Marcus Carpenter founded a sinister online Facebook group and ran it under the false name, “Markus Carpenter”.

Marcus Carpenter, the extremist from Facebook referred to in my last article, has disappeared along with a number of objectionable posts. Neither he nor his employers, who I politely reached out to, have denied the allegations against him. However, the group has yet to probably make good the harm and distress caused by their actions and evidence of serious racism by members, tolerated and empowered by group administrators, has now emerged. I will be doing longer posts in the week, this is just an interim update. What is regrettable is that, whilst they have taken some action, the remaining group administrators have not reached out as to how to make things right. It is probably sensible that they do, as otherwise there are likely to be serious consequences.

And then there were five. Marcus is gone from the group administrators list. Little hint: the others might want to reconsider their stance because, for example, large employers like an opticians chain may consider their content to be incompatible with their brand, indeed to be gross misconduct and a fitness to practice issue.

As of today the list of administrators and moderators of the Facebook group concerned no longer contains Marcus – even when viewed by an acquaintance they have not blocked or disagreed with. This is unsurprising. Firstly at least some of the administrators will be facing legal action from me over approving an anonymous post claiming all my Facebook friends are minors (none are under 18), which has now disappeared. That was malicious. Furthermore, I have been copied in on a number of emails to and about Marcus Carpenter and others. Some are legitimate complaints to his employers. Some are unlawful (and I expressly condemn threats – please do not do it) but even the unlawful complaints are legitimate insofar as they complain of online wrongdoing by Mr Carpenter over a long period.

MHN also received a written request from an anonymous person who was seeking group moderator Charlie Day’s address. They felt they had longstanding grievances with the group. However, I refused the request and asked the anonymous person not to contact me, because of other aspects of the content they had forwarded me suggested they may use the information for unlawful purposes.

The fact that I will not cooperate with vigilante threats does not mean that the targets are innocent, or safe from other members of the community. Far from it. I was targeted in a nasty, spiteful dishonest way in connection with my being a proven victim of sex crime by vile abusers. I simply intend to seek redress by legal means. Not all of the concerns are related to my article. As an example, one man who is a member of the group has been anonymously accused of trying to sell drugs to underage girls at local schools to lure them into vehicles. However I know nothing about these allegations and without evidence, I am not going to identify the person who has been accused. It is a large group. That said, two people have been asked to leave Welwyn-Hatfield by members of the community and the fact that I condemn any unlawful threats does not mean it is remotely safe for those two people to stay in the area.

What the administrators need to understand is that revealing their identities is in the public interest, not just for today but for when I have long forgotten them – there have been complaints about the group over many years. Now people have been identified, that means that if the administrators of the group in future behave in such a disgusting way, or are perceived to have, anyone with a grievance can Google and soon learn where they can go – the person themself, their employer perhaps even the police. Marcus may or may not come back, but he will never be anonymous again or immune to reprisal and he will know that. Trolls often feel invincible when they are anonymous, but when identified they quickly change their tune or suffer retaliation in turn. Trolls I have seen exposed in the past have found that every time they upset someone, their family or employer may suffer. They quickly learn at that point. It is like training a puppy really, only not as nice.

In addition, some members of the group appear to be harassing people, even young women, on the basis of plainly bogus allegations of sex crime against children. A female member of the group has admitted accessing a site where users stalk minors and young adults to death, including sometimes sharing child pornography, being nudes of their victims. As an example, one man in the group, Dylan Thomas, claims to be a firefighter. He called me a ‘nonce’ for no reason even though the only court finding is I am a victim of sex crime. Aside from targeting me, he has been targeting people including one woman where his motives seem to have included her race and ethnicity:

This woman seems to have been targeted for no better reason than her race and ethnicity. She was targeted, photographed by Dylan Thomas and implied to be a paedophile. Group admins allowed this behaviour. On Monday, I will be lodging a formal complaint with Bedfordshire Fire Service. Let us see if Dylan is really a fire fighter and if they find his vigilante activity acceptable.

In fact, the woman was merely taking pictures to use for painting:

A further poster, after locals spoke to the woman, confirmed she only wanted to paint and had done nothing illegal at all. Dylan had not asked her, only pursued her with his camera and tried to whip up a mob. Let us see how Chief Fire Officer Andrew Hopkins feels about Dylan’s social media activity.

Of course, by baselessly calling me a ‘nonce’, Dylan harassed me, and also defamed me, so he may be receiving legal papers from me in due course – but he may not be a priority if he is unemployed for gross misconduct as he will have no money for a civil action. I will be assertively drawing his behaviour to the attention of his local fire service. A problem with ‘not being fired’ is that police have crimed some of the comments made in the Facebook group. Again, permitting some of these comments is also not on brand for large companies such as chains of opticians:

Police are now investigating some group users for harassment. I am going to ask them to change the initial category to ‘stalking with fear of violence’, which carries a higher prison sentence.

Another woman who seems to be regretting her actions is Martine Warby, referred to in my last article, who requested I remove her comments. I replied setting out the grounds for denying her request under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the comment will remain up.

Usually, I try to be patient with police, because I am aware they are underfunded, under-supported and under-trained. I sent a thank-you letter last week to Chief Inspector Frost and PC Brown for their work on a case I reported. I have also refrained from pursuing other officers who have messed up. For example, late in 2023 police tried to investigate me for sending someone a fact checking letter. I made the police drop the investigation by starting a civil claim, but I dropped it once they cancelled the police interview and re-classified it as no-crime. I know police often regard online disputes as less serious. However, this Facebook group appears to be really dangerous and I know several people have complained to police this week. I expect it to be prioritised. Part of my charitable legal activity has included helping sue police – I was even mentioned in the Daily Mail (archive).

Vigilantes, especially anti-paedophile vigilantes, are a problem for police. Some, such as Angel Decoys are reputable and vet their members. Others are no more than a front for paedophiles. Police will often find, for example, that so-called paedophile hunters are no more than paedophiles who often refuse to turn over their phones, because they contain indecent images of children.

This particular Facebook Group needs to take better action. Ryan Reynolds and Dylan Thomas should be removed. It would be useful to have a chat to amicably resolve other matters. If not there will be further action on Monday.