Washington County district attorney comments on child predator hunter group sting in Peters Township
Peters Township Police arrested a man on multiple child pornography charges after an online child predator hunter group tracked him down.
William Jones was arrested this week, two months after the group's sting was broadcast live on Facebook.
The group, known as Niky Sal, goes across the country and meets up with suspected predators after chatting with them online. They confronted the suspect behind Grande Restaurant where he worked.
'They are difficult to prosecute because the law in Pennsylvania doesn't allow a civilian to act in that manner,' said Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh.
In this case, you can watch the civilian explain to Peters Township police what is happening. He says in the video, 'he was telling me that he had some child porn in his phone that he needed to get rid of...'
Police did a full investigation and retrieved child pornography. Walsh said in similar cases he has not been able to prosecute because they cannot take the sting operation to court.
'I understand they have their hearts in the right places, and no one wants child predators out there, we can all agree with that. But the best circumstance would be to alert law enforcement and not take things into your own hands.'
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