‘I enjoy seeing the fear in their faces. Hunting paedophiles is very rewarding’

JAMES O’Neill has been working as a ‘paedophile hunter’ for a number of years and describes it as ‘extremely rewarding’.

Mr O’Neill, who is from Belfast, had been trying to establish a group for many months without success before he joined Silent Justice.

He began working as a decoy in Birmingham and said he had a flair for catching online groomers.

He then met Danny Hurst who asked him to come and work with him and later became head of the Irish team.

Both ‘James O’Neill’ and ‘Danny Hurst’ are aliases used by the men, who refuse to reveal their real names, with Mr O’Neill noting, ‘We don’t tell anyone our real names.’

Mr Hurst, who was born in the UK, is the founder of Silent Justice which he set up in April this year.

James O’Neill came on board on August 2. His first sting involved a man who killed himself two days after being exposed by the group.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Mr O’Neill said: ‘No one knew about me for a long time. I was not involved in a group. I was working on my own in the North and I caught six in a ten- day period.

‘One of the individuals was a soldier. When that other man in Antrim took his own life, I never lost a wink’s sleep over it. He was a very dangerous online predator.

‘I was passing over the files to the PSNI and I wasn’t interfering in a case. They tried to squash what I was doing, but now they leave me alone because they know I know what I’m doing.

‘I done decoying in Birmingham and I caught a number of individuals and got continually frustrated, because there was no hunting group based i n the North.

‘So, again, I tried to set up one myself, but I met Danny and that’s how it worked.

‘We don’t tell anyone our real names. People seem to take to my methods well and the way I go about it. But there will always be people who don’t like it, but I don’t care.

‘We have 16 decoys. They talk to the men and you gauge the dialogue, if there is sexual content, it is sustained.

‘I don’t do a sting immediately, the chat could go on for six hours or days. I give it time.

‘I do my own background and check the laws of the country. If you have evidence of a crime you are allowed to make a citizen’s arrest with reasonable force.

‘The crime has been committed in their mind: they thought they were speaking to a child. Some people say “but there was no real child involved in this ”. My response is: would you say the same if it was a police decoy?

‘We are doing the exact same thing that the police claim they do. These claim to be trained professionals, but we are ten times faster.

‘Who is training who? Who is the professional here?

‘I am not here for anyone’s opinion, whether they agree or disagree. I don’t mean that in an ignorant way.

‘I am not there for the police. I am there to see the fear draining [sic] from the man’s face.

‘I find that enjoyable and very rewarding, they have caused damage in their own lives.

‘Paedophiles do not like a light being shone on them. You can’t put them in prison – they will still be paedophiles.’

Mr O’Neill said the motivation behind the group came after a member of Mr Hurst’s family was groomed online.

‘He took it very personal and it sent him off to try and protect other children.

‘I am a father and have full custody of my two children. I realise I am good at taking these individuals down. This is an extremely rewarding job.

‘On Sunday night, the gardaí said what we are doing is illegal.

‘This is the first time I’ve ever come across a gardaí [sic] who has ever said I’m doing something illegal without arresting me.

‘My response to that is: who is training who? The police and the gardaí have no idea what they are doing when it comes to this stuff. This is the only way to catch them.

‘There are a lot of individuals that do this wrong... I try to steer them the right way. Overall, their approach is wrong.’

He added: ‘We have decoys, and they are an online persona acting as a child.

‘These individuals, they initiate the conversation and in the first three messages they tell the man what age they are.

‘They make it very clear, so it’s not entrapment. You tell the man a number of times the real age of the child.

‘The youngest persona we have had was ten. That’s the youngest I’ve ever heard.

‘I never feel bad, I don’t lose a wink of sleep over it. It’s like me saying to you that I am going to stop straight people being straight. I’m going to turn them into being gay. ‘That can’t happen. ‘Being attracted to children – that can never be changed. It is a curse.

‘The only remedy for it is death. In regards to these guys, I believe in the death penalty.’

‘The police leave me alone now’