Bensalem Police Warn Against Independant Child Predator Investigations After Philly Male Arrested
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Eric Rooney, from Philadelphia was messaging an account in Instagram for a while. Rooney, a 42-year-old male thought he was chatting up a 13-year-old girl. He was actually chatting with another adult, pretending to be a 13 year old girl.
Before long, police said the conversation turned sexual. Last night, Rooney was ;lured to the Creekside Apartments where the girl was supposed to live. Rooney thought he would meet a new friend. Instead, he met a civilian watchdog group who confronted him with cameras rolling.
Police were called and Rooney admitted to messaging the girl and was arrested. He was charged with Attempted Involuntary Deviant Sexual Intercourse with a Minor, Attempted Statutory Sexual Assault, Unlawful Contact with a Minor, Attempted Corruption of Minors, Attempted Indecent Assault of a Minor, and Criminal Use of a Communication Facility. Rooney was arraigned by District Justice Regina Armitage who set bail at 10% of $500,000. Rooney was remanded to Bucks County Correctional Facility.
There are several groups that do this type of “GOTCHA” sting operations and monetize them on social media. They will threaten to call the police unless the accused has a conversation with them They then have the accused call a family member with the phone on speaker and tell them “I was caught trying to have sex with a 11-year-old boy” ,or whatever the decoy said they were. Sometimes the police are called anyway.
Most people departments frown on this kind of decoy trap. The people are not police, their training is nil or very little and they could jeopardize the case by not being police. In a statement , Bensalem Police said they “Do not encourage these types of confrontations by vigilante groups. Anyone who has information about a possible child predator is requested to call the police before making contact so that the safety of all involved can be maintained. It should also be noted that the Bensalem Township Police Department has a robust, proactive approach to identifying and prosecuting these types of offenders and has conducted numerous investigations and made numerous arrests for this type of illegal conduct.