UNITED KINGDOM
Darlington and Stockton Times
‘Paedophile hunters could jeopardise investigations’ say police following Darlington incident
by Joanna Morris
ONLINE vigilantes risk jeopardising child sex investigations, police have warned.
Darlington Police have warned self-styled paedophile catchers to leave catching predators to the professionals.
The warning comes after a video was posted to Facebook on Friday (May 22) showing a man confronted in the street by individuals who posed as a teenager online in an effort to snare paedophiles.
Police say the pair undeniably acted with good intentions but are urging people not to follow in their footsteps.
Inspector Caroline Dawson said there was a real danger of such actions tipping off wrong-doers and alerting them to potential police activity.
She said posting such incidents online amounted to an early warning for those with something to hide, who may then go onto destroy vital evidence ahead of police involvement.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.