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Campbell River man sues Surrey-based Creep Catchers for ‘false and malicious statements’

Also listed in the claim are 20 unnamed defendants who are members and/or supporters of Surrey Creep Catchers

The president of Surrey Creep Catchers deliberately made false and malicious statements against a Campbell River man who criticized the group in a video posted on Facebook, a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court March 16 alleges.

The suit against Ryan LaForge, the president of the Surrey Creep Catchers group, and 20 yet-to-be-named supporters says LaForge published on Facebook defamatory posts that were accompanied by commentary that identified Sean Smith as a “pedophile”, “pedo”, “creep” and “goof” or “skinner,” according to the Notice of Civil Claim filed in Vancouver.

Sean Smith, 48, is a social media consultant and educator whose work involves presenting to groups of children in the public school system. The Surrey Creep Catcher organization runs a website and Facebook pages it says are dedicated to protecting children from child predators and pedophiles by “outing” them after luring them to liaisons with what they expect to be minors.

Also listed in the claim are 20 unnamed defendants who are members and/or supporters of Surrey Creep Catchers who rebroadcast defamatory statements, made defamatory comments about Smith or participated in the “torts of intimidation and conspiracy to injure.”

On Dec. 7, 2016, Smith posted a video on Facebook that was critical of the activities of creep catcher groups and expressed his opposition to amateur creep catching. The video did not refer to LaForge or the Surrey Creep Catcher group in particular.