The tragic death of a man tracked down by a paedophile hunter has had a profound impact on the man who snared him.
Robert Pearson was confronted on the doorstep of his Huddersfield home by Jamie Lee who was then with a group called Team Impact.
Now Jamie has revealed he is with another group but they are rethinking how to confront people they have amassed evidence against for suspected paedophilic offences.
Pearson, 56, was confronted by Jamie on the doorstep of his then-family home at 5.15pm on Friday, January 5, as he arrived home after a shift as a Kirklees binman. Police arrested him minutes later.
Team Impact had put a fake profile online, posing as a 14-year-old boy called Leo Clark, and had waited to see if anyone messaged him. Mr Pearson was caught after sending sexual messages to the teenager.
Team Impact describes itself on Facebook as 'a team of volunteers who actively expose online predators'.
Mr Pearson later resigned from his job of 27 years with Kirklees, admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and was jailed for eight months in March but with time spent on remand was free a few weeks ago.
But the offences meant he had lost his home along with his wife of 29 years and his son. Both no longer wanted anything to do with him.
Mr Pearson was found hanged at the Valley Bowmen of Huddersfield club in Meltham early on Friday morning. There are no suspicious circumstances and a report is being prepared for the coroner.
Jamie said: “I would like to start by expressing my condolences to Mr Pearson’s family at this time. At no point did I wish death upon Mr Pearson and this event has had an emotional impact on me personally. This is a difficult situation for me as a hunter and the first time this has happened to a person convicted after one of my stings. He was clearly troubled after the exposure he received for his crime along with the loss of everything he held dear.
“He was the last sting I performed for Team Impact before leaving and I’m now part of a separate team and we have decided to take a look at how we manage any future stings and also at the way we publish them online.
“Mr Pearson received quite a high level of publicity and many of the people watching and reading were people from his local area. That, along with other personal factors clearly got too much for him.
“I will be taking some time to seriously consider if we as a team are to continue down this current route of exposing people online and look at ways we can prevent something like this happening again.
“I am aware of the controversy that already surrounds paedophile hunting teams and how we do things but our intentions are always good and we just want people to be aware when they have a predator living near them who is a risk to their children’s safety.
“That always was and always will be our goal. Without sacrificing what we stand for we will do our best to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
“I’d like to end by saying thank you to the people who support what we do and to those who have sent me messages of support after this incident.
