[Kizzy]

Do you have one of these so called 'vigilante' groups in your area?

A television producer who travelled to Leeds from his home in Ireland to meet what he thought was an 13-year-old girl for sexual activity has been jailed for 18 months. Kieran Creaven was arrested outside The Queens Hotel in Leeds after being confronted by members of an onlilne paedophile vigilante group.

Creaven travelled to West Yorkshire after making arrangements to meet the 'girl' at the hotel. The 55-year-old, from Dublin, had made contact with a fake Facebook profile for a girl called 'Keelie', set up by members of the group 'Predator Exposure'.


In recent days however this group have recieved letters from WYP asking them to stop... Why?

Where do you stand on this? It's a tough one, I don't agree with vigilante justice and yet these people are predators so very conflicted :/



https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...girl-1-9056460

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.u...ow_bad_it_is_/

[Vicky.]

We have one here, I fully support them. The police aren't doing their jobs to catch them, so someone has to

[Niamh.]

Yes and I fully support them.

[Denver]

I don't agree with them at all they do more damage by making families victims to crime and being outcastes by the community

[Oliver_W]

I don't know if every town has one of these,but my hometown has a Facebook page where people share details about local events, bitch about potholes, inform everyone about road closures or shop closures, share lost wallets they found in the street,etc.

But anyway, an episode of an internet show in the style of To Catch A Predator was shared on this page, exposing someone who lives here for arranging to meet who he thought was a teenage girl. To add to the creepiness, his house is on the walking route a lot of pupils take to the girls' school...

But yeah, I fully support such groups.

[parmnion]

Yes, i agree with this
..only for this though.

Ive watched a good few vids of them in action and they always stay well within the law.

[RichardG]

i think the predators should be caught, arrested and jailed as much as anyone else. but i saw a few youtube videos of people doing this a while back, entering the houses of the predators without permission, goading and insulting them and not leaving despite being asked multiple times. by all means, fool the predators, gather information on them and hand it over to the police, but some of these people only seem interested in getting more facebook likes and i find the whole thing so depressing.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Adam.

I don't agree with them at all they do more damage by making families victims to crime and being outcastes by the community

what do you mean by this?

Originally Posted by RichardG

i think the predators should be caught, arrested and jailed as much as anyone else. but i saw a few youtube videos of people doing this a while back, entering the houses of the predators without permission, goading and insulting them and not leaving despite being asked multiple times. by all means, fool the predators, gather information on them and hand it over to the police, but some of these people only seem interested in getting more facebook likes and i find the whole thing so depressing.

Some of the groups do go too far, my husband was watching one of the videos a few weeks ago where they were just goading and goading this guy, kept seemingly trying to wind him up into attacking them but the guy, despite being a predator, was really calm and I almost felt sorry for him with how they were behaving towards him?! Ugh that case was absolutely gross though, he had been chatting up what he thought was a 13 year old girl, and persuading her to interfere with her 7 year old sister and send photos

The ones for the northeast though, from what I have seen..are very 'professional' and do pretty much just gather evidence, confront them and call the police.

[jaxie]

I think its always dodgy when people take the law into their own hands. There is nothing wrong with passing on information to the police but I'm not sure that people should be confronting this themselves.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by jaxie

I think its always dodgy when people take the law into their own hands. There is nothing wrong with passing on information to the police but I'm not sure that people should be confronting this themselves.

I think the reason they confront and film aswell as giving the files over, is to pressure the police into actually doing something. If they were just dropping off files on the desks of officers, they would be ignored most of the time as it seems the police have no interest in catching people like this :S

[RichardG]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

what do you mean by this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40492290

When the confrontation with Lane was broadcast, stones were thrown at his parents' house and they were forced move to a secret location for their safety.

Their home was daubed with graffiti and now stands boarded up and empty.

The same thing may or may not have happened if Christopher was arrested via the police. I suppose that depends on how secretive they are in cases like this, I have no idea. But, when you 'expose' this kind of thing on facebook for all the local yobs to see, you're guaranteeing that their innocent family will face repercussions as well.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

what do you mean by this?


Some of the groups do go too far, my husband was watching one of the videos a few weeks ago where they were just goading and goading this guy, kept seemingly trying to wind him up into attacking them but the guy, despite being a predator, was really calm and I almost felt sorry for him with how they were behaving towards him?! Ugh that case was absolutely gross though, he had been chatting up what he thought was a 13 year old girl, and persuading her to interfere with her 7 year old sister and send photos

The ones for the northeast though, from what I have seen..are very 'professional' and do pretty much just gather evidence, confront them and call the police.

Yeah same with the ones over here, they may be the same "organisation"

[Tom4784]

I'm completely against anything of the sort. It's too easy to abuse and it can easily put people in danger because people online are gullible enough to believe anything without looking into it.

I see way too many posts with pictures of people with captions like 'This person did so and so, SHARE THIS PICTURE SO EVERYONE KNOWS HIS FACE.' There's no evidence to posts like that but people will share it regardless of whether it's true or not, putting potentially an innocent person at risk just because someone wanted to stir up a mob/get some attention or even had malicious intent and wanted revenge on the person in question.

If there is evidence of wrongdoing, submit it and leave it to the police. Most of the time these groups just push false information for follows and shares and they do more harm than good. It all just plays into this culture of gullibility that's far too prevalent on social media and it can and will (if it hasn't already happened in some cases) get people hurt or killed because that's what happens when you stir up a sense of mob justice.

[parmnion]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

I'm completely against anything of the sort. It's too easy to abuse and it can easily put people in danger because people online are gullible enough to believe anything without looking into it.

I see way too many posts with pictures of people with captions like 'This person did so and so, SHARE THIS PICTURE SO EVERYONE KNOWS HIS FACE.' There's no evidence to posts like that but people will share it regardless of whether it's true or not, putting potentially an innocent person at risk just because someone wanted to stir up a mob/get some attention or even had malicious intent and wanted revenge on the person in question.

If there is evidence of wrongdoing, submit it and leave it to the police. Most of the time these groups just push false information for follows and shares and they do more harm than good. It all just plays into this culture of gullibility that's far too prevalent on social media and it can and will (if it hasn't already happened in some cases) get people hurt or killed because that's what happens when you stir up a sense of mob justice.

These groups dont act like that though..

They spend weeks talking to the pervert, then put the final nail in the coffin by getting them to come meet the child..

Then they call the police who are given all the info gathered.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Yeah same with the ones over here, they may be the same "organisation"

Dark justice the ones here are called. Not sure if they are called that everywhere or not though. Its two guys, doing it on their own and every video I have seen of them is professional, and they don't go to the predators house or anything, they get them to meet them somewhere quiet (pretending to be kids)

[LeatherTrumpet]

we dont have them but I am against them. Taking the law into your own hands is a bad idea and i sometimes question motives of the people involved

ie its all about making yourself feel important as usual

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by parmnion

These groups dont act like that though..

They spend weeks talking to the pervert, then put the final nail in the coffin by getting them to come meet the child..

Then they call the police who are given all the info gathered.

A lot of them do though. Vigilante justice belongs in comic books, not real life.

I'm all for evidence being gathered and handed over to the police but groups like these are destined to be abused once the 'power' goes to their heads.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

we dont have them but I am against them. Taking the law into your own hands is a bad idea and i sometimes question motives of the people involved

ie its all about making yourself feel important as usual

I agree with this, I find groups like these to be very self important, I think if they were truly acting in the interest of lawful justice then they wouldn't make videos in which they confront predators instead of passing on the information to the correct authorities and letting them handle it.

It just all feels like pageantry to me.

[parmnion]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

A lot of them do though. Vigilante justice belongs in comic books, not real life.

I'm all for evidence being gathered and handed over to the police but groups like these are destined to be abused once the 'power' goes to their heads.

No you are wrong, a lot of them dont.

And most of them do it because the police are hopeless.


Thankfully they make videos so these vile beasts faces are plastered everywhere they can be.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

I agree with this, I find groups like these to be very self important, I think if they were truly acting in the interest of lawful justice then they wouldn't make videos in which they confront predators instead of passing on the information to the correct authorities and letting them handle it.

It just all feels like pageantry to me.

If they just passed on the files, the police are chance to ignore them.

Making the videos kind of makes the police act.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

If they just passed on the files, the police are chance to ignore them.

Making the videos kind of makes the police act.

Police just don't ignore solid evidence of predators at work but if they do, take the story to the proper media channels, I think facebook videos just make it more about these groups than the crimes they are trying to prevent.

If it hasn't already happened, it's only a matter of times before these groups cause a tragedy. Leave it to the professionals.

[bitontheslide]

it seems to me that they are an extension of the social media judge/jury groups and I don't like it one bit. By all means report things to police, but not if it means entrapment or vigilantes running free. We have a legal system for a reason.

[Vicky.]

Issue is, the professionals do not seem to actually do anything to catch these people. Its like they just don't care that there are active pedos, currently targetting children. I get that cuts mean less staff, but to me, this should be priority tbh

[Denver]

Are they not harassing the so called perpetrators? Which is illegal as it is

[thesheriff443]

I was told about a film in which an Asian guy was tricked into thinking he was meeting an under age girl when he got there he was attacked by a group and was begging for his life.

I know this to be true as I know the person filming it!.