When troll-hunting goes terribly wrong

/ 30/09/2018

Once upon a time there was an evil troll. He didn’t live under a bridge; he dwelt on the internet, where he delighted in sending people messages which caused them deep pain and suffering.

For example, when he learned that a man named Allan Bryant Jr had disappeared in 2013, having last been seen outside a nightclub in Glenrothes, a town in Fife, this troll began sending Allan’s parents evil messages, claiming that he had tortured and murdered their missing son.

Under a false name he posted, “I am the killer of Allan Bryant.

“When he walked home I stopped my van, grabbed him, holded (sic) him hostage til I found out he was on the new so I brutally tortured him.

“Tied to a chair, stabbed nails in him, wrapped with 240,000 volt wire and fried that f***** Allah Akbar f*** white people.”

The troll (whose real name was Stewart McInroy) was arrested, tried, and jailed for 10 months for this crime in 2014, but he would not be deterred from his hateful ways. When he was released from prison, he began “posting more vile online abuse to a former girlfriend threatening to burn her house down and harm her dog“. For this, he was jailed for another seven months.

You might think that Stewart would learn from these experiences, but you would be wrong.

His next target was a woman who was a member of a “paedophile-hunting” group: he began having online conversations with her, and then began abusing her verbally and making threats that he would rape her. This time, he was jailed for eight months.

Three guesses what Stewart did when he got out?

Yes, he started sending vile messages to Allan Bryant’s family again.

In an email to the local newspaper, Stewart said,

“But after the trolling I started to like it. It made me feel in control and have power. Every time I troll it makes me feel good. It’s harmless but if people don’t like it then they should hit the block button but they DON’T – they just sit there and cry and moan about it.

“I enjoy my trolling. I like to slate people and take the mick out of them but I expect them to troll back (rather) than sit and waste there (sic) time on police.

“Am I sorry for my crimes? NO.

“Will I change? Yes – in future when I decide to get bored of it.”

In other words, Stewart is a very, very nasty troll, who enjoys hurting people online.

The tables turn?

A few days ago, a very disturbing live-streamed video started making its way around Facebook. In it, a group of people—two men, a woman, and a 17-year-old youth—all members of a “paedo-hunting” group called “Wolf Pack Hunters”, confronted Stewart in the street.

Wearing bandanas tied round their faces, they surrounded him, and began assaulting him verbally, and then punching him.

Viewers of the video cheered the vigilantes on with comments like “bullet between the eyes, job done”, “turn the camera off and hit him”, and “put him six feet under”.

In all, it’s estimated that over 3,000 people viewed the video. More might have done so since it was published.

Stewart the troll was taken to hospital to be treated for his injuries, and then he was arrested for an outstanding warrant from England.

His four assailants were also arrested, and charged with abducting Stewart. They are currently in jail on remand. 

So who won?

Stewart the Troll came out of the episode with some cuts and bruises, but three adults and a youth are now looking down the barrel of some serious prison time.

We know from his previous record and his public statements that Stewart is a very nasty person who likes hurting people, but the four people who attacked him in the video have just moved him to the “victim” end of the spectrum.

When they go to court, they will not be seen as brave troll hunters; they will be treated as suspects on account of their actions.

A 17-year-old’s prospects just became significantly dimmer, and three adults are risking their families’ and their own well-being because they wanted to “catch the troll” on camera and look like like community heroes.

And whether they win or lose in court, they will have to live in the knowledge that, far from bringing an evil troll to justice, they have given him the upper hand, made him a victim in some people’s eyes, and allowed him to continue his hateful ways.

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56 thoughts on “When troll-hunting goes terribly wrong”

  2. Thanks for sharing, EC.

    I’m trying to get my head round the fact that McInroy got a shorter sentence for his second offence than his first! It seems particularly surprising when the second offence was a rape threat, which is about as serious as it gets.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Spot-on conclusion at the end there, EC. There’s no excuse for that kind of vigilante action and as you say, there are probably people who objected to McInroy’s actions who now empathise with him.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, frustrating and enraging as it is to see someone continue with the sort of behaviour he has, it’s just not okay to take the law into one’s own hands like that.

      Liked by 2 people

  4. That confirms for me that these vigilante groups are not motivated by a sense of caring for children rather looking for a legal excuse to go on a rumble.
    I blame the police and authorities for not cracking down on them and politicians for ignoring the notion that private militias or vigilante groups are dangerous to society.
    They are setting up imaginary crimes and then setting in chain a whole lot of costly events that solve nothing.
    Self-appointed “experts” like high profile ex-coppers who exaggerate their careers encourage them by saying ” I do not advise they do this but I understand why they do”.
    Well I don’t. If I wanted to enforce the law I would have joined the police or become a lawyer. I am happy to pay taxes for those forces to exist, not pay them for mindless morons to create havoc.

    And I still highly suspect people whose motives they claim are to “protect children”. How many have deeply repressed pedophilic desires (wearing my Freud hat here) they think they may be vanquishing by attacking alleged pedos?

    Liked by 4 people

  5. As a project designer with 30 years experience i can tell you i created the format of the live stream that descends in to thuggish behaviour and violence.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Are you absolutely certain that the whole episode wasn’t concocted by the tabloid media? It has all the angles a Daily Heil staff writer could ask for:

    1. A chance to decry political soundness in contemporary culture, which is killing Free Speech, so that a dude can’t express his real feelings through social media for fear of offending someone’s tender sensibilities and being sent to jail.

    2. A chance to decry the feeble slap-on-the-wrist-wivva-wet-bus-ticket nature of today’s courts. Mollycoddling the bad-uns! When will citizens step in to impose the social sanctions that judges are so scared of using?!

    3. Oh noes, violent mobs are roaming the streets!!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Neelu has shared another Ceylon video…
    but
    she has exploded facebook I think- this has to be the LONGEST rant I have ever seen in one post…..
    (I wont copy paste it, as it is literally 10 pages long as a pdf)
    It appears she has copied the entire thread down word for word and posted it as a single post!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, because what better way to cure a troll of his nasty ways than to give him a platform on television to tell the world about himself? Sometimes I wonder about the BBC. 😦

      Like

      • EC, for what it’s worth he’s not promoting himself or his trolling in that clip. In fact he seems quite contrite about what he’s done.

        And at 56:47 he says he’s “disgusted with himself”.

        I actually remember watching this documentary at the time, funnily enough. It’s an exposé on trolls and pretty disturbing at times. Well worth a watch, imo.

        Liked by 1 person

      • From the BBC Blurb:

        “Ultimately, Troll Hunters is here to name, shame and lay down the law to Britain’s worst offenders and to unpick the psychology of what makes a troll tick.”

        An earlier programme made in 2012 by Richard Bacon “The Anti-Social Network” was also a good watch.

        “Broadcaster Richard Bacon has been targeted by an obsessive tirade of anonymous online abuse over the last two years, aimed not just at him but at his wife, mother and baby son. Motivated by his own experience, in this documentary Richard attempts to hunt down and confront three online bullies, including his own, only to learn that unmasking these so-called trolls can be a dangerous pursuit.”

        Liked by 2 people

      • Having said that, I’ve just noticed a comment on there saying that all the trolls featured are male and all the victims female, so it’s possibly a little sexist in that regard. As we know, female trolls do exist and they do pick on men.

        Here’s a completely random space-filling photo that has nothing to do with what I’ve just said:

        Liked by 2 people

      • That fake Becki Percy blog predates the HR post about her that initially inspired James to look into her, by quite some time.

        Liked by 2 people

        • Yes, several months elapsed between our becoming aware of the fake BP stuff and James beginning to ask valid questions about whether she had reported any of her alleged abuse to the Hull police.

          Liked by 1 person

          • I have zero connection to the fake BP postings or blog.

            This is not my style, and the poster of the fake BP content has access to information I do not have.

            I did not become involved with the Becki Percy case until I had heard about it through Hoaxtead and the Twitter postings of EC.

            The BP blog has posted photographs of underage children, a source of discontent for Catherine (2nd mom of Becki Percy), something I condemn. I am also uncomfortable about the strategy of posting content as if it was from BP.

            As Catherine infers, it might be that Becki Percy or/and her supporters are playing mind games.

            The fake BP blog and posts are well into the legal territory of harrassment charges under UK law, I would not be so stupid to put myself at risk of that.

            As usual the supporters of Becki Percy are casting around for suspects for the fake BP posts, which for all I know is created by themselves.

            For the record I am one of the team behind the Arachnae Project, which will challenge Becki Percy legally and objectively.

            I am now probably the No.1 critic of Becki Percy, but I will only post my challenges under my known account names and Arachnae Project.

            Liked by 3 people

            • Yes, I agree with you 100%, SV. I discovered we had inadvertently published a photo which contained a picture of an infant, and I immediately removed it—we don’t publish pictures of children here.

              I do think it’s interesting that some are attributing that blog to Becki Percy herself, but I’d need to see more evidence to make a call on that.

              Liked by 2 people

  10. Until EC mentioned it in a post a few weeks back, I hadn’t realised that photo albums had their own comment threads on Facebook. So I’ve just checked a handful of Angela’s at random and found quite an amusing one about her old horse. Apparently she got trouble with the council for keeping it in her back garden in Oldcastle 😆



    Liked by 1 person

    • “She bucked with excitement all the way to the chapel”. Sensible horse wanted no part of it. In fact, I know one of the paparazzi who was there and they got this video of Angie on the way to the Chapel.
      Wonder what Blue studied at Warwick University?.

      Liked by 1 person

    • She’s going to get done for stalking and harassment by the time’s she finished. I reckon she left things there so she has an excuse to keep coming back and abusing the security guards.

      Liked by 1 person

      • I hate being fair to her, but she was removed during a 6 am knock-up and refused entry almost immediately. If the building society were not diligent enough to remove the contents of the shed to storage, then she might have a point. They have a duty of care in respect to her belongings (although the costs of that care are hers) and ironically she can point to her videos as proof that she has been trying to retrieve the items if they have not been moved en-mass to storage.

        And whose trousers are hanging on the washing line?

        Liked by 1 person

        • Point taken re. the dawn raid but balance that with the fact that they’d already tried to evict her six months earlier, plus the fact that she’d been receiving warning letters about defaulting on her mortgage since 2014. One thing she can’t say is that this was all a massive surprise.

          Also, she was told repeatedly where to go to collect her belongings and whom to contact with any queries (such as missing items) and was given ample time (28 days) to do so.

          She also seems to still be labouring under the delusion that the house is still hers.

          Liked by 1 person

          • Oh yes, I absolutely agree, but I still think they will have a problem if the bike hasn’t been removed to storage.

            This case seems pertinent as it relates to a litigant in person filing vexatious claims against repossession 😏

            https://blogs.lexisnexis.co.uk/randi/the-trouble-with-mortgage-repossessions/

            Sadly the judgement indicates that the facts need to be determined on a case by case basis and if the property is not vacant (e.g. the bike is still in the shed) then sadly she would have a case to file, whether or not that claim was ultimately struck out.

            Liked by 1 person

      • Why wouldn’t security call the police?. She abuses them and tells them they are on private property- hers- and to get off it.
        And then when the cops arrive she’s all smiles and says she’s just there to collect her property which puts everyone in a difficult position.
        You can’t just rock up to a place and claim you own items and they should be handed over. She creates a mess and then demands instant RELIEF.

        Like

  12. Having witnessed Stuarts actions online it was inevitable he would end up on the wrong end of things, however i do not agree that publishing it online and making him seem a victim is the best course of action.

    Stuart is a thoroughly reprehensible character and has been horrible to many people not just those in the articles it does worry me that there were a number of there team present there who seemed quite happy to let the incident escalate resulting in them and there families being separated which seems counter productive to me as surely safe guarding begins at home.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. #Irony

    Sooo, anyone any idea why Malky’s on the hunt for paedophile-themed necklaces?

    Or what the f*ck this means?

    Where are those Ogilese-to-English interpreters when you need them?

    Liked by 2 people

        • He doesn’t exactly care about the quality of his posts, just the quantity. he floods twitter with multiple instances of the same post. don’t know what he hopes to achieve other than looking like a fool.

          Liked by 1 person

    • Wow thanks for pointing out my grammatical errors however not unlike MKO to be hypocritical in his cutting and incisive attacks, I’m glad i concentrate on the context of what is written rather than a petty grammatical error. If he keeps wishing to project then sooner or later that light will shine on him. Can’t wait for him to come and express his views and opinions in a debate, however I’m guessing he will just lurk away feeling butt hurt and calling everyone names from a blog no-one reads written by a man no-one cares about and no-one listens to.

      I think he means his anal beads.

      In case he has trouble comprehending.

      “Hypocrisy is the contrivance of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, while concealing real character or inclinations, especially with respect to religious and moral beliefs; hence, in a general sense, hypocrisy may involve dissimulation, pretense, or a sham.”

      Liked by 1 person

    • anyone any idea why Malky’s on the hunt for paedophile-themed necklaces?

      I would rather not brooch the subject.

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Mind you can the BBC be trusted with the allegations they stole the show strictly come dancing and owe billions to it’s true creator ?

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Apparently it’s a thing that nonces wear symbols to identify themselves and signal their depravitudital desires. a small heart inside and heart means girls, triangle in triangle boys, butterflys and any of the led zepplin 4 symbols are also demonical abuse evidence. pizza gate claimed a bunch of stuff but i’d give it a wide berth as ‘FBI evidence’. jimmy Savile was known to wear a horn of plenty, a wishbone and a glass eye mounted in a spiral.

    Like

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