A pedophile sentenced in Vesoul after a trap set by the "hunters" of the Team Moore collective

It is a practice from the United States which is not without risks and worries some investigators of the police.

This Tuesday, those called "pedophile hunters", French people who improvise stalking against sexual predators on social networks, won a new battle in Haute-Saône.

A 54-year-old man, arrested last September after the report of a citizen collective called

Team Moore

was sentenced in Vesoul to a 10-month prison term, the prosecutor said.

"The respondent was sentenced in a hearing to plead guilty (CRPC) for corruption of a minor of 15 years by social networks", indicated on his Twitter account the prosecutor of Vesoul, Emmanuel Dupic.

"A sentence of 10 months of firm imprisonment was pronounced, accompanied by a socio-judicial follow-up with obligation of care for 5 years", he added, specifying that the fifty-year-old had been "registered in the Fijais file of delinquents sexual ”.

🏛️This day The mis en cause was sentenced in a hearing to plead guilty CRPC for corruption of a minor of 15 years by social networks #pedophilia @EnvoyeSpecial #justice in # HauteSaône https://t.co/AojdcAA5Ot

- Procurator of Haute-Saône (@ procureur70) April 26, 2021

This resident of Gray (Haute-Saône) was arrested at his home last September, the day before the meeting he had fixed via the Internet for a 12-year-old child at Besançon station.

He had also been placed in police custody for detention, dissemination and concealment of pornographic images of minors, according to France Bleu.

A fake profile of a young girl

Behind the profile of the minor, named Lena, was hiding a mother from Lyon, a citizen collective member called "Team Moore", details France 3. A group which sent to the judicial police of Besançon a file containing screenshots discussions of a sexual nature between the man and the one he believed to be a 12-year-old.

To read also In Normandy, the "pedophile hunters" are investigating, the authorities are wary

Groups of "pedophile hunters" are "a new phenomenon that raises questions", underlined the prosecutor Dupic in September. "It is an original process for which great vigilance is expected because the organizers of the collective can be prosecuted if they reveal the identity of the accused on social networks", he continued, "and there is a risk of revenge on the accused person ”.

“In France, the right attitude to have is to report such facts on the Pharos platform of the Ministry of the Interior. Specialized investigators are then empowered to do this type of cyber infiltration, ”added the magistrate. Five days ago, in the Yvelines, a 41-year-old man was arrested after being trapped by an Internet user posing as a 12-year-old child. Last June, an inhabitant of the Oise already convicted of rape of minors in 2005, had been sentenced to two years in prison after being denounced by an Internet user pretending to be a teenager.