Channel 4 is to screen a documentary which follows a controversial figure who confronts men he suspects of being attracted to under-age children then publishes his findings online.

Self-styled undercover reporter Stinson Hunter, and his small team of friends, pose as 11 to 15-year-old girls on adult websites and lure them to meet up.

He then films their encounters at the meeting point and posts the results on his website along with the information he has amassed, as well as passing on details to police.

Last year a 45-year-old man, Michael Parkes, took his own life after being questioned by police as a result of Hunter's work.

The channel plans to screen its film The Paedophile Hunter next month, in which director Dan Reed has filmed the whole process from the first online introduction to the moment that Hunter - who is from Nuneaton - questions the men and informs them that police will be contacted.

For the films on his website he has kept his face hidden, but as the Channel 4 film was announced today he published a video online which shows him speaking to the camera unhidden.

He said there had been a number of legal issues to get through in the 18 months since they began work to ensure it could be screened.

And he hoped the film would changed attitudes: "Maybe the Government will sit up and start to realise that the little people aren't just going to sit around any more and let people like this carry on doing what they're doing."

The film looks into the scale of online grooming and also the background of Hunter who had a six-year spell in prison after burning down a school in his teens.

He admitted: "It does go quite deep into who I have been as a person, things I have done - I've not been the nicest of people in my life. It goes into all that."

Hunter, who changed his name by deed poll from Keiren Parsons, said it was important to "focus on what's important which is the message and the film and the content and what actually does happen online when your children are on there".

He went on: "What actually happens when you go to bed and your children are sat there with their iPads and iPhones and Androids, what are they actually doing? This film's going to blast it wide open."

An inquest into the death of Mr Parkes last year ruled his death was suicide. Police have been critical of Hunter's methods and have warned that investigations should be left to the proper authorities.

The film is to be screened on October 1 at 10pm.