Man arrested in Workington after vigilante group sting

A man has been arrested in Workington on suspicion of child sex offences after a vigilante group sting.

The man, who Cumbria Crack is not naming for legal reasons, was confronted by a body describing themselves as a “child protection group” shortly after 4pm yesterday.

Within 20 minutes of the man being confronted, he was arrested by Cumbria Constabulary.

Tyler Bartlam, a volunteer with the group, said there are more arrests being made due to the work of vigilante groups like his.

“There are more teams active at the moment and more investigation teams going out and making interceptions. There were 15-20 carried out yesterday all over the country,” he said.

Tyler said this is the first time the group have made a sting in Cumbria.

He believes the surge in interceptions is due to increased activity by vigilante groups, rather than an increase in offending.

Outlining why his group feels the need to operate, Tyler said: “Because the police don’t have enough funding to do what we do. We are all volunteers and everything we do is funded by ourselves.

“The police haven’t got enough funding to do it themselves.”

Addresses concerns surrounding the legal implications of live-streaming a confrontation involving a suspect, Tyler responded: “I don’t think I take them (concerns) into consideration. We care about awareness and if you are living next to a sex offender, everyone deserves to know who their next-door neighbour is and who lives on their street.”

Tyler was full of praise for the way Cumbria police responded to their call yesterday.

“Not all police respond like Cumbria police,” he said. “They were absolutely brilliant. A lot of police forces are delayed in responding but Cumbria police came straight away, they were absolutely spot on.

“Sometimes you are waiting six or seven hours, but they were here within 20 minutes.”

A statement from Cumbria Constabulary said: “A 23-year-old man from Workington was arrested on suspicion of inciting a girl 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity and possessing a class C controlled drug. He remains in police custody.

“The constabulary’s position on so-called paedophile hunter groups reflects the position of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, in that we understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should contact police so it can be investigated and offenders brought to justice.”