Civilian vigilante group confronts trans-identified male attempting to meet children and baby for sexual abuse

A civilian anti-pedophile vigilante group called Predator Poachers uploaded footage to their Youtube channel on Saturday of a sting operation they conducted in Berkeley, California. The pedophile-catching group confronted a biological male who identifies as a woman who had believed was meeting a 9-year-old for the purposes of sexually abusing her.

The pedophile-catching group created a decoy using altered and AI-generated photos as part of their months-long investigation into the biological male, who goes by the name Sophia Westfall.

Alex Rosen of Predator Poachers is a "full-time anti-pedophile vigilante" according to original reporting by Reduxx magazine. Rosen told Reduxx that Westfall first contacted the decoy's Instagram account in April, and then began initiating sexual conversations with the child.

Rosen and his small team formed in 2019 to travel across the United States conducting these sting operations. The confrontation involving Westfall occurred on June 7 when they were in California.

Screenshots of the conversations between Westfall and the decoy began to circulate online after Rosen provided them to Reduxx magazine. "Westfall tells the girl that he masturbates to thoughts about her, and suggests a number of ways he wants to molest her," reported Reduxx.

"I’m thinking of other things too, but maybe tickles too," Westfall wrote in one message, "Kisses and touches all over. Kisses between your legs especially!"

When the decoy told Westfall that she had a 6-year-old sister, to which Westfall replied "well, you know I love young girls. I’m just excited thinking how fun it could be to play in bed with both of you!"

When the decoy said she also had a 1-year-old sibling and implied "she’s probably too young" for sexual activity, Westfall replied: "That doesn’t bother me. Never too young to start learning!"

At the time, Westfall was also communicating with another one of Rosen’s 9-year-old girl decoys on Telegram, an encrypted chat service. "He sent some very illegal stuff to our decoy on Telegram," said Rosen, which he said included explicit child sexual abuse material of young children being sexually assaulted.

Westfall gave suggestions to the additional 9-year-old decoy on how to sexually gratify male genitalia. "Some people like stroking a hand up and down over it… or you can wrap your mouth around the tip and lick or suck," Westfall says, continuing: "It can absolutely be exciting."

The confrontation took place at Strawberry Creek Park in Berkeley, where

Westfall thought that the meeting at Strawberry Creek Park in Berkeley in June would be with the 9-year-old that Westfall had been chatting with on Instagram. Instead, Rosen and his team confronted Westfall with the conversations between him and the child decoys.

During the filmed confrontation, Westfall wore knee-high-boots, a skirt, a pink top, a medical mask, and a hat with trans pride flag buttons. Westfall tries to walk away from Rosen, saying "leave me alone," and "I don’t want to talk to you." Locals in the park came to Westfall's assistance, who they believed was being harassed. The bystanders then called the police who showed up shortly after.

Rosen shows police the printed conversations, but they do not detain Westfall and instead allow him to leave the park.

Media uproar has caused a backlash against Berkeley police, but the problem with Rosen's methods is likely due to police protocol. If Westfall had been arrested on the spot, there is a likelihood that his defense attorney would be able to have the evidence Rosen collected on him thrown out in court, which would allow Westfall to walk free.

"Because the civilians are not trained law enforcement officers, any evidence they have collected against the perpetrator will likely be inadmissible at trial," said Eric M. Hoffman, Prosecuting Attorney of the 46th Judicial Circuit of Indiana in a press release on "Civilian 'To Catch a Predator' Groups."

The Berkeley Police Department responded to the Post Millennial, confirming they had an open case number related to the incident (Case 2022-00026174) but indicated that they have been unable to reach the Predator Poachers to continue their investigation.

"Officers followed-up with the reporting party to verify/corroborate their claims, but the reporting party has not re-contacted us with information we have requested to continue to the investigation-despite repeated requests," the Berkeley Police Department told Post Millennial.