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Peado Hunter Groups Given Green Light To Carry On

Peado Hunter Groups Given Green Light To Carry On

There's been a landmark legal ruling.

Mel Ramsay

Mel Ramsay

Paedophile hunting groups will be allowed to continue pretending to be children in order to catch out sexual predators.

These vigilante groups, such as Dark Justice, trawl the Internet and 'catfish' paedophiles by pretending to be children. Then, they ask them to 'meet up' in a public location and the groups confront the men. Once they've cornered them, they ring the police. There is no violence involved.


An example of a paedophile snare. Credit: SWNS

In the past, police have asked these groups to not attempt to snare paedophiles on their own, as this may compromise ongoing police investigations.

However, recently legal teams for two men who were caught out by Dark Justice claimed that the evidence gathered against their clients 'diminished the integrity of the court process'.

They added that the group should be subject to regulation to prevent the law from being 'evaded'. Also, any evidence gathered by them should not be used in court.

This made things very complicated, because if a judge ruled that evidence gathered by Dark Justice was not admissible in court on those grounds, similar cases all over the country may have collapsed.

Luckily, a judgement was given at Newcastle Crown Court which allowed the groups to carry on. Mr Justice Langstaff said there was no legal requirement for the activities by the group to be subjected to controls.


Dark Justice stats. Credit: Dark Justice

Justice Langstaff said that Dark Justice were acting as private individuals, not public authorities, and had not been asked by the police to snare paedophiles.

The judge said: "The police have neither expressly nor implicitly authorised members of Dark Justice to act as Covert Human Intelligence Sources, nor invited them expressly or implicitly to do so.

"The members of Dark Justice have acted as private citizens throughout.

"Authorisation of them by any public authority to act as a covert human intelligence source was and is not required by law.

"The provisions of RIPA are directed towards the behaviour of public authorities rather than private citizens. There is no legal requirement for their activities to be subject to any of the controls that might have been a condition of authorisation."


Dark Justice stats. Credit: Dark Justice

Several cases were on hold pending the ruling of these particular cases. Now, they will continue.

Dark Justice told Metro: "We are member of the public and have never been employed by the police or any government agency.

"We do this because we are concerned citizens who worry about the future of our children.

"If we weren't proactively catching these people it would be real children, real victims. We do not entrap people or encourage any sort of behaviour.

"We are simply members of the public who are exercising our rights and are fighting for change. Dark Justice will continue - every child deserves to be safe."


Dark Justice stats. Credit: Dark Justice

Detective Superintendent Michael Barton said that the police force neither works with, nor endorses, the activities of paedophile hunter groups.

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Topics: Paedophile, Hunting