Who is Ritchie Wellman? He is a father, a boyfriend, an assistant operations manager at a local business and a part-time paedophile hunter. Right now, however, at 7 p.m. in a dusty car park down the road from Bournemouth pier, Ritchie is the commander of his own private policing unit, briefing his officers before their first patrol. He tells them not to assault anybody, not to be provoked, not to drink or smoke on the job, and to reassure the public if they are concerned by this new authority on their streets: ‘This is not a takeover.’

Ritchie is a normal guy, and he and his officers and others in Bournemouth like them believe that their town is falling apart and that the state is not coming to save it. They say rapes, stabbings, violent disorder and anti-social behaviour are turning thei

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