A vigilante group which says it helped snare a Burton paedophile attempting to meet an 11-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity claims its actions have led to 28 arrests in just four months.
Members of the so-called Keeping Kids Safe group lured 45-year-old Martin Rhodes, of Wyggeston Street, into a trap after he sent a series of sexually explicit text messages over the course of five days. He thought he was talking to an 11-year-old girl, but was speaking with members of the vigilante group.
Now the group's founder, Patrick Fripps, has told of the moment he claims members caught Rhodes in a McDonald’s car park waiting to meet the girl.
He also revealed that Keeping Kids Safe members needed counselling during their work after receiving hundreds of "vile" images from paedophiles.
Police have urged the group to stop what it does and leave dealing with such people to its officers, and that such groups do not help detectives investigating sex crimes.
After being sent transcripts of the text messages by the group , Nottingham Police arrested Rhodes while he waited in the car park in Sutton in Ashfield, near Mansfield, in June, police have confirmed.
He was charged and later appeared at Nottingham Crown Court where he admitted causing a child to watch a sexual act, grooming, attempting to cause or incite a female under 13 to engage in a sexual act and possession of cannabis. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
Mr Fripps, the founder of Keeping Kids Safe, claims around eight out of 10 people they trap in operations, eventually go on to exchange sexually explicit texts and pictures with youngsters, knowing they are underage.
Mr Fripps, 27, from Mansfield, said: "Keeping Kids Safe is based in Mansfield and Chesterfield and we sit on various social media forums and wait for a paedophile to come along. We have eight hunters locating the paedophiles, and 20 people on the social media sites.
"It always starts off with us saying, 'hi, how are you?' And we quickly say how old we are. Sometimes people say 'no thanks', but eight out of 10 people we speak to it continues, sadly.
"With Martin Rhodes it didn’t take very long at all before it got sexual. We moved over from social media to text messaging app WhatsApp. And he was vile. He was talking about what he wanted to do to us and what he wanted us to do.
"The four years he got is the best sentencing we have had but it is a bit disappointing as some of the charges were dropped.
"We met him in Sutton in Ashfield because he had knowledge of the area as he dropped off a colleague there. He wanted to meet in Sutton Lane which is a big open field with a play area where there would have been children so we changed the location to McDonald’s in Sutton in Ashfield."
Incredibly, the group claims it has secured 28 arrests since April 4, 2017.
Mr Fripps said: "I set up Keeping Kids Safe last year as I had previously watched other similar groups and got the idea from there. This time last year I was pretending to be multiple people to get information on a man who has now been arrested. I do this because I believe what we do is fantastic."
"The difficult thing, when you meet a vile person, is to try to stay cool. There was once a guy who tried to assault one of our members and I am a doorman so I intervened because we are about criminal justice not street justice.
"I would not encourage what we do to anyone else. The police get counselling because of the vile images they have to see whereas we don't."
As well as the prison sentence, Rhodes was also made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
An NSPCC spokesman said: "Rhodes thought he could get away with grooming a young girl for sex but has rightly been brought to justice and is now behind bars thanks to decisive action from the police. But his behaviour is, sadly, another example of how groomers use social media to prey on children.
"It is vital parents and carers talk to their children about staying safe online. Advice and guidance is available on our Net Aware website or through the NSPCC and O2’s online safety helpline on 0808 800 5002.
Detective Inspector Shaun Orton leads Leicestershire Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Unit, said: "We can do what these people do, but we do it a lot better. These groups are not doing us a favour.
"For some of them it is all about self-promotion, for others it’s about the financial gain from sharing their videos on social media. There is no accountability with these groups."
