ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Paedophile Hunters Admit Catching Predators Weighs On Their Mental Health

Paedophile Hunters Admit Catching Predators Weighs On Their Mental Health

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you see something else and it’s quite surprising"

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Hunting paedophiles can be an incredibly difficult task, as you're forcing yourself to engage with individuals with sick, twisted fantasies.

But while police task forces around the UK and the world get paid for the job, there are dozens of groups who do it all for the sake of keeping their community safe.

Despite this, these groups soldier on to keep their community safe; but it's difficult to imagine the things that they read on a weekly, sometimes daily basis.

"The hardest thing we deal with is [chatting to the paedophiles]," the person tells us. "It does get to you sometimes.

"Every now and then we'll have times where we take a break from what we're doing. We have about four or five of us maybe that might do chats and obviously if it's getting a bit much or if people feel like they're a bit run down then maybe one person will take a backseat."

There also appears to be no boundaries, no limitations, no depths of depravity that their targets won't try to seek out in their victims.

"Just when you think you've seen it all, you see something else and it's quite surprising," they tell us.

SWNS

This is the conversation between paedophile hunter Danny Catcher and a suspect

They made headlines around the UK when they became the group to catch the oldest paedophile. A 92-year-old man attempted to meet up with an 11-year-old girl for sex after grooming her in internet chatrooms. He told the 'girl' to wear 'something sexy' when they met up and sent her naked pictures.

While it weighs on them, it doesn't deter them.

"We're all parents, we've all got kids ourselves," they said. "I've got two who are around the ages that these people prey on and we just try to do what we can for the sake of our community.

"We spoke to people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who still suffer with anxieties and other problems after being abused as a child. They have to deal with this for the rest of their lives."

"So, we just want to push forward and try and stop something from happening to someone else."

Featured Image Credit: Creative Commons

Topics: Police, Paedophile, Interesting, crime, Community, UK