Paedophile hunter behind PH Balance reveals how he is bringing perverts to justice

P H BALANCE has brought more than 30 paedophiles to justice since it began operating a little more than a year ago and maintained its 100 per cent conviction rate last month when they snared a Newport pervert who had volunteered with the Scouts Association.

Clinton Vlahos, of Bishton Road, was caught after he thought he was in contact with an underage teenage girl.

The 25-year-old appeared before Cardiff Crown Court to plead guilty to two counts of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child.

He was caught in March after a sting which led to his arrest in Newport Retail Park after the police were alerted.

Vlahos is due to be sentenced at the end of July. The Scouts Association confirmed he had been a volunteer and said he will never be able to work for them again.

Since Nick Young, 49, founded P H Balance 14 months ago, they have been involved in some high-profile cases, including the conviction of an ex-teacher his early thirties from Newport.

The defendant received a suspended prison sentence earlier this year after he tried to set up a Christmas Eve date with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl at city school after the paedophile hunters had created a fictitious online profile.

Paedophile hunters most commonly work on social media and messaging apps to snare potential child groomers.

They often pose as underage children and wait for potential paedophiles to get in touch.

Mr Young, who spent nearly 20 years as a prison officer in his native Gloucester, is dedicated to tracking them down and putting them through the criminal justice system.

He said his own child abuse trauma drives his work but he added he thinks there should be no motivating factor in helping to keep young people safe from the hands of predators. He condemns the use of the label ‘vigilantes’ sometimes used to describe the groups similar, to host of which there are dozens across Wales and England.

Mr Young told of how he was abused by a man when he was aged between four and 14.

He said: “I still have nightmares about the horrific things that happened to me. I only revealed what had happened to me to my wife when I was in my 30s. There should never be a motivating factor to fight child abuse.

“We just want to keep kids out of harm,” he said. “We are not vigilantes. We act within the law and work with the police to bring these offenders to justice.

“We use child profiles in chatrooms but we always let them contact us first. We never, ever engage with them first.

“In our last 10 cases we have pre-warned the police. If they can’t arrange to attend a sting, we are given an incident number and told to call 999. The officers we have dealt with at the scene have been superb.

“And we don’t engage in operations which can put members of the public at risk.”

Mr Young currently has 18 volunteers operating in two teams in south and west Wales and said he is inundated with offers of help, with hundreds of people offering their services for free.

P H Balance is made up of an eclectic mix which includes housewives, engineers, construction and retail trade workers. They prefer to remain anonymous, but Mr Young is unafraid to be their public face, even though he has received death threats.

He said: “Since we were founded, we’ve caught more than 30 offenders and we have a 100 per cent conviction rate with the information we have passed on to the police.”

And he and his team are expecting a busy next two months with schools due to close for the long summer holidays when children will have far more time to spend on their online devices.

Evidence from paedophile hunters were used to charge suspects in Wales and England on at least 150 occasions last year.

There has been a sevenfold increase in the use of such evidence from 2015, figures obtained under freedom of information laws revealed.

Two-thirds of the 43 police forces in Wales and England provided data, which showed that in 2017 almost half of the cases against people charged with meeting a child after sexual grooming used evidence from the groups.

But although they use evidence from paedophile hunters to prosecute perverts, the police can be sceptical of their work and it is a complicated relationship.

Gwent Police’s detective chief superintendent Nicki Brain said: “We rely on the assistance of the public in preventing and detecting crime.

“Working closely with communities is a vital way in which we gain information, and their active engagement in fighting crime helps us to do our job.”

She added: “Cases involving child sex abuse are extremely serious and have a huge emotional impact not only on the victims, but on whole families, and the communities in which they take place. We understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should get in contact with the police so we can investigate and bring people to justice.

“Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them. It also leads to people who have been identified going missing or raising concerns for their safety.

“This can divert significant resources into protecting suspects, which would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting them.

“Vigilante groups also risk committing offences themselves whilst dealing with these suspected paedophiles, which our officers then have to deal with.

“If any member of the public has concerns about online grooming, they should call 101 to report it, or email CEOP at www.ceop.police.uk. If you think a child is at immediate risk of harm, always call 999.”

NSPCC Cymru are hopeful a beneficial relationship can be forged and a spokesman said: “While we have every sympathy for people concerned about suspected abusers, when members of the public take the law into their own hands it can run the risk of driving offenders underground, endanger ongoing police work and the legal process or result in innocent people being targeted – all of which may put more children at risk of harm. Protecting children is the priority and we need to understand how work between police and these ‘paedophile hunter’ groups can be done without jeopardising the case or by putting themselves and children in danger.

“If someone has concerns about a child’s safety the best way they can help is to alert the police.

“By speaking out they may be able to help investigations and contribute vital evidence.”

Anyone with concerns about children, or adults who pose a threat to them, can contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk.