A paedophile hunter who helped bring 28 sex offenders to justice has had his life ruined as 'perverts' sought revenge by portraying him as a paedophile online. Photo / 123rf
A paedophile hunter who helped bring 28 sex offenders to justice has had his life ruined as 'perverts' sought revenge by portraying him as a paedophile online. Photo / 123rf
A paedophile hunter who helped bring 28 sex offenders to justice has had his life ruined as 'perverts' sought revenge by portraying him as a paedophile online.
Josh Blakely, from West Kensington, London, is unable to get a job or go on dates and is too afraid to leave his house for fear of being attacked if someone recognises him from the six-month online hate campaign.
The 38-year-old believes members of a paedophile ring who feared he would target them stole his images and created dozens of fake social media accounts, videos and websites in which he was wrongly painted as a sex offender.
The trolls even doctored photos of the vigilante to make it look like he had publicly demonstrated in London in a campaign to reduce the age of consent to just six, the MailOnline reported.
Despite reporting the profiles and web pages to police and social media companies, many remain online and new ones pop up daily - leaving Josh fearing for his safety.
After two and a half years operating as a prominent paedophile hunter, often under the name Public Justice PHL, Josh has been forced to quit his work as he believes he has 'left himself open' for retaliation.
Now Josh fears the paedophiles' next step of the smear campaign will be to use a fake profile of his to groom children and then deliberately report it to police.
Josh said: 'I fear for my own safety now. If someone recognises me from what they have done I could be attacked by people thinking I am a sex offender.
'People attack sex offenders in their society and people might think I am a sex offender if they see this online - despite me never being convicted of a sex offence in my life.
'It's had a huge impact on me and my life. If you Google my name now, my name comes up straight away as a sex offender.
'It's taken my identity away from me, it's taken my freedom away from me.
'I can't get employment because employers won't want to employ someone that everywhere says is a sex offender.
'The first thing a company does is Google your name when you apply for a job. Even though I can prove that I am not a sex offender, it doesn't stop them from thinking it.
'In the end I had to quit my role as a hunter as my personal life was coming to a halt because of these trolls.
'They were effectively holding me to ransom on social media and they still continue to do so today. They control my life - I have no life as I'm seen as a sex offender.'
Facebook pages were set-up using his images and describing him as a paedophile - though they were quickly removed when he reported them.
However the trolls learned that by changing his name slightly then it would become more difficult for Josh to have the pages removed.
They soon followed with fake Twitter profiles, YouTube and LiveLeak videos and WordPress blogs describing him as a 'nonce' and a member of a 'child porn paedophile ring'.
An image of Josh campaigning in London doctored his placard to read: 'I Josh Blakely demand Govt to lower the legal age of consent to six years old for boy and girls.
'Paedophiles are people! #sexwithkids'
They even mocked up a Wild West 'wanted' style poster with his face on it, branding him a 'dangerous nonce' with a £50,000 reward.
The trolls even doctored photos of the vigilante to make it look like he had publicly demonstrated in London in a campaign to reduce the age of consent to just six. Photo / 123rf
Another blog erroneously attributed to Josh, which is still online, is entitled 'why paedophilia is for me' and cites reasons such as 'no one fancies me'.
Josh said: 'I feel I know who it is - it is paedophiles who we have tried to expose or who feel threatened by the work we did.
'I became well known and respect in the community through the good work we were doing catching these paedophiles.
'However looking back, I think I left myself open to threat without realising it. I opened myself up to too much.
'I never did it to get famous and never got paid for what I did. I did it purely to ensure these kids got justice and to make sure these people weren't out there doing this.
'I have not committed any criminal offence. All I have done is protected children from being abused and I'm not ashamed of that.
'It feels wrong then that I should be punished for it in this way.
'People in the paedophile community are punishing me because I protected children - and that doesn't make any sense to me.'
Josh has made numerous reports to police over the last five months but claims they have failed to treat his situation seriously.
He also claims WordPress told him he would need a US court order to have webpages branding him a paedophile removed and that Google refused to take them out of their search engines as it was 'in the public interest'.
Josh, who previously did factory work but now fears he will be unable to get a job due to the smear campaign, said: 'I applied for Google's 'right to be forgotten' under EU laws but they said due to 'public interest' they couldn't remove some of the content.
'They presumably think I am a sex offender.
'I think this is outrageous. It allows me to be made out to be a sex offender.
'Even when one of them is deleted, more pop up. I've had tons removed but they will be at it again a week later.
'Whoever is doing it is very clever and has many different devices and is doing it across many platforms. They clearly have some real technology they are using to do it.
'It's like social media is responsible for it as well. They are allowing these things to remain up there.
'Police don't take it very seriously when I have gone into the police station to hand in the evidence to them.'
However he fears the next step is likely to be even nastier and that the trolls will try to set him up as a paedophile and make it look like he was trying to groom a child.
Josh said: 'They have taken serious allegations to the police about the hunting community to try to get people arrested.
'It's very dangerous. They even posted up my home address and made threats to come and get me.
'I am waiting for them to use my personal image to set me up and potentially use my 'profile' to pretend to be me to groom a child.
'Then they would use that evidence to set me up for an arrest and possible imprisonment for something I've never done. That is really scary for me.
'When I was walking my dog I panicked that someone was following me. I have this fear that someone will recognise me and think I am a sex offender and be attacked or even killed.
'I don't even go out and socialise anymore, I am single and shut myself in my own home like a prisoner.'
A Met Police spokesperson said: '[We] can confirm officers from Hammersmith and Fulham are investigating allegations of malicious communications via social media.
'The allegations were reported by the male victim on 25 Feb 2018. A number of inquiries are currently ongoing.
'The victim has been updated as to the status of the investigation and advised that allegations of this nature can take time to investigate. There have been no arrests.'
Google confirmed they are in contact with Josh and that they have already taken action on some of the content flagged to them.
They claimed they had advised Josh that he can request a legal removal for defamation under UK law.
A Facebook spokesperson said: 'There is no place for bullying or harassment on Facebook, which is why we have spent over a decade introducing new features and tools to keep people safe and have a positive experience.
'We encourage Mr Blakely to continue reporting any incidents of trolling so we can remove content which violate our standards, as we have done previously.'
Despite Josh claiming he had reported the abuse to LiveLeak, a spokesperson said they could not find any reports in their system from Josh but have subsequently removed one of the offending videos.
A Twitter spokesperson said: 'We don't comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.'
