Police criticise paedophile hunters despite prosecutions

POLICE chiefs have accused vigilante paedophile hunters of exceeding the law, despite using their evidence to prosecute suspects in more than half of all cases.

Senior officers have criticised the online groups – who pose as children in order to ensnare predatory paedophiles – and claimed some are guilty of offences such as blackmail, extortion and violence.

But despite these reservations, figures reveal the extent to which police forces rely on evidence gathered by such groups to catch offenders.

According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, 403 people were prosecuted in 2018 for the offence of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

More than 250 of those were charged following evidence gathered by paedophile hunting groups. In some police force areas, it accounted for 100 per cent of cases.

Convictions for grooming offences have increased more than five-fold since 2013, suggesting the emergence of paedophile hunter groups is helping to bring dangerous predators to justice.

In 2013, there were just 68 people convicted of grooming offences, but by 2018 that figure had risen to 359. Despite this, Asst Chief Constable Dan Vajzovic, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on online child abuse groups, expressed concerns about the way the groups operated.

He suggested some were even committing offences themselves, including extortion, blackmail and violence against those they were targeting.

Mr Vajzovic suggested some of the prosecutions were diverting police resources away from more serious offenders.

He said: “When these groups say they are acting in the interests of children, largely they are acting in their own interests, [with] their selfaggrandisement and their desire to exercise force against so-called perpetrators of child abuse.

“They don’t put measures to safeguard children, they don’t put in measures to identify other offenders who may be connected to the people they are targeting. They are more interested in putting a video online of them carrying out a sting.”

A spokesman for the NSPCC expressed concern that the groups were forcing suspects underground, rather than bringing them out into the open.

He said: “Despite their best intentions, their actions might put more children at risk of harm by driving offenders underground, endangering ongoing police work and the legal process, or result in innocent people being targeted.”