Outside of the law
Taken at face value, it can only be considered a good thing; another predator taken out of circulation, exposed for what he is, potentially imprisoned for his crimes. This is what we want to see. We want to see them locked up, confined to a cell, a place where they can’t harm our children. And we want them to stay there, denied the opportunity to offend again, monitored, restricted and constrained. No Internet access, no fake profiles, no gratuitous images, no chatting, no grooming. A life of solitude, where they can reflect on their actions.
But how do we want this? Do we want it by any means necessary? Are we willing to contravene the laws of justice to ensure these monsters get their comeuppance? In this instance, given the reprehensible nature of the crimes, many of us would say yes, that we are happy to ignore due diligence and operate outside of the law, that in order to protect our children we would gladly string each of these men up by their unmentionables and face whatever consequences come our way. That’s one step closer to anarchy though, one step closer to a society which governs itself, to a society which has no need for policing or a judicial system, one step closer to madness, to mayhem, to chaos.
Were it not for the endeavours of UK-based vigilante group ‘Predator Exposure’, Kieran Creaven would still be a free man. He would still be online, soliciting young girls, doing his utmost to charm them, seduce them, to get them into bed. But he’s not doing any of this. Instead he’s counting the cost of his crimes, ruefully anticipating a court date, facing charges of attempting to arrange to meet a girl under the age of 16, and attempting to engage or incite sexual activity with a girl under the age of 16. Furthermore, because of the manner of his exposure, Mr Creaven is facing up to a life of ignominy, a life where, regardless of the outcome of his impending trial, he will forever be recognised as a man who sought to defile an underage girl.
And yet, as glad as I am to see another potential paedophile arrested, I have a serious problem with the methods used to expose Mr Creaven. The video we all watched on Sunday night, the one where a startled Kieran Creaven attempted to refute the irrefutable, was the culmination of six months’ work on the part of the ‘Predator Exposure’ group. Posing online as a 13-year-old girl, a female adult member of the group sought to lure men like Creaven into objectionable conversations. From there, the goal was to give the perpetrator enough rope to hang himself, to allow the man to drive the discussion onwards, to move it from the mundane to the forbidden, to the exchange of explicit images and discussions to meet in conveniently located hotels. In the case of Kieran Creaven, he went from A to Z in about six months, first contacting the ‘girl’ in July of this year, before progressing to a proposed meeting on Saturday last.
Of course, upon arrival, Mr Creaven was not met with the innocent, underage girl he had hoped to spend the night with, but with a half-dozen members of ‘Predator Exposure’, the vigilante group who had been tracking his progress since he’d touched down in Leeds. And this is where, for me, the problems begin. It’s all very well filming the moment for the benefit of the courts, documenting Creaven’s reaction to being caught, but why post it online, why stream it live on Facebook? What purpose could that possibly serve, other than to glorify the actions of the ‘Predator Exposure’ group? By releasing that footage to the world, the vigilante organisation have not only complicated any future trial, they have also provided defence lawyers with legal loopholes to exploit, methods to ensure their man gets off.
And then there’s the language used in the video. Again, if confronted by someone whom we knew had sent pictures of his erect penis to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl there’s no telling how any of us would react. You could argue that, given the circumstances, the people in the video showed remarkable restraint. I beg to differ. There was something grotesque in the way the members of the group took turns at denouncing Creaven, a menacing undercurrent. And, with the interaction being streamed live, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was just part of the show, whether their invective was for the titillation of the audience, a way of ensuring we continued to watch, just in case.
Roughly 25 minutes into that video, the police arrived and escorted Creaven to the sanctity of one of their vehicles. This brought an end to ‘Predator Exposure’s’ involvement, their work done for another night. But of course, their involvement is only just beginning, in the case of Kieran Creaven, their actions will ultimately decide his future. This is where things get really murky. Because, despite his intentions, abhorrent as they were, Mr Creaven was not talking to a 13-year-old girl, at least not in this instance. Gardaí have since seized his laptop and other electronic devices, which may or may not uncover further cases where the person on the other side of the screen was a child. But the two charges brought against Creaven in Leeds Magistrates Court on Monday were in relation to his correspondence with ‘Predator Exposure’, and his exchanges with an adult woman.
Can he really be sent to prison for attempting to incite an underage girl into sexual activity when the girl in question doesn’t exist? Is the fact there was intent enough to see him sentenced and placed in a wing with other sex offenders? This isn’t the first time a group like ‘Predator Exposure’ have sought to rectify this issue by themselves. Similar factions have sprung up all around the UK in recent years, one even featured in a Channel 4 documentary entitled ‘The Paedophile Hunter’ in 2014. However, as was the case then, and still is now, UK authorities are keen to stress that matters of a criminal nature should be left to the police, and that if these groups insist on carrying out ‘stings’ they should refrain from confronting the alleged culprit without first notifying the police.
This is the first time an Irish person has been caught up in one of these operations however. And although Kieran Creaven will be tried in Leeds for his involvement with the ‘Predator Exposure’ group, he is unlikely to face further censure in his homeland unless Gardaí unearth incriminating evidence on his laptop. The reasons for this are simple, there is no legislation in place for cases such as this, cases where men with devious intentions are entrapped by men and women with questionable motives. Cases where men and women with no affiliation to official organisations create viral content to entertain the masses, content they produce and direct, content which in a sane and just world would never be seen outside of the courtroom.
It can happen to anyone
There I was, thinking I was being empathetic, thinking I understood their plight and how horrible it must have been for them, when I had no idea whatsoever. I only thought I did. It was all in my imagination. When the stories about Weinstein’s proclivities emerged I declared my disgust, condemned him and all those like him. The same when Kevin Spacey’s behaviour was called into question, outrage and fury, incandescent rage.
But I realise now that it was all totally fabricated, that I wasn’t really bothered at all. And it’s taken the actions of another serial abuser to make me realise it. Reading the allegations levelled at Irish comedian Al Porter, it dawned on me that this was the kind of assault I fear, the kind of assault that I am vulnerable to. Because unlike the Weinstein case, the Spacey case, these victims weren’t innocent young women, nor were they naïve teenage boys, they were grown men, lads in the prime of their life, just like me.
It’s patently obvious that I’m not as vulnerable as those attacked by Weinstein and Spacey. Both men used their physical and cultural stature to intimidate their targets, tools which aren’t generally as effective against a six foot something man about town. Yet, by laughing off his actions, by accusing those on the receiving end of being prudish and dull, Porter, in his own way, managed to bully his victims. He shifted the blame onto them, suggested that they were at fault for not entering into the spirit of things. And ultimately, he left them with the same feelings of shame and remorse experienced by all those who have been the victims of sexual assault. Al Porter is a predator and his victims were people just like me. I think I get it now.
