Accused murderer ‘targeted sex offenders’

Accused murderer Christopher Hunnisett yesterday (Monday) gave evidence to defend his actions claiming he was protecting vulnerable people from sex offenders.

Hunnisett, 28, of Chanctonbury Drive, remained calm and spoke in military terminology as he stood in the witness box at Lewes Crown Court and detailed the ‘clear and concise strategy’ he applied when trying to catch sex offenders.

He stands trial on one count of murder after 57-year-old Peter Bick was found bludgeoned to death in his flat in Bexhill.

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The court heard from defence barrister David Martin-Sperry that in the run up to Mr Bick’s death Hunnsiett had been using various websites and forums to gather information about him.

Hunnisett said: “What I was doing was gathering lots of different information on different people.

“I was using vigilante sites, victims forums, and listening to rumours.

“I would then track people down, find them and test them.

“There was a rumour about Peter one or two weeks before and that is how I first found him.

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“I knew basic information, that his name was Peter, he had a red car, he lived in Bexhill was aged between 50 and 70.”

Hunnisett said the information and the rumour about Mr Bick had come from a ‘live source’.

He added: “I had also seen a photo, a digital photo on the screen of a hand held device.

“I had a certain time limit to deal with this specific incident to prevent further potential contact.

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“I started searches from websites where I had established profiles already.

“Sex sites specifically have lots of filters, age, sex and location its easy to filter down to Bexhill area the do an age filter.

“If you have the full name it is even easier.”

He admitted spending ‘around 50 per cent’ of his day every day using his parents’ and friends’ computers.

He also told the court he used military code words he had read about in books to define his potential victims.

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Any suspect was called ‘Sierra’ in reference to the phonetic alphabet and once the name and location had been confirmed they became a target and were then called ‘Tango’.

Hunnisett said once he had established contact and was in a position to ‘test’ the person they were called ‘ASU’.

Final stage is X-ray where suspects had been ‘made safe’ by being locked up ‘or whatever’, he added.

Hunnisett said: “I based a lot of structure of it on being clear and concise like a military strategy, using the terminology.

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Becoming more agitated, Hunnisett added: “There are an estimated 600,000 paedophiles in the UK.

“Even if you found 100 a day it would still take over 20 years. It is overwhelming for once person.

“I do commend the police and child protection agencies but they are bound by laws and rules.

“They can’t go on the internet like me because it is a breach of privacy. They can only do open source research, if you really want to find out you need to look a little bit deeper.

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“I was going outside of the law I admit that. I was stopping them hurting women children and vulnerable people.”

Mr Martin-Sperry said while in prison Hunnisett had been at the Brendan Underwood treatment centre for convicts.

He was involved in some ‘unsuitable’ therapy where he was forced to speak as a victim so paedophiles could see the damage they have done.

After this therapy session Hunnisett went back to his cell and claims to have heard these abusers plotting their next paedophile ring, the court heard.

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Mr Martin-Sperry said: “He knows that a true paedophile isn’t to be cured. He remains an absolute threat to children.

“That is why Hunnisett forms a resolve to expose paedophiles.”

Hunnisett had previously been convicted of murder in 2002 for killing 81-year-old Reverend Ronald Glazebrook who was his landlord at the time.

He was sentenced to life but in September 2010 he was acquitted of the murder at a retrial by the Appeal Court - where it emerged the clergyman sexually abused him throughout his teens.