Nine people were arrested and released on bail without charge, and the organisation has since been critisised by police, the NSPCC, and The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, claiming they risk jeopardising existing police investigations.
Letzgo Hunting was founded in January by Jamie- also known as ‘Scumm Buster’-who got the idea after watching American TV show To Catch A Predator, which uses investigators and a decoy girl to trap paedophiles.
The self-proclaimed paedophile hunters are made up of a group of parents, and headed by Jamie- a father in his late twenties, ‘Psycho Buster’- a 50-year-old father-of-four, and another anonymous father- two are trained in martial arts.
Their operation currently entails running 80 fake profiles on around 20 websites, often leading up to a set-up meeting where a woman posing as a girl is used to trap and film the suspect.
In a recent interview Letzgo Hunting founder Jamie, a doorman, revealed:
‘If they weren’t talking to us, they would be talking to real schoolgirls'
‘We are currently in online contact with about 30 such men who are talking to us in a sexually explicit way as we pose as teenage girls on the web.’
‘They are cunning and expert at targeting children.’
Speaking about what motivated him to start the vigilante site, he said:
‘I know people who have been abused, and a few years ago discovered a friend of mine had been convicted of paedophilia, which shook me to the core — none of his friends had the faintest idea.’
On the subject of taking police work into their own hands, ‘Psycho Buster’ added:
‘Police act only when there is a victim, but we get there before a crime is committed.’
‘If they weren’t talking to us, they would be talking to real schoolgirls.
‘Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence'
‘I do this because I am a father. The police are too busy stopping people speeding to tackle this problem. We don’t take the law into our hands — we don’t attack these people. We hand our information to police to let them decide what to do.’
In a recent ‘stint’, a 27-year-old man calling himself Max approached one of their fake profiles of a 14-year-old girl, writing:
‘I got a very nise hart and wod love to go out wit u an look after u.’
‘Do u smoke babe? Drink? Alcohol? You a virgin babe? I want u 2b my girlfriend, babe. U want to meet? Im free today? Anytink u want I get for u, babe.’
The man sent over photos of himself, before arranging to meet the ‘girl’ in a local park. The meeting ended in the man fleeing the scene once he realised he had been set up, but not before the whole thing was caught on camera and posted on YouTube.
‘It can all happen very quickly, and we have to see who is available from the group to go along,’ Jamie explained.
‘Sean is there to film and also make sure we all stay calm and controlled.
However Chief Constable Dave Whatton voiced his concerns over the group’s actions, stating:
‘Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them. It also leads to people who have been identified going missing, or it raises concerns for their safety.’
‘This can divert significant resources into protecting suspects, which would be better spent in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting them.’