Site names sexual predators

Two of the photographs published on the name-and-shame website.

Police have been asked to investigate a website that claims to be exposing dozens of men who it says sought sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Thirty-nine men have been named and shamed on the website, some as recently as this week, prompting threats of violence against them.

The Herald on Sunday has spoken to three of the men, one of whom said he received emails telling him to "watch his back".

But two of the men do admit to having Facebook exchanges with someone they thought was a 14-year-old girl.

The 39 men, aged from their late teens to late fifties, are accused of trying to set up meetings for sex with a person they believed was aged 13 or 14.

In some cases, the site has published the full names, mobile phone numbers, and email addresses of the men it accuses.

The wife of one man named on the site said his online identity had been stolen and someone else was responsible for the sexualised chat attributed to him.

The couple had complained to police and the site administrators, but his photo and name were still on the website last night.

She was "120 per cent" confident her husband was not responsible for the online conversation, she said, but the couple were now worried it would go viral.

However, in an interview with the Herald on Sunday, one man from the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert conceded he had said things he shouldn't have to a girl who called herself "Stacey" and said she was aged 14.

He could not remember his exact words, but at one point the chat logs show him telling Stacey that if she was "keen for sex" then he would be too. The man said, he should have chosen his words differently - he really just wanted to "hang out" with her.

His conversation with "Stacey" was tamer than many posted on the site. Some men wanted to get the girl drunk or supply her with drugs. Others offered money for sex.

The Herald on Sunday discovered the site in the same week the Roast Busters scandal triggered a national debate on sexual exploitation of young girls.

The website was registered in March and operates from an address in rural South Auckland. New profiles were added as recently as Thursday night.

One man named and pictured on the website allegedly impersonated a police officer when contacting the website, threatening legal action if his profile was not removed.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Michael, head of the Online Child Exploitation Agency, said Counties Manukau staff had met one of the website administrators.

"He has voluntarily handed over a copy of the website and all the information it contains," he said. "This includes copies of conversations between those identified on the website and the administrators posing as young girls."

Michael said the information had been analysed by police but warned the website administrators they could have put their own safety at risk.