A suspected paedophile who was arrested amid a vigilante sting at Stevenage railway station yesterday allegedly bit off the tip of one of his captors’ fingers.
The man was arrested in the overpass between the railway station and Stevenage Leisure Park shortly before 11am, after allegedly turning up expecting to meet a child following online grooming.
British Transport Police told the Comet this morning that 45-year-old Thomas Jean-Louis De Castle Lynne, of no fixed address, had been charged in connection with the incident.
He has been charged with attempting to meet a child under 16 years of age following grooming, common assault, assault by beating, a racially-aggravated public order offence, and causing GBH with intent.
He is set to appear before magistrates at Hatfield Remand Court this morning.
The sting, by a ‘paedophile hunter’ group calling itself Catching Online Predators, was streamed live over Facebook – and more than 200,000 people have seen the video as of this morning.
In a statement on Facebook yesterday afternoon, Catching Online Predators said it was “not looking good to save our hunter’s finger” ahead of surgery.
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