I've had a rather heated discussion tonight regarding these vigilante groups who go around outing possible paedophiles. I'm against them. My position was that if they had information then they should go to the police with it and thereafter through the legal system. Of course I along with all other fathers want to see the guilty castrated and hanged but after due legal process and Facebook is not a court of law.

The other aspect of it is that when they get it wrong they destroy innocent lives because like when someone gets found not guilty in court, the assumption is that they've got away with it rather than they were innocent. There is also an aspect of some of these 'hunters' using entrapment. Anyway that's a legal argument.

Any thoughts from elsewhere?

I agree , except the castration and hanging bit, you sort of contradict yourself there John , because just like someone being found not guilty in court, there are also instances of when new information comes to light and an initial guilty decision is overturned and replaced by a not guilty verdict , saving that person from a hefty spell in jail or in your world , torture or execution, that is why I have always been opposed to the death penalty. I don't suppose as a father or even a son, you would want to see your son or dad, castrated or hung for something that . however sick it maybe ,is classed as a psychiatric disorder

By all means get the intel on these people ( not a fan of entrapment but in this case ) but then pass it on to the relevant authorities.

I meant castration and hanging after due process of law.

thing about it is paedo,s are not something new. they were around when i was a kid just as they would have been in our grandparents days. it maybe a crime that we cannot get our heads around but is still far less a crime than murder, especially child murder.

Indeed. We all knew someone who was dodgy as a kid. It might have been an uncle or the bloke who lived alone up the street but as kids we knew to avoid them. Also the world back then seemed to be full of flashers in Grayfields.

i actually feel a bit sorry for them when they are confronted on camera i know i shouldn't but tgats just me you see really im abug softie at heart.

well maybe not sorry for them but for there wife and kids if they have any or there parents who's life will have been ruined in a flash

I'm all for catching them but i think these hunters do it more for there own ego's, if you wsnt to do it then pass on the information to the authorities and let them deal with it

Paedophiles have to be dealt with through the judicial system like every other lawbreaker. We all think the same when it comes to how abhorrent they are but in a civilised society we can't allow individuals to have any control over law enforcement. It is the same with the idea of vigilante patrols. There has been a spate of burglaries in our village lately and, in their anger, most people are threatening all sorts of reprisals "if they break into my property" and it is understandable, just as it's understandable that any father would want to blow the balls off anyone abusing his child.

Having said that my personal view is that there is no punishment too severe for child abuse and child grooming but reluctantly I accept that there has got to be something wrong with people who abuse children so I would take them out of society, out of reach of their targets until I was satisfied that their threat was no longer there but I sure would take some convincing before I freed them, believe me.

I know you did, but what I meant was sometimes even after due process of law has taken place, new evidence comes to light, that proves that someone is innocent, therefore I can't condone castration or the death penalty.

Dodgy as fook like, these uncles and blokes who live alone, imagine been both ?

Even in the collieries!

problem was they were not all like the stereotypes you think of. some where married with their own kids and inflicted their perversions on them.