A MAN has been arrested after a group of online paedophile hunters carried out a sting operation in Malvern.
Police confirmed a man had been arrested at the Malvern Premier Inn in Townsend Way on October 31.
This is after a video was widely shared on social media from the group Fleetwood Enforcers.
The 30-minute long video was shown live on the group’s Facebook page.
In the video, members of the group can be seen talking to a man who is sat in a car.
Throughout the video, the group ask him questions about the nature of his conversations with a decoy, who was pretending to be a 14-year-old girl.
The man says in the video that “mistakes were made” and that he had told the girl she was too young, but the group goes on to say he continued talking to them.
The video, which was viewed nealy 40,000 times and shared more than 5,000 times, shows the group accusing him of engaging in inappropriate conversations with a decoy pretending to be a 14 year-old girl.
The members of the group are then seen showing him a collection of notes, which they claimed were print-outs of messages exchanged with the decoy.
After 20 minutes or so of conversation, a man is then led away by police officers into a waiting police van.
A West Mercia Police spokesperson confirmed a man had been arrested and that an investigation was underway.
They said: “Yesterday, Monday 31 October, we received a report of suspected inappropriate activity online.
“A 39-year-old man was subsequently arrested.
“He currently remains in custody and the investigation is ongoing.”
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