Paedophile hunters generating half of all online grooming cases

J Roberts made this Freedom of Information request to Police Scotland This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Police Scotland.

Dear Police Scotland,

In a recent HMICS report entitled “Strategic Review of Police Scotland's response to onllne child sexual abuse” it was revealed that in 2019 Police Scotland received 1,961 referrals for online child abuse (page 3):

https://www.hmics.scot/sites/default/fil...

On page 5 of the report it states:

“Almost half of the online grooming cases emanate from the activities of online child abuse activist groups (vigilante groups), who are unregulated and untrained. A more robust proactive capability on the part of Police Scotland would reduce the opportunities for these groups to operate.”

Please provide the names of all child activist groups referred to in the report and specify the number of grooming cases that emanated from each in 2019.

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

Police Scotland

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FOI Glasgow, Police Scotland

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OFFICIAL
Good afternoon

Please find attached the response to your information request. Please accept our apologies for the delay of your response.

Kind regards

Information Management
Freedom of Information
Police Scotland
Clyde Gateway
2 French Street
Dalmarnock
G40 4EH

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Dear FOI Glasgow,

Thanks for your response. It is good to hear of your unswerving commitment to extirpate child sexual abuse.

My attention was drawn to this part of your response:

"To explain, each former legacy force area operates its own recording system. These systems operate independently from each other and are not at present designed to enable the retrieval of the specific information required to answer your request."

I wish to amend my request in light of the above.

For the former legacy force area of Glasgow only, please provide the names of all child activist groups from which child grooming cases emanated in 2019. Please specify the number of cases that emanated from each.

Unfortunately, I do not know have any knowledge of how you keep your records; therefore, if the phrase 'the former legacy force area of Glasgow' causes similar problems with retrieval etc., please restrict my request to the police area of Glasgow that includes Buchanan Bus Station.

Yours sincerely,

J Roberts

FOI Glasgow, Police Scotland

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OFFICIAL

Good morning

Please find attached the Service response to your information request.

Kind regards

Information Management
Police Scotland, Clyde Gateway
2 French Street
Dalmarnock
Glasgow
G40 4EH

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