It starts with a virtual *wink* and ends, eight days later, with a very real picture of a penis.

The genitalia belongs to a 40-year-old man from Alabama who believes he’s been chatting with a 13-year-old boy named Christopher from Toronto.

But he’s really been talking to Justin Payne, a 29-year-old Mississauga man who’s become known as The Pedophile Hunter after embarking on a relentless crusade to expose child predators.

In between the seemingly innocuous greeting and the disturbing penis photo, there’s plenty of small talk. But the prosaic eventually progresses into something more sinister. There’s admissions of loneliness, vows of loyalty and friendship, and later, professions of love. But Payne knows it’s all fueled by a longing for sex with a child.

He knows because he’s seen the same pattern emerge hundreds of times as potential predators meticulously groom the young boys and girls they believe they’re talking to.

“The first two days it’s friendship for them, they try to become your friend and then it starts to go downhill,” Payne explains. “I have been doing this for such a long time and it’s always the same — friendship in the beginning. After that…everything comes out.”

Click for larger version

We first introduced you to Justin Payne last summer. Since then he’s continued to expose alleged pedophiles he meets on the internet while posing as a 13-year-old boy or girl.

In late July, he began chatting online with the man from Alabama. That led to texting, and finally phone calls where the man confessed to having sex with children and viewing child pornography.

“It began with a chat request that I accepted,” said Payne. “Within two to three messages I say ‘I am a 13 year old boy.’ And he accepted it.”

“It progressed a little bit slow…then he started asking for penis pictures, nude photographs and describing sexual things he wanted to do.”

(Listen to a portion of a phone conversation between Justin and the man from Alabama.)

Eventually the man made plans to travel to Toronto and stay with “Christopher” while his mother was away.

In the phone calls, Payne feigns the voice of a naïve young boy while the man seems to acknowledge that his behaviour has progressed from inappropriate to illegal.

“Your mom don’t know does she? She doesn’t go through your phone, does she?” he asks.

Payne assures him that he locks his phone and deletes all his messages.

“Your mom would probably have me locked up,” the man responds.

Payne then asks: “Do you think it’s okay for people older to date people my age?”

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” the man responds. “But in today’s world, they really don’t go for that. But I’m cool with it.”

“The boy that I did have sex with, his thing wasn’t that big…how big is yours?” the man asks while Payne records the conversation from his car.

“I would love to see it,” the man continues, prodding who he believes is a 13-year-old boy for explicit photos.

“I like to look at pictures of little boys…on the internet,” he continues, trying to normalize the request. “I just like to look at their dicks.”

When Payne asks how old the boys are, the man responds: “Oh about your age…13, 14, maybe 15.”

“The boy that I did have sex with, his thing wasn’t that big…how big is yours?” the man asks while Payne records the conversation from his car.

Payne made plans to meet the man at the border, hoping to see him hauled away in handcuffs.

“He was the one who suggested coming here, so after he suggested he was going to come to Canada, we were basically going to call the police when he got here.”

But his plan unraveled when he accidentally posted the man’s telephone number online, leading to him being bombarded with thousands of calls.

Even though Payne’s plan didn’t come to fruition, he still believes the countless hours he spent chatting with the man from Alabama can offer parents valuable insight into the behaviour and grooming tactics of pedophiles.

“I feel there is some sense of something that can be taken from this,” he says. “A lot of parents get an inside look on how a predator will lure a child.”

“I was able to show everybody the inside look on how they talk to kids.”

Payne admits that speaking with an alleged predator for days on end can take a toll on his mental health, but he maintains it’s worth it.

After his lengthy correspondence with the man from Alabama, he was flooded with emotion for the victims, and potential victims that are out there.

“For the first time in a long time, I bawled my eyes out.”

“We are doing it to make a difference,” he insists. “To put a buffer between these guys and the kids.”