MEMBERS of the paedophile hunter group who gathered evidence of George Jarvis’ illegal online activity have revealed all about their sting.

The National Child Protectors used child profile decoys to help Wiltshire Police locate and arrest the 35-year-old from Pinehurst Road in June.

Bobby Jo (a pseudonym used to protect her identity), who lives in Swindon, was one of those decoys.

She said: “We’re all mums with jobs and kids, just everyday people.

Of the sting on Jarvis, she added: “First, he added me on Messenger in May, posing as a 13-year-old girl, then blocked me and included my name in a post on Facebook along with several names of real kids in Swindon, asking for them all to contact him.

“This post wasn’t actually a call-out for them, it’s a way of making other online predators aware of potential targets.

“After that, he sent me a friend request on Facebook. I’ve had 600 other requests since then, I’ve gone from 60 friends to almost 700.

“The other decoy got him to send us photos with his garden and front window in the background, which helped us find him.

“We knew he was in Pinehurst somewhere and spent four days working around-the-clock to locate him by using online maps and walking around on foot.

“The day of the sting was nerve-wracking. We had security with us just in case things went wrong.

“The door-knock was petrifying. I can’t fully describe it because the emotions are so up and down, the adrenaline definitely kicked in.”

Raz Hunter (another pseudonym) is a co-founder of the Yorkshire-based group and came down to Swindon to help with the operation.

She said: “We went through the property and into the back garden.

“The police were on their way, so we asked him [Jarvis] to come out the front and he confirmed that he had used three fake profiles online to talk to kids.

“Once they get in that police vehicle, it’s a lovely feeling because you know that you have protected children from someone who posed a risk to them.

“If I could bottle that feeling and sell it, I would.”

Bobby Jo added: “It’s a huge sigh of relief. The safety of the other kids he contacted was my main concern, but the police told us they’re safe.

“Working with Wiltshire Police and their CID is amazing. We did the sting on the Sunday and Jarvis was remanded on Tuesday.”

Raz added: “The police commented on how high-quality our evidence was and interviewed all of us after the sting. We have stings every single week around the country and if we could afford to do it every day, we would.

“It takes an awful lot of time, but we have more than 30 people on the team, enough so that some can step in while others are at work.

“Some of the stuff we get sent is horrific but we are very supportive of each other.

“A lot of the team are survivors, including myself, which is often their motivation to join us.

“The pictures he sent to us when Jarvis was pretending to be a girl were of an American girl who had been kidnapped and raped.

“He also sent a picture of a boy, claiming it was an older brother, who was in fact an American murderer.

“Parents really don’t realise how dangerous the internet is, they have no idea how quickly predators can get in contact with their child.

“They should check their child’s devices and know what they’re doing on them, especially with live-streaming apps. I can’t stress that enough.”

A recent report by Swindon Borough Council, with data from Wiltshire Police, revealed that Facebook was the social media platform of choice for would-be sex offenders in Swindon.