A paedophile hunting group is holding a recruitment day in Leeds

The voluntary organisation, which is based in Leeds, have arranged a recruitment day at the Old White Hart Hotel in Beeston on Sunday February 10 from 2-4.30pm.

They are looking to appoint new decoys - who pose as children to lure online predators - security operatives to provide protection during stings and administrators to run their social media accounts and act as a point of contact.

Predator Exposure under scrutiny in new TV documentaryThe roles are all voluntary and unpaid.

Decoys, who must be over the age of 18, will be given full training and support.

All volunteers are CRB checked.

Predator Exposure appeared this month on a BBC documentary called Paedophile Hunters: The Rise of the Vigilantes. Last week one of their targets was jailed for trying to meet a 12-year-old girl for sex in Hunslet on Remembrance Sunday.However, police forces have expressed concern that paedophile hunters' activities can jeopardise investigations and potential convictions, while also running the risks of 'exposing' innocent people by mistake on live online streams seen by thousands of people.

In April 2018, a group called Protecting the Innocent were forced to apologise on their Facebook page after targeting an innocent man in a sting on his doorstep in Leeds. They broadcast the confrontation live and later realised the victim was not the same man they had been pursuing.

These are some of the people Predator Exposure have exposed as sex offendersEarlier this month, it was reported that national police chiefs had ordered local forces to crack down hard on the vigilante groups - even telling officers to pursue them with the full force of the law.

According to internal guidance seen by The Times, forces have been told to investigate potential harassment, privacy and violence offences as vigilante groups have "little or no consideration" for the safeguarding requirement of victims of the paedophiles they have outed.

National Police Chiefs Council lead for child protection, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, said:-

"Don't try to take the law into your own hands, you could undermine police investigations, creating more risk for the children we all want to protect."

In May 2017 West Yorkshire Police warned a group that they were unable to sanction their activities.

At the time a spokeswoman said: “We would always encourage members of the public to report any illegal activity relating to child sexual exploitation which they come across during normal online activity.

“While the force does, of course, share the concerns of these groups regarding the internet activity of potential child abusers and the danger they present, it must be stressed that the activities they seek to engage in are the responsibility of law enforcement agencies. Due to this we ask them to refrain from this ‘hunter/exposure’ style activity.

“Law enforcement officers who undertake undercover or covert activities are specially trained to do so and work under strict authorities provided within legislation.

“This process ensures, not only that the evidence is lawfully collated but also that the human rights of all parties are met.

“West Yorkshire Police fully investigates all allegations of child sexual exploitation and has dedicated, specialist safeguarding officers in all our policing districts.

“We urge members of such ‘exposure’ groups not to carry out this activity and instead to report suspected offences in West Yorkshire to the force."

In September, an online paedophile hunter group was slammed in a Scottish court after it was claimed its members could have jeopardised a sex offender's trial.

Wolf Pack Hunters UK set up a fake child social media account and were contacted by a man who believed he was chatting to a 12-year-old boy called Cameron.

Craig Raeburn, from East Lothian in Scotland, sent the bogus schoolboy Whatsapp pics of his erect penis and made sexual comments about engaging in “oral sex” and “full sex” during the online chats in March 2018.

Raeburn was subsequently confronted by the Wolf Pack Hunter members during an alleged sting at Edinburgh Waverley Station. The disgraced former NHS boss, 54, admitted two offences at a trial hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

But during the hearing, prosecutor Fraser Matheson made scathing comments about the Wolf Pack Hunters' methods for putting Raeburn’s conviction at risk. The fiscal said during the online chats the adult decoy had “induced and encouraged” Raeburn, a former youth football coach, to continue with his depraved activities.

Mr Matheson said: “It is accurate to describe the group as a vigilante group and neither the police or the Crown encourages individuals to join such groups or to engage in vigilante activities.

“The group uses decoys on chat sites and social media and they adopt the persona of a child. If anyone makes indecent contact with the fictitious child the group ultimately reports matters to the police.”

The fiscal said Raeburn made contact with the online decoy just four days after a Skype account had been set up in March. Mr Matheson added:

“Throughout the messages there are elements of inducement or encouragement on the part of the decoy which are of some concern. In the messages the decoy, posing as the child, asked when he might see the genitals in real life.

“There was an element of encouragement on the part of the decoy."

The Crown refused to comment officially but a spokesperson did confirm the COPFS did not work alongside any paedophile hunter group on criminal cases.

Raeburn was jailed for 14 months and placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years.