13 Nov, 2014
Paedophile hunters: the vigilantes taking the law into their own hands – The Guardian
The pair of underage girls groomed for sex by a 50-year-old paedophile, Peter Mitchell, could not attend his sentencing at Derby crown court on Tuesday for one simple reason: they did not exist.
The satisfaction of justice was instead enjoyed by a middle-aged married couple who have become the latest in a wave of vigilante “hunters” who are so frustrated at police inaction to stop online grooming of children that they are taking the law into their own hands.
Mitchell received a three-year community order and was placed on the sex offender register after pleading guilty to grooming “Laura” and “Roxy”, two fictitious 14-year-olds he met on Facebook, and possession of images of children. The teenagers – complete with phoney enthusiasms for the singer Ed Sheeran and labrador puppies – were invented by Brendan Collis, from Derby, and his family under the name Online Predator Investigation Team (OPIT).
The Collis family watched from the public gallery as Judge John Burgess told Mitchell that there was public revulsion at his “dreadful” crimes.
Read the rest: Paedophile hunters: the vigilantes taking the law into their own hands | UK news | The Guardian.
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