A SELF-STYLED paedophile catcher whose sting operation helped convict an Accrington teacher is to feature in a new Channel 4 documentary.

Stinson Hunter and his small team of friends have made a name for them-selves by posing as 11 to 15-year-old girls on adult websites and luring adults to meet them.

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Last year, supply teacher David Simpson was found guilty of attempting to meet a girl under 16, intending to commit a relevant offence, after he sent messages of a sexual nature to one of Mr Hunter’s colleagues.

Simpson, of Oak Street, Accrington, believed he was talking to a 15-year-old schoolgirl, but was actually communicating with a woman in her 20s who had set up a fictitious profile.

The 49-year-old taught at various East Lancashire schools including Hollins Technology College, Accrington, Alder Grange Community and Technology School, Rawtenstall, and Ribblesdale High Sch-ool, Clitheroe.

This January, he was sent-enced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, with 12 months’ supervision and 150 hours unpaid work by Burnley Crown Court.

Channel 4, which will screen The Paedophile Hunter on October 1, described the programme as a ‘one-off documentary’. Mr Hunter, from Nuneaton, has been criticised by police for his controversial tactics in exposing suspected sex offenders.

He said: “It goes quite deep into who I am, things I have done – I’ve not been the nicest of people in my life.”

Mr Hunter, who changed his name by deed poll from Keiren Parsons, said he wanted to ‘focus on what’s important, which is the message and the film and content and what actually does happen online when your children are on there’.

The documentary is shot by multiple Bafta-winning director Dan Reed and has faced a number of legal issues.

Last year, a 45-year-old man, Michael Parkes, took his own life after being questioned by police as a result of work by Mr Hunter.