An Alkmaarder was attacked last month by a group of self-proclaimed pedo hunters. Armed with a camera, they met the thirty-something at Haarlem station. After a chase and struggle, he escapes. The police are investigating the case and the online video: “We act against so-called pedophiles if they commit criminal offences, just as we investigate alleged pedophiles.”
“Waiting for those viewers to come a bit,” says a young man in one live stream on Facebook. With his phone, accompanied by his accomplices, he walks towards Haarlem station. A little further on, a thirty-something from Alkmaar is unsuspectingly waiting for a fourteen-year-old girl.
As the camera rolls, the group confronts him. He is startled and flees through the loudly beeping gates back into the station. “Where are you running to, pervert? Do you want to talk or do you want to clap: take your pick”, calls the young man who follows him while filming.
The images show that he tries to shake off the group via stairs and between travelers. But the ‘pedo hunters’ spread out and manage to trap him. They trip the Alkmaarder hard and when he gets up, a struggle ensues.
Finally he manages to pull himself free. While running, he manages to jump into a train, which is ready for departure. After the long chase, the pedo hunters are ‘devastated’ and call it a day. At the end of the video, a call is made to share the images.
Text continues after a screenshot of the chat with the Alkmaarder.
Online, this group from the Haarlem region pretends to be a 14-year-old girl to lure men into a trap. The Alkmaarder contacted the decoy profile on social media. He wanted to meet the “girl” and perform sexual acts on her, according to screenshots of the chat conversation.
In the past six weeks, confrontations with three alleged paedosexuals from North Holland have been posted online. The men are recognizable in the videos and their name and place of residence are also mentioned. Followers are called upon to share the images and to look out for these alleged paedosexuals.
The phenomenon of pedo hunting is a worrying trend for the police. They lack figures, but a simple search on Instagram with terms such as ‘pedohunters’ or ‘pedojagers’ soon yields dozens of hits.
Violent manhunts
“We are negative about these actions, because they regularly go hand in hand with criminal offenses such as assault and destruction,” a spokesperson for the North Holland Police said. “The public convictions also violate the rights of citizens. If there is a suspicion that someone is guilty of child abuse, report it to the police.”
Nevertheless, within the existing laws for civilian investigation, someone may go quite far, explains researcher Arnout de Vries. “You may not impersonate someone else, because that is identity fraud. But you may use a child photo of yourself. Once you have been approached, often within a few minutes, you may start the conversation, but do not provoke anything. collect all the information as evidence.”
And that is precisely where the shoe pinches, says De Vries. The police do not have enough time and manpower to deal with all the evidence from these ‘concerned investigators’. It online names and shame on accounts of self-proclaimed pedophiles, moreover, can ruin people’s lives. “Not citizens, but a judge ultimately determines whether someone should be sentenced.”
“If the evidence gives enough reason to arrest someone, the police should come to that appointment and take over the case.”
“It is not only victims who experience that their case is regularly not taken up due to a lack of evidence or capacity – once you have contact with someone who insists on an appointment, you always have to inform the police. But they do not come just like that. A red-handed appointment ‘ doesn’t exist.”
Sometimes there is cooperation with the police in an appointment with an alleged pedosexual, but often, sometimes out of necessity, they go there on their own. “Then there is a greater risk of violence or other criminal offenses,” says the researcher.
Furnish more effectively
In order to stop manhunts by these self-proclaimed paedo hunters – with all its consequences – the researcher argues for better cooperation with the police. “The police are now saying: that’s not how we work. And that’s where things go wrong, because why can’t you schedule such an appointment in good consultation? You can’t let civilians go to the front line without backup.”
According to him, the discussion we should have is: how can the deployment of these civilian detectives be made safer and more effective? “If the evidence gives sufficient reason to arrest someone, the police must be called in to take over the case. But it is also important to call in assistance for these alleged pedosexuals. The question is whether it will help these people put in jail.”
The group from the Haarlem region that manages the fake profile could not be reached for a response.