It finally happened, after a few weeks of hearing nothing from Justice4Children I began to doubt whether I'd be able to go on a sting. I kept hearing that the suspects who were talking to their decoy accounts kept getting suspicious and disappearing meaning a sting was hard to come by. I knew I needed one for my documentary.
Then I finally got the call from the head hunter, they've got one lined up. So I booked out some camera gear and booked last minute coaches to and from London.
I met the team but was incredibly apprehensive about what I was about to witness, especially as I was travelling alone with the team to a place I knew nothing about.
The entire journey I was filming a dynamic interview with the team and their security, the whole time maintaining the thoughts about the ethical and lawful considerations I have to make, having to turn the camera off whenever they said his name or location and making sure not to film any establishing shots.
When we arrived at the suspects house it was hard to put the camera away and sit in the car whilst I sat on my phone in the car watching the team's live feed of the sting on Facebook even though I was sat just a few hundred yards away but I knew I had to do it to cover myself from causing contempt, as well as making sure I was kept safe.
The suspect was apprehended and the sting was successful, the team were buzzing, you could feel the energy that this meant a lot to them, especially the head hunter who had been speaking to this gentleman for weeks and having to deal with the explicit messages he was sending.
I'm yet to go through all of the footage but to me it looked and sounded great, this will be huge for my documentary. It adds an element I wasn't sure I was going to achieve and the pieces are starting to come together.
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