Interviewees
Justice4Children
Justice4Children are a family run hunting team with over ten successful convictions and many more on-going cases. I met them twice in London, the first time was a formal interview with two of the members and the second was when they allowed me to be a fly on the wall whilst they travelled to and from a sting.
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The sting procedure was incredibly professional and safe. They did a risk assessment on the location well in advance as well as phoning the Police before approaching the property. They conducted the sting alongside the Police who were incredibly welcoming to the team. The statements were given and we left the area, with the team beaming with pride that a suspected predator was taken off the streets.
DCI Lee Whitehead
Lee Whitehead is a Detective Chief Inspector at Kent Police. I interviewed him at the Kent Police Headquarters in Maidstone. This was an incredibly insightful interview that opened my eyes to how the police in the UK viewed these hunters as well as what the Police are currently doing to try and stop sexual predators in the UK.
Something he said really stuck with me: "Ultimately I could triple the size of the unit and it still wouldn't solve the issue of indecent images online. It's a national problem that needs further direction from the Government."
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It really impacted me that even a Police officer is saying no extra funding will tackle the issue great enough but a new direction needs to be taken.
'JB'
'JB' is an anonymous former hunter who two years ago had his life turned upside down by online trolls. He successfully stung 28 suspected predators which led to 28 convictions but after leaving his social media profiles publicly accessible, the hunter became the hunted.
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His images were doctored and plastered all over social media making JB himself out to be a paedophile, something that has happened to numerous people in the hunting community.
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It is suspected that the trolls are a collection of the predators that JB stung but this is yet to be confirmed as investigations are still occurring and the posts are untraceable.
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JB offered a personal story which evoked emotion and added a side strand to my piece which broke up the narrative.
