I’m a paedophile hunter and have caught more than 1,000 predators – one made a sickening confession that made my whole team break down

A paedophile  hunter who has exposed more than 1,000 predators on social media has revealed how he carries out his stings. 

The unnamed man appeared on the Channel 4 documentary series Ask The Mask, in an episode titled Paedophile Hunter.

In the episode, which aired last year but has recently resurfaced on social media, the man kept his face hidden by a pig mask as he revealed how his ‘team’ entice child predators with pictures of real children donated by online supporters. 

The Ask The Mask panel interrogated the paedophile hunter, whose voice was distorted to protect his identity, challenging him on his ethics of live streaming a sting before anyone has been proven guilty.

The man, who went by ‘Pig’, revealed how he and his team root out predators seeking to sexually abuse children by acting as ‘decoys’.

‘At the beginning it’s the decoy talking to the predator for up to 16 hours a day, possibly every day on social media, doing all the hard work,’ he said. 

He admitted that his team sometimes use pictures of real children, which have been ‘donated’ to them by followers of their own children, as bait.

However other times decoys can use AI to transform themselves into children online.  

Speaking about how he feels speaking to paedophiles online he said: ‘You have to switch off, you have to be professional as you can, we have to be very calm and polite.

‘The more agitating you get with the predator the more they get angry, you have to ask certain leading questions.

‘There was an occasion where I went to meet a predator very early in the morning, got to the location, we apprehended him. We were discussing why we were there and then this predator just come out with that he rapes his daughter, and that just made us all break down.’

He revealed he could be talking to a predator for a long time because the decoys try to get as much evidence as possible to pass on to the police in the hopes of getting the predator locked up. 

Speaking about the dangers of the job, he said: ‘We face altercations all the time, we’ve been attacked with knives, hammers, crossbows, screwdrivers, furniture. There’s been people who have had their fingers bitten off.’

‘Pig’ said his team have a good relationship with 90 per cent of the police forces they deal with, but some do treat them like they are the criminals.

He said: ’90 percent give us good feedback they thank us for what we’re doing. 

‘Some people call us vigilantes which I can understand, but we are far from vigilantes. We do everything by the book, we’re 100 per cent straight with everything and the police are very happy with our work.’

‘Pig’ revealed that although his team have never stung the wrong person, it has happened to other teams. 

He explained: ‘We have to obviously follow rules, so we can’t just do what we feel we should do, But there are some groups that make their own rules.’

Despite some decoy groups occasionally apprehending the wrong person, the stings are live streamed on social media. 

He added: ‘When you live stream a video everybody knows that he’s a predator which people should be aware of. 

‘You might live next door to a predator or your friend may be a predator, everybody should know.

‘But we can’t afford to line up the wrong person for obvious reasons, we wouldn’t take one per cent chance on our team.’

However the panel challenged the paedophile hunter around the ethics of publicly outing the alleged predators.

The panel asked: ‘If there is a margin of error, why would you still opt to live stream onto a social media platform as opposed to just recording?’

The ‘pig’ said: ‘We don’t live stream every single case that we do but the ones that we do it’s for awareness, to expose that certain person.’

The panel replied: ‘Do you not think it would be better to have it pre-recorded just in case anything were to go wrong and then it can be released afterwards.’

To which the ‘pig’ agreed that is something his team could start looking into but they would consider it case by case. 

Reiterating their point, the panel said by live streaming to expose the alleged predators the hunters are almost creating a ‘public stoning’ scenario, which could potentially influence other to also take the law into their own hands. 

Elsewhere ‘pig’ said he wished there was ‘help’ for paedophiles, saying the whole system is a ‘shambles’.

He added: ‘They need help, there is no two ways about that, but the sentences that they receive is not a deterrent, for instance two to five years is normal for a sentence, there should be a cap there, you get five years straight away.

‘For four times you get 10 years, five times you’re 15-20 years or whatever. That will make them think a bit more.’

The panel revealed they spoke to a Virtuous Pedophile, who is someone who acknowledges to having a sexual attraction to children but want to lead normal productive lives without abusing children, in another episode.

One panel member said: ‘I actually felt really sorry for him, the problem is that it’s a spontaneously arising thing the attraction itself is involuntary, something that’s involuntary isn’t a choice.

‘I find it difficult because I don’t think that they should be around children but then on the flip side this is probably something that is wired in your brain.’

‘Pig’ admitted he had watched the episode and also felt slightly sorry for the man but he belives Virtuous Pedophile’s will eventually act on their desires.