FOI 1565-25 Paedophile hunter groups 22-25

Request to Northamptonshire Police:

Question 1 - How many prosecutions for child sex offences have taken place after a suspect or [suspects] were first identified through sting operations from self-styled ‘paedophile vigilante hunter’ groups?

Question 2 - Can the same information be supplied for the number of arrests?

Question 3 - Can the figures please be broken down from Jan 1 2022 to the present date?

Question 4 - Can the information please be broken down for each calendar year? 2022 - 5 2023 - 2 2024 – 4

Response

Question 1
Northamptonshire Police do not hold data on prosecutions – please redirect your enquiry to His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service.

Question 2
Number of arrests after suspect identified by ‘paedophile vigilante hunter’ groups - Total count 11

Question 3 & 4
Arrests broken down by year
2022 – 5
2023 – 2
2024 - 4

Please note that this information was correct at the date of receipt of the request. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when the data is used.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data, we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.