PAEDOPHILE hunters are becoming an ever greater feature in police child grooming investigations — despite top cops warning that vigilante groups could ruin evidence.
But who are these groups of perv-snaring volunteers and how popular are they becoming, They often pose as underage children and wait for potential paedophiles to get in touch.
Key to the process is clearly spelling out that the “child” is underage, so it is vital that a paedophile hunter makes an obvious that the “child” is very young.
Messages tend to be saved both with screenshots and with digital chat logs to provide concrete evidence that what was said during online conversations was actually said.
Next in their process is to gather evidence of grooming. It is vital that hunters do not appear to be “fishing” for salacious comments, so they wait until the suspected groomer makes worrying advances on their own.
Paedophile hunters often snare their targets by allowing them to arrange a meeting with the “child.
What have the police said about paedophile hunters?
Top police officers have warned in the past that vigilante paedophile hunters should stop because they risk tampering with probes into child grooming.
But in September 2017 a top child protection cop said investigators may have to consider working with the groups.
Figures revealed a huge increase in the number of cases where evidence gathered by paedophile hunters is being used.
More than 44 per cent of cases of meeting a child following sexual grooming used this evidence in 2016, compared to just 11.3 per cent in 2014.
But Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, in charge of child protection at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, still said vigilantes put kids’ lives at risk.
He said: “I don’t condone their activities and would encourage them to stop, but I recognise I am not winning that conversation.
“I think (working with vigilantes) is something we’re going to have to potentially look at.”
Mr Bailey warned that paedophile hunters could hamper existing police operations.
He said: “They don’t take into consideration the safeguarding risks to children.
“So I don’t believe that vigilantes are the answer to this problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment