Paedophile Hunting Vigilantes Convicted of False Imprisonment

A pair of so-called paedophile hunters have been convicted of false imprisonment after taking the law into their own hands.

Samuel Stephen Miller, 29, of Hutton Court, Annfield Plain, County Durham and James Moss, 58, of Laburnum Avenue, Blyth, Northumberland were each convicted of a single count of false imprisonment following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday, 6th April 2023.

Miller, the figurehead of the north east based Child Online Safety Team, was cleared of two further counts of false imprisonment.

False imprisonment is an offence contrary to common law, so in theory can attract a sentence of an unlimited fine and/or life imprisonment. However, the Judge in the trial will have extensive case law to refer to when deciding the most appropriate sentence. It has to be said that almost every case of false imprisonment, however brief the period of imprisonment, attracts a custodial sentence.

For the purposes of this article I am stepping away from the usual business of the Magistrates' Court. I will nail my colours firmly to the mast, that I do not approve of the methods employed by these groups. No-one can argue that detecting and apprehending online predators is a noble cause, but the way some of these groups go about it is prejudicial to the interests of justice.

The jury has accepted the prosecution version of events, that on 6th February 2020 Miller and Moss attended a residential street in Gateshead with the intention of apprehending a man they accused of sexually communicating with a decoy.

Miller - who seemingly has a loyal following despite his previous convictions for battery, criminal damage, witness intimidation, violent disorder and impersonating a police officer - called the police and wrongly told them that the man was a convicted rapist. The pair were asked to attend the police station to hand over any evidence they had gathered, but Miller confirmed that the man "had not said anything sexual or broken any laws".

Despite being warned off and having no evidence against the man, the pair "decided to act" and returned to "sting" the man later that evening. The man was forced down onto the pavement, with members of the public watching on. The pair shone torchlight into his eyes and Moss petulantly stamped on his cigarettes.

Gavin Doig, for the Crown, said: "At 9.15 pm Mr Miller called the police and told them not only had he decided to detain the man, he had already done it. The defendant Moss was with Miller at that time.

"They didn't take time to call the police before they acted but made time to live stream the events on Facebook, so we can see some of what went on."

During the live stream, Miller could be heard saying: "You are a danger to kids. You are one of the most dangerous people I have caught."

He also falsely accused the man of being a rapist. The man, who was pinned down by members of the groups, could be heard pleading not to be filmed and asking for the police.

I have seen, first hand, the deeply unedifying spectacle of some of these groups attending court, wearing their paedophile hunter branded merchandise, larking about and heckling their prey from the public gallery. I know cases where entirely innocent individuals and their families have been hounded from their homes, alienated from their communities, on the basis of unsubstantiated claims made by these groups.

It tells you something about this particular group, the Child Online Safety Team, that video footage of this false imprisonment remains posted on their social media pages, acting as like-generating click bait, despite them now knowing fine well that the man in question has done nothing wrong.

Miller is an attention-seeking rabble-rouser, and by Jove what a rabble he has to rouse. Thousands of his sheeple, most of them completely clueless about the inner workings of the criminal justice system, flock to the group's Facebook page to hear his extreme views on the people he "stings", the police, the court and anyone else who dares to disagree with his logic or modus operandi. If his previous offences are anything to go by, then he has zero respect for the police, court or rule of law. He most definitely is a bully despite having categorically denied, on oath, that he was. He is a deeply conceited and arrogant individual, which will no doubt be his eventual downfall.

These groups all tend to operate in a similar manner. They set up fake profiles on social media using the fictitious names and images of children and young people. They then wait for adults to make contact with those profiles. If the contact appears to be of a sexual nature, they will attempt to gather evidence of sexual communication. They will also try to arrange a meeting between the fictitious child and the adult communicating with them, as doing so indicates a higher level of sexual intent. Such a meeting also affords the opportunity of exposing the adult to the court of public opinion.

These groups could, if really motivated by a sense of public duty, simply hand over their evidence to the police and let them get on with it. The police, after all, have the knowledge and expertise to deal with these allegations in a legally sound manner.

But, as Mr Doig has rightly said, it is not about the sense of public duty - it's "about notoriety, about bullying others and about acting as pretend policemen" and "there are no Facebook likes in handing evidence to the police".

The law applies equally to everyone.

Miller and Moss will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday, 26th May 2023.

Update (8/6/23): Miller and Moss will now be sentenced on Friday, 23rd June 2023. At the hearing of 26th May 2023 barrister Gordon Carse, mitigating for Miller, said that his client was no longer a part of the Child Online Safety Team (COST) and "he (Miller) has stepped back from it and there are no plans to go back to it."

Update (23/6/23): Despite his mitigation that he has stepped away from COST, an article was published today that clearly demonstrates Miller is still providing soundbites on behalf of the group.

Update (24/6/23): Miller and Moss have now been sentenced. Regrettably, certain issues of law have arisen that may lead to the conviction being successfully appealed.

It has to be said that I do not consider some of the reported sentencing remarks by HHJ Julie Clemitson to have been particularly helpful - in particular the following remarks:

• "You took the law into your own hands and you exceeded any lawful authority you had to conduct a citizen's arrest."
• Which is contradicted by:
• "I accept you both genuinely believed he was an online sex offender." (e.g. she accepts they had grounds to make a section 24A arrest); and
• "The arrest was not itself an unlawful act." (e.g. she acknowledges that the actual arrest was in accordance with the legislation).

Section 24A allows for an arrest "to prevent the person in question... from making off before a constable can assume responsibility for him" - e.g. it confers a legal power to detain someone using reasonable force until the arrival of the police (and given the third comment mentioned above, the Judge does not appear to dispute the reasonableness of the level of force used). Significantly, section 24A does not specify how long a person can be detained until the arrival of the police. Similarly, it confers no requirement for the police to be summoned the moment a person is detained, or preemptively prior to a person being detained.

The key element of false imprisonment is that involves the unlawful detention of a person.

Difficult to square that circle when you acknowledge that the grounds for an arrest under section 24A have been made out.

Update (25/9/23): Miller appeared before HHJ Julie Clemitson at Newcastle Crown Court again today.

The Judge was a bit miffed that he spun her a pack of lies in his earlier mitigation. Miller dishonestly claimed to have stepped away from COST, when he was actually still actively engaged in the group's activities. Cocking a snook at the court, he has appeared in multiple "livestream" and "sting" videos since that date - including one video livestreamed within a few hours of being sentenced (him being at home, having already served his sentence by virtue of time on remand and tagged curfew).

Miller has now been made subject to an indefinite criminal behaviour order that prohibits him from any involvement at all with COST or any other "paedophile hunting" group. Call me cynical, but I suspect it won't be too long before he breaches it. I also suspect Northumbria Police will be watching closely and poised ready for action the moment he does.

The day after the Newcastle Chronicle published details of Miller's resentencing, a highly defamatory post about one of its journalists was published on the COST Facebook page.