Transcript 1: ‘She told you she’s ten’... ‘I’m going to jail’
THE video begins with a shot of a man exiting his house in Drogheda, Co. Louth, and the light from a camera shining on him.
VIGILANTE MAN: ‘Are [sic] you been speaking to children online?’
SUSPECT: ‘Speaking to some girl there all right and says she’s 18 or 19 – just chatting just having a laugh, nothing bad. I’ve been talking to one girl there, she’s telling me she’s being bullied in school. I told her to tell her parents…’ VIGILANTE WOMAN: ‘You’re a saint there aren’t you, helping her?’
VIGILANTE MAN: ‘We are not here to harm you... My team are not here to harm you.’
SUSPECT: ‘Can I say something to you? I’ve done nothing wrong. I tried to help someone.’ VIGILANTE MAN: ‘We have evidence that you have been speaking to underage children online (inaudible)...’
SUSPECT: ‘I didn’t know that, mate – and that’s being honest with you, I’ve been talking to a few girls … if I was inappropriate, I apologise, I’ll stop talking to them.’
VIGILANTE MAN: ‘The youngest you’ve been speaking to is a tenyear-old child.’ SUSPECT: ‘Are you being serious?
VIGILANTE MAN: ‘Wait, wait, wait, you’re acting surprised here?
SUSPECT: ‘I talk to a few different people... if I have said something inappropriate I didn’t mean it, I was probably out of order. I may have had a few drinks on me.’ [The suspected paedo-
phile is later shown an online picture and asked if it’s him] SUSPECT: ‘That’s me, but that’s not my profile any more.’
VIGILANTE MAN: ‘The dialogue that I’ve got coming from that number, your number, is extremely sexual towards a ten-year -old child.’ VIGILANTE WOMAN: ‘Ten, 12, 13 and 14-year-old.’ SUSPECT: ‘Sorry, mate, I did not mean it like that.’
VIGILANTE MAN: ‘Wait, you’re telling this child to do sexual things online and you are inciting the fact that you want to meet these children.’
[Vigilante woman reads some of the dialogue to him, suspect asks her not to].
VIGILANTE WOMAN: ‘You have spoke to her first, “Hi, how are you doing? It would be great to meet up with you and have a friendly chat”... “I’m ten and I live in...” She has told you in her second message that she’s ten.’
SUSPECT: ‘It sounds stupid that… I done something stupid online.’
VIGILANTE WOMAN: ‘You have ruined your life.’
SUSPECT: ‘Have I? I’ve ruined my life.... If this has ruined my life, and I’m going to prison, then I’m going to Portlaoise [prison], am I?’