Paedophile-hunting show under fire

10-19-2010 Germany:

BERLIN - A GERMAN television show that attempts to unmask paedophiles using a young actress as bait came under attack on Tuesday after a suspect vanished.

The programme called Scene of the Crime: Internet - Protecting Our Children and hosted by a high-profile political wife is based on a similar US show, To Catch A Predator, that went off air after the suicide of a suspected molester in Texas in 2007.

On the show, a young woman pretending to be a minor seeks out potential child abusers in Internet chat rooms. When a meeting is arranged, a girl playing a 13-year-old goes along, with the hidden cameras rolling.

The suspects, whose images are blurred and voices distorted when they are broadcast, are subsequently confronted by a journalist playing the mother of the young 'victim'. Then the case is handed over to the police.

An alleged abuser, a 61-year-old man who works with children, was identified by his employers after an episode shown eight days ago and has since disappeared without a trace.

One of the presenters of the programme on the RTL2 channel is the aristocratic Stephanie zu Guttenberg, wife of Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who is one of the rising stars in Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet. ..Source.. by The Straights-Times