The case was brought by Mark Sutherland, who was jailed for two years in 2018 after being caught by a group in Scotland purporting to be a 13-year-old boy.
Sutherland (then 37) communicated with the ‘boy’ online before arranging to meet him at a bus station.
On arrival he was met by members of the Groom Resistors Scotland group, who filmed the encounter and posted the footage online.
Earlier this year Sutherland appealed against his conviction in the Supreme Court – the highest court in the UK – arguing that his right to a private life, enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, had been breached by the group.
He claimed that the covert investigation, and the use of the resulting evidence by the authorities, breached his human right for his correspondence to be private.
Campaigners feared that the work of vigilante groups would become impossible if the court ruled in Sutherland’s favour.
The court recently unanimously rejected Sutherland’s case, saying the method was lawful.
Delivering the judgment, Lord Sales said Sutherland had believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old boy and therefore had no ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ because a child could have told an adult.
He added that the authorities had a ‘special responsibility to protect children against sexual exploitation by adults’ and that overrode the right to privacy for such ‘reprehensible’ communications.
‘The interests of children have priority over any interest a paedophile could have in being allowed to engage in criminal conduct,’ the judgment said.
Miss O’Connor, whose efforts have led to the conviction of 25 child sex offenders in Jersey, Guernsey and the UK, said
she was not surprised by the court’s decision.
‘As far as I’m concerned the human rights of people like Mark Sutherland should not be considered,’ she said.
‘If the Supreme Court had ruled in his favour, it would have only provoked
more vigilantism from paedophile hunters,’ she added.
