The Paedophile Hunter

Stinson Hunter is a drug addict, award-winning filmmaker, father, and catcher of “bad guys”. Quite a combination.

Most reality television has me in stitches of the cringing variety. I can’t watch. I shield my eyes, embarrassed that actual humans could call their uneducated drivel a documentary. In fact, it is unfortunate that so many vapid shows are being churned out on Netflix and Amazon Prime, polluting the internet with their time-wasting, yet admittedly binge-worthy, bland and tasteless plots. But that’s another rant.

Last night, when I should have been glued to supreme court cases and a final paper, I came across a surprise bottle of wine and a documentary named “Paedophile Hunter”. I felt that this was an opportunity to kick back, relax, and disturb myself with everything that is wrong with the world.

The documentary took me by surprise. I was expecting a classic cop show, one in which you hate everybody. You hate the criminals for the obvious, but you also hate the police for being “the system”, which I as an adolescent have been programmed to dislike. However, after an hour and a half, I was deeply moved by the work of Stinson Hunter. As a man who has been bounced from home to home since the age of thirteen, as a man who has seen the horrors of the foster care system, as a man who believes that one man can make a difference, he and two glasses of Two-Buck-Chuck had my heart in knots.

Hunter’s work is dangerous. He poses as 13-15 year olds on social networking sites, casts out his line, and waits for a paedophile to bite. This is a regular occurrence, and Hunter is now responsible for 50 convictions of paedophiles and groomers - ranging from their early thirties to mid fifties. His small-town habit has expanded to large cities of the UK from which he draws men to the house of a fake underraged girl and then traps them with cameras. It has become somewhat of a grand operation. When they attempt to flee the scene, the crew follow them through the town, and they experience the public shame which they deserve for their intended child molestation.

There are problems with Hunter’s methods ranging from ethical to legal. Legally, Hunter is not doing anything wrong. However, he lacks support from the police because of privacy rights and legal technicalities. For example, the conviction of a man for intending to statitorily rape an underraged girl who does not actually exist, is not viable. The intention of crime is there, but the actual crime is never committed.

Furthermore, Hunter’s post-trap methods put the paedophiles in danger of violence and psychological distress. Michael Parkes’ name was all over the newspapers a few days after his public humiliation on Facebook. Hunter had caught him (by posing as a thirteen year old girl, to whom Parkes had sent nude pictures and videos to) and exposed him to the millions of Facebook viewers in an attempt to raise awareness about and protect children from this predator. Days later, Parkes was found dead in his car, a ligature around his neck. Parkes’ suicide led to many questions surrounding Hunter’s attempt to expose paedophiles for their actions.

After watching his documentary, listening to interviews of Stinson Hunter, policemen, and Michael Parkes’ ex-wife, I am torn about how to deal with crimes such as these. On one hand, Hunter exposes men who are likely to be vulnerable - in Parkes’ case, his GP had stated that he seemed that he was “going through a bad patch” - therefore exposing them to potential violent and serious psychological threats. On the other hand, the 50 men who have been arrested are 50 men who will not be contacting your little sister or your daughter. As Hunter put it after Parkes’ suicide “I feel for his family and it's a shame for them, but ultimately he made his own choices”. Indeed, if you intend to take away the rights of a happy and undisturbed childhood from a young girl or boy, your rights to privacy should not be unconditional, but instead should be given to the justice system to examine and redistribute as they see fit.

Bottom line is, there is never going to be a “good” way to handle paedophiles. There is never going to be a positive outcome for a sickness which is both uncontrollable, and vastly damaging to the victims of any crime committed under its influence. Stinson Hunter has found the only legal and effective way to put potential threats in prison, deterring them and others from acting on their impulses, and keeping them away from our loved ones.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-26550987