Ryan Naumenko: Mildura paedo ‘catcher’ not a hero, magistrate says

A man who sought to out paedophiles using fake dating profiles and a Facebook page has been told his actions were not noble or heroic.

Mildura man Ryan Naumenko faced court.

The man behind a name-and-shame Facebook page that sought to “catch” paedophiles using fake dating profiles has been told to not consider himself a hero.

Mildura’s Ryan Victor Naumenko, 38, pleaded guilty on Monday at Mildura Magistrates’ Court to charges of using a carriage service in a menacing manner.

The court heard Naumenko and others in February 2019 set up a website and Facebook page called Mildura Creep Catchers, based off an idea from Canada.

The court was told Grindr accounts were set up with pictures of children Naumenko had sourced from Google.

The fake accounts then engaged in conversations with adult users on the app.

Police said in one conversation, a fake profile identified itself as a 15-year-old boy to a man and later arranged a meeting.

The court was told when the man arrived, photos of his car were taken and uploaded to the website and Facebook page.

Police said a second man agreed to meet at a local high school during conversations with a fake profile posing as a 15-year-old boy.

The court heard Naumenko then posted images to Mildura Creep Catchers.

Police said a third man agreed to meet a supposed 14-year-old boy at a Woolworths.

The court was then told Naumenko then posted a text message exchange.

Police said a fourth man was a registered sex offender who had previous news articles about him posted in Mildura Creep Catchers.

The court was told two of the men made statements to police that they had no involvement in the app conversations.

Naumenko read a statement to court where he said the endeavour began “very innocently” with noble intentions.

He said he’d wanted to start a conversation with the community of Mildura and “shed light on issues not enough people were talking about”.

Naumenko said he was shocked by the number of adults they’d encountered, “so we decided to post to social media”.

“We didn’t feel we were breaking any laws by doing this, because if we knew that was the case, we would have done things differently,” he said.

Once the pages garnered media attention, Naumenko said he began co-operating with police about the information he had gathered.

He said family members couldn’t understand why he was facing charges and those he named weren’t, but he accepted he’d done the wrong thing.

Magistrate Michael Coghlan said Naumenko should not feel as though his actions were noble or heroic.

Mr Coghlan said it was the police who were properly tasked with carrying out investigations.

“This is not a community whereby vigilantes should be encouraged,” Mr Coghlan said.

Having received details of Naumenko’s past history, Mr Coghlan suggested Naumenko consider what would happen if someone began publishing details of his prior involvement in criminal offences.

Naumenko had earlier told the court he was owning his past mistakes and was focused on improving his life.

Naumenko was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order that requires 250 hours of unpaid community work.

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