A POLICE chief says he is willing to hire paedophile hunters to team up with officers to snare online predators.

Jeff Cuthbert wants to hire them as special constables so they can make arrests.

The Home Office has said it does not agree with online vigilantes who track down and confront groomers then post video on social media.

Mr Cuthbert, Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent, said: “We don’t know how many perpetrators have got away with it because it’s not been done properly. The message is, lets work together.”

In the past year seven online perverts have been caught by paedophile hunters in the South Wales area. The idea is backed by the family of April Jones, five, who was murdered by Mark Bridger in 2012.

Her sister Jazmin, 17, said: “The police need to sit down and tell them, ‘to get a conviction you need to do this and this’.”