A Scottish paedophile hunter has slammed authorities after being dragged through the courts for chasing down and detaining an alleged child sex predator until police arrived.
Alex Cairnie, 47, who runs the Spartan Child Protection Team, said he believed his arrest and sentence of 120 hours’ unpaid work for abduction and robbery over the April 2023 sting was an attempt to stop his volunteer group from exposing child groomers.
“We believe there is an active campaign to stop us hunting down online predators,” Mr Cairnie told The Scottish Sun, and vowed to continue hunting down paedophiles.
“But we exist because of the scale of the problem. It is a true epidemic. The number of people online on a daily basis who are prepared to prey on children is immeasurable.
“I’m good at what we do. I take it very seriously. I know the scale of the problem. I raise awareness and do education for parents that the authorities don’t do. I show them where predators are hiding on their children’s phones. I know how these people think. And I can outsmart and catch them.”
Mr Cairnie was sentenced in Paisley Sheriff Court last week over the live-streamed sting, which involved a car chase that began in Galston, Ayrshire, and ended in Eaglesham, near Glasgow.
The paedophile hunter and his team cornered the suspect after being contacted by concerned parents who feared their child was being preyed upon, but Mr Cairnie was arrested at the scene, along with the alleged sex predator, for standing on the suspect’s wrists and seizing the man’s wallet as he waited for police.
Mr Cairnie pleaded guilty to both charges, but was cleared of a third of charge pursuing a motor vehicle and was sentenced to the community payback order despite Sheriff Brian Mohan noting the case involved a “real child”.
He was cheered by a crowd of supporters after leaving court, and later wrote on the Spartan Child Protection Team Facebook page that he thought he would be jailed due to the judge being “clearly not a fan of our work”.
“A man was stopped from destroying a child’s innocence, anything else is an inconvenience,” he wrote.
After the sentencing the page shared a message from the family of the then-11-year-old girl, who were also in court to support Mr Cairnie.
“As a family we’ll never be able to put into words how grateful we are to Alex and the team, It was an honour to be there yesterday to support him and we were also met with so much support and kindness from a great group of people,” they said in a statement.
