A Westbury man’s been arrested after paedophile hunters carried out a sting at his home last night.
The 30-year-old is accused of arranging to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex after speaking to a decoy profile online, set up by ‘child protection enforcers’ Net Justice.
Police officers were called to the Rosefield Way area, and he was arrested on suspicion of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence. He was taken to Melksham custody.
Wiltshire Police say he’s since been released under investigation.
National Policing Lead on Child Abuse Investigation Chief Constable Simon Bailey said: “We understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should get in contact with the police so we can investigate and bring people to justice. So called paedophile hunters are taking risks they don’t understand and can undermine police investigations.
“Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them. It can jeopardise ongoing police investigations and these people have no way of safeguarding child victims. It also leads to people who have been identified going missing or raising concerns for their safety. This can divert significant resources into protecting suspects, which would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting them.
“There is also the risk of wrongly accusing someone; if someone is wrongly accused of being a paedophile in a hugely public way that makes people who live with them, live near them, work with them assume they have committed the offence. The temptation to kill themselves may be just as great even if they are innocent; that is an appalling consequence to contemplate.”.
