last night under caution after being contacted by the Silent Justice group. The men were not arrested but did provide statements under caution.
In a statement, gardaí said: ‘We are aware of two reported incidents and they are under investigation. No-one has been arrested.’
Senior sources say that ‘investigations are ongoing’, and that as part of the i nquiry, i t will be ‘decided whether to raid their homes, and attempt to take possession of their computers and any other relevant issues that arise’.
Security sources say that neighbours of one of the men were approached by vigilantes, and ‘ warned’ about him. A senior source said: ‘There is always a concern with vigilante-type behaviour. There could be an issue that these two men were not actually grooming young girls whatsoever – in fact, they were communicating with a 35-year-old woman.
‘The law will have to be examined closely in these cases. But we cannot yet second-guess the investiga- tion, and where it may go, as it only just got under way.’
Concerns have been raised about Silent Justice after a man in the North died by suicide after being confronted by Mr O’Neill and his team. The confrontation with the father-of-two from Co. Antrim was streamed online and he died two days later.
It was Mr O’Neill’s first sting operation with Silent Justice – but he said he has no regrets. ‘I never feel bad about this job,’ he said. ‘I don’t lose a wink of sleep over it and I didn’t worry about that man who died. He was an extremely dangerous online predator. So this is an extremely rewarding job when we catch them.’
Vigilante groups set up with the sole purpose of trying to catch or expose child sexual predators were established in the US and Canada more than a decade ago.
The groups pose as children, and connect with random men to see if they will respond in a sexual manner. The ‘child’ will tell the man what age they are, and if the conversation becomes sexual in nature or the man wants to meet the child, the paedophile hunter prepares the sting operation.
A file is prepared on the man and a date, time and location is established for the meeting.
Vigilante groups have been uncovering paedophiles in the UK for several years. Paedophile hunters came to public attention in 2013 when the British Midlandsbased group Letzgo Hunting carried out several sting operations that resulted in convictions.
Dark Justice, a two-man vigilante operation in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, claim to have aided 61 convictions of sex offenders, with 32 paedophiles receiving a jail sentence.
However, Letzgo Hunting – which is no longer an active group – faced
‘It’s an extremely rewarding job’
criticism after the suicide of a man it had confronted in public.
In May 2013, Gary Cleary, 29, was found hanged at his home in Leicestershire – four days after the group had accused him of grooming a child online. Police said that although Cleary was arrested and questioned, he had not been charged with any offences.
In 2014, Channel 4 released a documentary titled The Paedophile Hunter, which followed vigilante Stinson Hunter.
In an interview with ITV’s This Morning, Mr Hunter talked about the methods he uses when he tries to expose paedophiles on the internet.
He said: ‘We set up a profile with a girl who is over the age of 18, normally 21... always a friend of ours of someone who’s volunteered.
‘We get them to sign a consent to say that they’re happy for us to use that. We set the profile up, we just leave it there sitting and when someone messages us, they’ll message us first… I’ll respond, “Thanks for your message, I’d really like to chat but I’m actually only 13” – then it’s up to them.’