A man was
seen bursting into tears after he was confronted by a group of
self-styled paedophile hunters in Bluewater shopping centre as they
accused him of trying to meet a girl for sex.
In
a shocking video, posted online by the vigilantes, three members of the
group corner a 30-year-old man, calling him a 'paedophile' and 'sex
predator' outside branch of the Kent shopping centre's HMV store.
During
the seven minute film, which ends with the man crying, he is accused of
'being here today to meet a 13-year-old girl for the purpose of sex'.
In a shocking video, posted online by
the vigilantes, the man can be seen standing in the shopping centre as
he is approached by the group
The
clip, which has been viewed on YouTube nearly 3,000 times, shows the
man standing outside the music shop before being confronted by the
group.
He is
then accused of trying to meet the girl, and shown screen grabs of an
alleged conversation with her by members of the group, who call
themselves The Paedophile Hunter or The Hunted One.
They are shown telling him he will be arrested and his house will be searched, before police officers arrive.
Kent
Police confirmed a man had been arrested on suspicion of grooming in
Strood, Kent, and has subsequently been bailed pending further
enquiries.
Detective
Inspector Robert Chitham of the Paedophile Online Investigation Team at
Kent Police warned the public to not take part in vigilantism.
He is then accused of trying to meet
the girl, and shown screen grabs of an alleged conversation with her by
members of the group, who call themselves The Paedophile Hunter or The
Hunted One
He
said: 'I would like to reassure the public that we proactively target
this type of offence and work hard to gather evidence in a lawful manner
and that will stand up in court.
'I would discourage people from taking the law into their own hands to avoid them being put in any possible danger.
'Revealing
the identity of suspected paedophiles, often on the basis of little
information, could lead to suspects being threatened.
'This
can divert significant police resources into protecting suspects, which
would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence,
prosecuting them.'
The confrontation between the group and the man took place at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent (pictured)
The
leader group, a father-of-four pretends to be a teenage girl online and
saves the chat logs to keep as evidence, which he then gives to the
police.
The
anonymous vigilante has spent the past few years working tirelessly to
get child sex offenders imprisoned and says exposure online often has
bigger consequences than a court sentence.
He said: 'We expose these people because exposure is a bigger sentence for them because all they get is a slap on the list.
'I hold all the chat logs for this man's conversations with children. I gather the evidence and then give it to the police.
'We are all parents and we have been working on this for around ten months..
'As
parents we are very concerned, we do not entrap or attract people like
this. Everything that's said is purely the predator.'
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