Dark Justice (group)

Dark Justice (founded on 30 October 2014)[1] are a two-man operation based in Newcastle upon Tyne. They are not police officers, although their tactics are similar to those sometimes used by police. [2] They are an online group who pose as children normally between the ages of 11 and 15 in order to catch online child groomers. When they meet a child groomer in real life, members of Dark Justice wear bulletproof vests.[3][4] Their evidence has been used in court and has successfully secured the prosecution of over 115 online groomers including Roger Lee,[5] and Barry Scott.[6] In May 2018, the Evening Chronicle reported that Dark Justice have secured over 150 arrests with over 40 of those being jailed.[7]

Dark Justice
Organisation
Founded30 October 2014 (2014-10-30)
Headquarters
United Kingdom 
Area served
United Kingdom; mainly North East England
Websitewww.darkjustice.co.uk

Dark Justice is run by two men[8] and use aliases in the form of Scott (born 1991) and Callum (born 1994).

The two men met each other through Scott's brother. Prior to starting Dark Justice, both men worked in the digital media industry.[9]

During 2017, an anonymous businessman gave Dark Justice an office in Newcastle to serve as the group's new base of operations.[10][11][12][13][14][14][15][16]

Dark Justice do not get paid for their work and instead receive support from their families and use money that they have in savings and from donations to their website to fund their work.[17]

In mid 2017, Dark Justice won a landmark high court judgment to continue their work and The Hon. Brian Langstaff concluded that the members of Dark Justice had "acted as private citizens throughout".[18] Of the outcome, Dark Justice said "It could have been terrible but we are thrilled the judge has sided with us".[19]

In 2019, a "landmark" ruling was passed meaning that paedophiles would now face the same sentence regardless of whether or not the child they attempted to meet was real. Of the ruling, Dark Justice said it was "brilliant and a great move forward within the law".[20]

References
  1. "Dark Justice – About". Facebook.
  2. "Dark Justice: The vigilante paedophile hunters who revel in 'football factory' stings". International Business Times UK. 2015-02-09.
  3. "Internet sting paedophile jailed". BBC News. 2015-03-27.
  4. "'We pretend to be teens online to catch paedophiles', TV debates, Dark Justice plus the consumer hour., The JVS Show – BBC Three Counties Radio". BBC.
  5. "Paedophile caught in vigilante 'sting' after he drove 300 miles to meet 14-year-old girl". mirror. February 2015.
  6. "Wallsend paedophile Barry Scott jailed after Dark Justice sting". Evening Chronicle. 2015-07-31.
  7. Johnson, Ian (12 May 2018). "Dark Justice fear they may be BANNED due to other paedophile hunting vigilantes". Evening Chronicle. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  8. Kelly, Mike (19 September 2017). "Dark Justice claim they're better at catching paedophiles than the police".
  9. Perraudin, Frances (8 April 2017). "Judge rules 'paedophile hunters' can continue posing as children online". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  10. "Paedophile vigilantes Dark Justice to be unmasked in TV documentary".
  11. Manzoor, Sarfraz (5 July 2015). "The new avengers". The Sunday Times.
  12. Narwan, Gurpreet (20 November 2017). "On patrol with the paedophile hunters". The Times.
  13. "Behind Dark Justice's crusade to bring down pedophiles". kernelmag.dailydot.com. 2015-07-12.
  14. Hutchinson, Lisa (9 September 2017). "Why Dark Justice say summer holidays is the 'busy season' for paedophiles?".
  15. "We quit our jobs in our twenties to become full-time paedophile hunters". 30 June 2016.
  16. "Pedophile hunters Dark Justice report online grooming 'epidemic' – THE UNHIVED MIND NEWS". theunhivedmind.com. 2017-08-16.
  17. Corner, Natalie (5 April 2016). "Paedophile hunters 'Dark Justice' reveal they have helped catch 20 perverts as they are forced to defend controversial tactics". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  18. Perraudin, Frances (2017-04-08). "Judge rules 'paedophile hunters' can continue posing as children online". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  19. Nichol, Sara (13 April 2017). "Geordie duo Dark Justice's landmark case 'could have seen almost 100 paedophiles walking free'". Evening Chronicle. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  20. Johnson, Ian (20 March 2019). "Dark Justice hope thousands of paedophiles could now be jailed after this ruling". Evening Chronicle. Retrieved 24 January 2020.


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