Sophie doesn't look like a "paedophile hunter" and unlike the others, she doesn't wear a mask.

She could be your auntie, someone you'd meet in a supermarket kiosk or behind the glass pane at the bookies.

From an unassuming terraced house in the south of Glasgow, the grandmother runs a group responsible for 23 "stings" of suspected child groomers since September 2017.

"Ninety five per cent of us are survivors ourselves," she says.

"Obviously we don't like to call ourselves survivors. We are warriors.

"It has happened. We have moved on but [abuse] is becoming an epidemic now."

It begins with a fake account, ostensibly a child, usually aged between 12 and 15, set up on a dating app or website. Gender isn't an issue.

These accounts, according to Sophie, make it clear it belongs to someone under the age of consent.

They lie dormant until they are contacted by an adult.

She claims the members of her team, so-called "decoys" - then engage with the adults, maintaining the pretence they are children.

If the conversation turns sexual, everything is recorded. Once they believe they have enough evidence of child grooming, the "sting" begins.

Usually it involves organising a meeting between the target and the child.

You may have seen the videos on social media. Sophie and her group accost the "groomer" in a public place, confront them with the chat logs, troubling messages they sent to what the person thought was a youngster.

In some cases groups confront the target at their own home.

These films, broadcast live on Facebook, normally end with the target being led away by police.

Sophie tells us her videos receive tens of thousands of viewers, but one of her posts can reach as many as 660,000 people scrolling through their Facebook timeline.

We ask her about the legalities of her work and whether she believes in due process

She replies: "This is the justice system. These people are protected everywhere they go.

"Our aim is to expose these people for what they are. And if we need to put them live on camera, that's what we do."

What if someone gets hurt?

At first, it seems like she doesn't understand the question. Do we mean a member of her own team, she asks.

When we explain that we mean the suspects she is naming and shaming online, she answers: "That's not what we want.

"We ask the police to do their job. After we hand them all the evidence, we ask them to do their job. If this was done by police we wouldn't need to do this."

Her work is having a real effect. Already she has seen two men she exposed online convicted in sheriff courts, with one being jailed for 20 months.

And there is more to come. She rifles through witness citations sent to her home, featuring the names of those she's stung from Aberdeen to East Kilbride.

Each Crown Office case number on the paperwork indicates active proceedings against these men, using evidence Sophie gathered herself.

STV News sought to determine how many of these "stings" had taken place in the last year, and how many were then moving on to court.

We trawled through every available exposure from ten different groups operating north of the border.

At the time of writing, there were 115 in that single year.

To find out whether these stings were resulting in action, STV contacted the Crown Office, the Scottish Courts Service and individual sheriff courts to find records relating to each individual case.

It was a difficult and painstaking task - in some cases, court officials couldn't provide us with confirmation without dates of birth or a reference number.

Eventually, we were able to trace 66 court appearances to the individuals exposed by paedophile hunters, including 14 convictions.

And there may be more. Groups post regular updates about court appearances of their targets - some of which STV couldn't confirm with either the Crown Office or the courts.

However, even if an accused has appeared in court as a result of a sting, it doesn't mean it will proceed to trial or conviction.

Lawyers tell us each individual case will stand on its own merits, the exact details of what was said by the accused, but some defence solicitors have made unsuccessful attempts to have evidence gathered by paedophile hunters disallowed.

The Crown Office said it doesn't work with paedophile hunting groups, but that reports submitted to prosecutors may contain evidence from any individual or group.

A spokeswoman said: "Careful consideration will be given to any reports of alleged criminal conduct submitted by the police to the Procurator Fiscal.

"Prosecutorial action will be taken if the report contains sufficient, admissible evidence of a crime and it is in the public interest to do so."