The Paedophile Hunter.

[BigAdz]

On the one hand I think vigilante-ism is wrong, on the other hand I kind of admire this guy and other vigilantes. He is only trying to save kids.

Essentially though it just shows that the police/government aren't good enough at both finding and punishing these sick people.

Think this is the key point.  The vigilantes would be out of a job if the state did their job well enough and devoted enough resources to it.

This

While authorities lack the funds/committment/wherewithall to persue these people, it becomes inevitable society will find the resources to do it themselves.

TBH, I would push it a little further in so much as, In essence, it's wrong, but very much like hanging, if the vigilante digs out 20 bad uns, but 1 person with reasonable doubt gets wrongly put away, then crack on.

[TightEnd]

TBH, I would push it a little further in so much as, In essence, it's wrong, but very much like hanging, if the vigilante digs out 20 bad uns, but 1 person with reasonable doubt gets wrongly put away, then crack on.

this is going way too far. Exactly this reason why capital punishment was abolished here, as of course there are many examples of miscarriages of justice

your point about official resources might be right but you simply cannot condone someone being wrongly put away like this, its especially amoral.

[arbboy]

On the one hand I think vigilante-ism is wrong, on the other hand I kind of admire this guy and other vigilantes. He is only trying to save kids.

Essentially though it just shows that the police/government aren't good enough at both finding and punishing these sick people.

Think this is the key point.  The vigilantes would be out of a job if the state did their job well enough and devoted enough resources to it.

This

While authorities lack the funds/committment/wherewithall to persue these people, it becomes inevitable society will find the resources to do it themselves.

TBH, I would push it a little further in so much as, In essence, it's wrong, but very much like hanging, if the vigilante digs out 20 bad uns, but 1 person with reasonable doubt gets wrongly put away, then crack on.

oh adz!  What if that one person is you?

[BigAdz]

On the one hand I think vigilante-ism is wrong, on the other hand I kind of admire this guy and other vigilantes. He is only trying to save kids.

Essentially though it just shows that the police/government aren't good enough at both finding and punishing these sick people.

Think this is the key point.  The vigilantes would be out of a job if the state did their job well enough and devoted enough resources to it.

This

While authorities lack the funds/committment/wherewithall to persue these people, it becomes inevitable society will find the resources to do it themselves.

TBH, I would push it a little further in so much as, In essence, it's wrong, but very much like hanging, if the vigilante digs out 20 bad uns, but 1 person with reasonable doubt gets wrongly put away, then crack on.

oh adz!  What if that one person is you?

Wouldn't be putting myself in the situation to be.

Gotta be looking at or doing some very dodgy stuff to get implicated in any way, by my reckoning.

[Kev B]

Take away his Vigilante status and put him on the pay roll therefore controlling what goes viral. Doubt this would happen as maybe part of why he does this is for the fame.

[DMorgan]

Looking at incidence of crime in terms of how close that number is to zero is a wildly unrealistic metric imo.

If the guys intentions were entirely pure I'd expect him to turn the evidence over to the police rather than have some nice little graphics made up for his youtube videos and a banner ready for when the show airs. I'm sure he'll end up with a boatload of subscribers and nice little bit of ad revenue. If his aim was to put as many predators behind bars as possible, the last thing he'd do is make a documentary and out his identity.

Add to that the fact that he's outing these people on youtube before they've even been given a fair trial, I'd say he's lucky that he hasn't ended up behind bars for a third go around. The evidence that he provides is pretty damning and its so tough to keep a level head about such an emotive issue (I obv can only imagine how a parent would feel) but the judicial process is something that represents how the people of this country want crimes to be dealt with and one guy circumventing this process and outing people on youtube is an affront to the protections that should be available to everyone.

He only has to be wrong once to irreversibly destroyed an innocent persons life. If the accused is found guilty then by all means throw away the key, but to call this guy some sort of white knight for the people and the kids is pretty warped imo.

Probably not the most popular opinion but he's unemployed, has spent 10 years at her majestys pleasure and he burned down a school. Definitely not a net tax contributor so I'll at least have Woodsey and Camel on my side

The nut result of all this is that he gets a job with the police/child protective services

[DMorgan]

Wouldn't be putting myself in the situation to be.

A few years ago I was called for jury service and was foreman on a child sex absuse case. Long story short the ex-wife of the accused had a daughter from a previous marriage and two kids with the accused. She won custody of the two children that they had together in the divorce but decided to extort him for more money on top of agreed child support, wouldn't let him see his children etc. Once the last penny ran out these historical abuse accusations surface, dating back to when his then step-daughter was 13/14.

The guy ends up going through a two year ordeal fighting these accusations, we found him not guilty of 9 counts of indecent or sexual assault on a minor after 15 minutes of deliberation. I spoke to him and his new mrs outside the court after and alright he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but as far as I could tell he was just a regular guy.

If anyone that was innocent of such crimes would never put themselves in a situation to be wrongfully accused, shouldn't be just save the expense of an investigation and trial and just lock 'em up?

[kinboshi]

Dan Morgan for PM

[The Camel]

Interesting article

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/25/vigilante-paedophile-hunters-online-police

Got to question the motives of the bloke.

Sitting on a computer trying to persuade blokes to make a mistake which will potentially ruin their life forever.

Just utterly strange behaviour.

He seems like a predator himself, targeting lonely and vulnerable men.

At the very least he's a loser looking for publicity and notoriety. I don't wish to consider what his motives might be if they are darker.

Vigilantes are not to be encouraged. Leave it to the police IMO.

[tikay]

Looking at incidence of crime in terms of how close that number is to zero is a wildly unrealistic metric imo.

If the guys intentions were entirely pure I'd expect him to turn the evidence over to the police rather than have some nice little graphics made up for his youtube videos and a banner ready for when the show airs. I'm sure he'll end up with a boatload of subscribers and nice little bit of ad revenue. If his aim was to put as many predators behind bars as possible, the last thing he'd do is make a documentary and out his identity.

Add to that the fact that he's outing these people on youtube before they've even been given a fair trial, I'd say he's lucky that he hasn't ended up behind bars for a third go around. The evidence that he provides is pretty damning and its so tough to keep a level head about such an emotive issue (I obv can only imagine how a parent would feel) but the judicial process is something that represents how the people of this country want crimes to be dealt with and one guy circumventing this process and outing people on youtube is an affront to the protections that should be available to everyone.

He only has to be wrong once to irreversibly destroyed an innocent persons life. If the accused is found guilty then by all means throw away the key, but to call this guy some sort of white knight for the people and the kids is pretty warped imo.

Probably not the most popular opinion but he's unemployed, has spent 10 years at her majestys pleasure and he burned down a school. Definitely not a net tax contributor so I'll at least have Woodsey and Camel on my side

The nut result of all this is that he gets a job with the police/child protective services

That is a great Post, especially the enboldened part.

I think you have explained what was lurking in the back of my mind, & why I felt so uncomfy with the whole thing.

[tikay]

Interesting article

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/25/vigilante-paedophile-hunters-online-police

Got to question the motives of the bloke.

Sitting on a computer trying to persuade blokes to make a mistake which will potentially ruin their life forever.

Just utterly strange behaviour.

He seems like a predator himself, targeting lonely and vulnerable men.

At the very least he's a loser looking for publicity and notoriety. I don't wish to consider what his motives might be if they are darker.

Vigilantes are not to be encouraged. Leave it to the police IMO.

....and so is that.

[tikay]

Anyway, the Show is on tonight, for those still interested.

[pleno1]

Watched almost all his videos.

He's preying on lonely old men who aren't looking for 14 year old girls but are usually flattered that somebody finds them attractive. Or if they send 80 messages out to girls and 1 replies they are so happy then they are told they are 14 they feel like they are still wanted etc

Obviously not making excuses for them but a lot of the cases are blown out if proportion.

[Kmac84]

Nothing wrong with a bit of vigilantism imo, but guys like this I woudn't class as vigilantes. 

Its a bit like the EDL/SDL boys who fancy themselves as football hooligans but never made it with any firm so they become hooligans of sorts. 

Community payback is good when the cops/courts aren't doing much. 

When I was younger we used to batter know house breakers in our area even if they weren't caught in the act.  Cops used to let them go for some cheap info on 2 bob hash dealers that everyone knew. 

[celtic]

Watched some of the clips on YouTube, got to give the guy and his team credit for having the balls to challenge the guys in this way. Hopefully the documentary will explain why he decided to start this "campaign".

On a similar point I thought about this subject a lot recently after a conversation a had at Luton. Some guys were talking about a vicar that played at the casino regularly, who had been named in the local paper as being found guilty of "obscene conversations with Children", on enquiring who it was I googled him to see if I knew him, the picture that came up confirmed I (and many others as he was a regular) had played with this guy quite a lot ( even after he had been charged and suspended from work, which of course nobody knew at the time). One of the guys at the table was very irate about the whole thing, particularly as he had tried to get back into the casino after he had been banned (I'm presuming for his own safety as well as for the benefit of the rest of the customers). I actually felt quite numb about the whole situation, he was a normal guy, no reason to think any different, I distinctly remember him talking to a very attractive masseuse a lot, I remember thinking he must have no chance with her. All the while portraying a life similar to most of us, yet lurking in this underworld of vile intentions. Since been wondering what he would have said had he been challenge about this at the table.

Got sentenced to 2 years today.