"Paedophile hunters" in sheffield

Keep seeing these types of videos popping up on social media, it wasn't long ago there was one at Meadowhall tram stop.

Yesterday another has popped up in town centre;

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Just interested to see people's opinions about these vigilantes and "citizens arrest"... plus a bloke I'm sure a few of us are familiar with if you go to town wading in and assaulting him...

It's sad it's even a thing

The police tell the public not to do it, that this sort of thing should be left to them.

but it's well known how over-stretched they are and how remote the possibility of them ever catching these people is.

The 'creep catcher' didn't know Sheffield or he would never have arranged a meet so close to the Banker's Draft.

I don't like vigilantes but if the police can't or won't do the job then maybe it's justified.

It's sad it's even a thing

 

The police tell the public not to do it, that this sort of thing should be left to them.

but it's well known how over-stretched they are and how remote the possibility of them ever catching these people is.

Agreed.

I'm fairly conflicted on it.

Part of me thinks it's great if it prevents horrific abuse and stops criminals (any criminals) - fair play to the 'catchers'.

The other part of me thinks these things should be dealt with by the police, and that vigilantism is never a good thing.

I'll go with the above, it's sad this has to even exist.

Agree with most of the sentiment on here. Two issues that do concern me are:

- Vigilantes can't know if there is an ongoing police operation which they could compromise, with the risk of offenders escaping justice.

- I recall one example where 'the predator' turned out to be a young man with severe mental health issues, which the 'paedophile hunters' were not aware of and did not have the necessary skills/knowledge to deal with.

Once again, sad we have got to this as a society.

They call themselves vigilantes but actually although they trap them with the online chat etc they hand them over to the police to deal with along with the evidence. They don't actually take the law into their own hands.

I think it's a good thing and glad that people like this are out their trying to protect children.

I think it's a good idea. If someone was to do that to my daughter, I'd want someone to catch the scum.

Not only that, there's the people who class themselves as paedos ( the ones who don't do have any intension to meet with the young ones). These that are planning on meeting the youth like the man in the video are planning to go further into some kind of sexual relationship in my opinion.

That's where its wrong in my head.

Not sure how I feel about this to be honest....If it helps raise awareness in the police of certain individuals who they should keep an eye on then that's a good thing....However supposing the man that they caught in Sheffield is innocent? He's identifiable given his uniform; and unfortunately, even if he was interviewed by the police and they found no or insufficient evidence, then he would still have that stigma.

I wonder if people have sought legal redress for being wrongly targeted as a paedophile before? I would imagine so, as it's not something I'd like to be accused of.

From the ones I've seen it just seems to be an excuse for small men who like the sound of their own voice to act the hard man.

That bloke was attacked as a direct result of the "catcher" announcing to all and sundry the guy was a paedo what happens if he's wrong? if others start naming whoever they like as

a paedo?

No complaints here. None whatsoever. Some might argue that child molestation is a matter for the police, but where's the sense in waiting for the child to be molested when you're in a position to prevent it by exposing a troubled individual who poses a serious risk to children? I think it's commendable, more people should be doing it.

its a great service to the children and the community get rid of these sick perverts, get them exposed at every opportunity, if they apply to these websites then they are guilty no question.

I would discourage this type of vigilantism at every turn. There's so much that could go wrong, from being mistaken and defaming an innocent person to the risk of violence at being confronted. Civil courts would have all of the proof that they needed if there was a query about defamation; all they would need to do is to view the entrapment video clips. On top of that there's the risk that the method could be seen as sufficiently entrapment based that the video clips are of no evidential value which could compromise any criminal prosecution, producing none of the intended good consequences either.

I understand why people feel that they are a valid response, but I see so many holes and problems that I would urge anybody considering this sort of thing of taking their concerns to the police and letting them investigate instead.