North Yorkshire Police ask 'vigilante' groups to leave online child abuse investigations to them

The force says it has seen an increase in the number of the groups online. Credit: PA

North Yorkshire Police have issued a plea for activists to leave investigations into online child abuse to them.

The force says it has seen a rise in the number of "vigilante" groups on social media, where members live-stream or post videos of them confronting individuals who they believe have been involved in grooming children online.

It warns that these videos can often impede the course of justice and even cause cases against individuals to collapse due to the quality of evidence they gather, as well as the fact that it is often published online before any evidence is heard in court.

Detective Inspector Paula Eccles from North Yorkshire Police's safeguarding team said: "The police service does not endorse online child abuse activist groups and we will not work with them.

"Unlike our highly-trained officers in the online abuse and exploitation team and the digital forensics unit, they operate without any procedures to keep people safe. Accused people can become vulnerable to self-harm and there are cases around the country of people dying by suicide because of the action of such groups.

“Innocent family members can also feel threatened during the confrontations and subsequent harassment, which is a terrible situation to have forced upon them."

“The standard of evidence that is gathered is also often poor, there are issues with legal disclosure, and the way the groups share their evidence publicly online before it has been tested at court."

The force said there is no way of ensuring the groups are acting on reliable evidence, which can lead to innocent people - including vulnerable members of the community - being wrongly accused.

Specialist teams, like the one at North Yorkshire Police, work to gather evidence which can stand up to scrutiny from the Crown Prosecution Service and be presented in court. Each month, police forces across the country arrest more than 400 people for child sexual abuse.

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