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7th February 2019
10:15am GMT
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.
The problem with these #paedophilehunters groups is they often hinder any criminal case by how they gather evidence. However they seem to be doing a much better job than the guards at exposing these vile bastards #TrueLives
— Chris Hardiman ☕???????????????? (@AJoyForever83) February 6, 2019
A hard watch tonight but what struck me most not once did the psychologist, lawyer or Garda mention the damage to children, only the CPA did. #Paedophilehunters #Truelives
— Bunkerfeminist (@bunkerfeminist) February 6, 2019
#PaedophileHunters on @VirginMediaIE shows that we do NOT have an adequate Garda force, because members of the public have to do this. We need to hire loads more and pay them better! Fair play to those mothers, it must be such an awful way to have to see the world.
— Donna Coffey (@hattoncracker) February 6, 2019
#TrueLives #Paedophilehunters my worry was the suggestion that a Paedophile lives in there as pointed out by the 'hunter' is a bit worrying only due to possibly of getting the wrong home.
— Robbie Sargent (@Sarge1972) February 6, 2019
Weird people on this thread seem more concerned about the legality of this work and are ignoring the fact that these "Man" want to rape (and are raping) very young children. #TrueLives #paedophilehunters
— Ben Redline (@BenjaminZZR) February 6, 2019
These are concerned parents get my 100% support ????
It's not in legislation because there's paedos in the guards, the government and any other sector you can think of. These women & other hunters are showing the police up. Fair play - keep up the good work. Scumbags should be castrated & locked away. #TrueLives #PaedophileHunters
— Joseph (@JoeMcGlue) February 6, 2019
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?
