Vigilante paedophile hunters boost number of child sex convictions
Protestors chant slogans during a demonstration on August 5, 2013 in Kenitra against the pardon by King Mohamed VI of Morocco of a Spanish paedophile, Daniel Fino Galvan, who raped 11 local children. Vigilante groups operate all over Britain and are increasingly responsible for child sex convictions. PHOTO | FADEL SENNA | AFP
What you need to know:
- Police have admitted, reluctantly, that they may have to work with the vigilantes on a systematic basis in the future.
- Lawyers for men caught by paedophile hunters have argued that the vigilantes should be subject to regulation.
A man seeking sex with children goes online and comes across posts from Roxy, aged 14, with whom he chats eagerly.
The conversation grows ever more explicit and eventually a meeting is arranged.
But when the man arrives, he is greeted not by a teenage schoolgirl but by a man who announces himself as a paedophile hunter, films him with a video camera and calls the police.
POLICE
Vigilante groups operate all over Britain and are increasingly responsible for child sex convictions.
Two men in the north of England who go by the name Dark Justice have secured 42 criminal convictions.
Nationwide, figures obtained by the BBC show that while vigilante evidence was used in only 11 percent of court cases in 2014, the figure for 2016 was 44 percent.
Police have admitted, reluctantly, that they may have to work with the vigilantes on a systematic basis in the future.
FAKE PROFILES
Chief Constable Simon Bailey believes such freelance “detectives” compromise police operations, but when asked if police could work with them, he said, “That’s something we’re going to have to look at.”
The paedophile hunters point out that the fake profiles they put online leave no doubt that they are meant to be children.
Last week, David Taylor, 45, from Trowbridge was jailed for 40 months after being caught by a vigilante who pretended to be an 11-year-old girl.
Police traced Taylor from a video of the confrontation the vigilante posted on Facebook.
REGULATION
Southampton-based Steven Dure posed as a boy of 14 when chatting to Robert Babey, who was arrested and admitted multiple breaches of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He is to be sentenced later this month.
Lawyers for men caught by paedophile hunters have argued that the vigilantes should be subject to regulation, but a top judge said there was no legal requirement for their activities to be subject to controls.
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British MPs are being subjected to unprecedented levels of abuse, vandalism, online intimidation and even death threats.
The General Election of June 8 was the worst ever, with 87 percent of MPs polled by the BBC saying they had faced some form of abuse on the campaign trail.
A woman Labour MP said a man came into her office and threatened to bomb it; the Conservative campaign office in Mansfield was covered with posters saying “Tory Scum”; an MP for one of the smaller parties said he had “a bottle smashed on me;” a Conservative MP said she had been “threatened to be put in a coffin,” and a Labour MP said, “I was called an IRA terrorist in front of my wife and seven-year-old boy.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
One MP said her windows were broken three times and another had Nazi swastikas scrawled over her campaign posters.
British politics has always been robust, with noisy street meetings, heckling and harangues from voters.
But the rise of social media has seen insults take on a nastier and more personal edge under the cloak of anonymity.
WOMEN
A Scottish National Party woman MP reported online graphics with images of false expenses claims, and a female Conservative reported “misogynist comments and sexual abuse”.
She said, “My children saw this and were disgusted.”
Women and ethnic minority candidates get the worst abuse, according to House of Commons authorities, who are trying to find ways to protect them.
A spokesman said MPs were offered advice on keeping themselves safe, but away from Parliament, their safety was the responsibility of local police forces.
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DEATH
Canadian George Spear met his English wife, Jean, at a London dance hall in 1941 when his regiment was based in Britain during the Second World War.
He asked her to dance and she looked at his army boots and said, “What, with those clodhoppers!”
But dance they did and later they married and George took his bride to live in Canada.
Last month, they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. Last Friday, Jean, aged 94, was admitted to an Ottawa hospital with pneumonia.
Next day, George, 95, was admitted to the same hospital and fell into a deep sleep.
She died at 4.30 am and he died five hours later.
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An American sports reporter doing a story on playing surfaces for gridiron football asked a player which he preferred, grass or Astroturf.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I ain’t never smoked Astroturf.”
A Sunderland fan walks into a bar with his dog just as the football results come up on the TV screen. His team has lost 3-0.
The fan’s dog immediately falls on its back, paws in the air and plays dead. "That’s amazing,” the barman says.
“What does he do when Sunderland win?” “I don’t know,” the fan says, “I’ve only had him for eight months.”
Football fan: “When I die and go for judgement, I will be sure to wear the shirt of my club (name your own), so God will know I have already been to hell.”
