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07th Feb 2019

Irish People Had Very Strong But Mixed Opinions About This Controversial Programme On Irish TV Last Night

Darragh Berry

Wednesday night saw Virgin Media One broadcast a very controversial programme that got lots of people talking online.

‘Paedophile Hunters’ followed a group who’s aim is to ‘lure’ and track down Ireland’s known and unknown paedophiles.

The group use various online chatrooms to get in touch with potential paedophiles as a decoy from the group poses as a child.

The decoy will have an online profile of a child followed by some information about the child’s name and age and will chat with the potential paedophile on site.

If a ‘meet-up’ is organised between the decoy and the potential sex offender, the group more often than not will follow the decoy to the meet up spot and film the ‘meet-up’ on their Facebook page.

The insightful programme had people on edge about whether this is the right way to approach such a sensitive subject.

One person said that while these people aren’t “tactically, legally or psychologically trained for this line of work…it would go a long way to ensure that sufficient evidence was handed over to the Gardaí.”

However another said that they found the group “annoying” because of their “chain smoking, passive aggressive [behaviour] to Gardai and all round scummyness.”

“They’re idiots, and their brand of ‘justice’ prevents any real justice from ever being handed out – and actively hinders the Gardaí. All in the name of getting their 15 minutes.”

What did you think of the programme or what do you think of these groups?

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