Would you send this woman a link to the article about her new boyfriend?

I'm having trouble posting

I would.

I would do it from an anonymous profile. She may already know. She may not, and he may have his excuses ready. But if something happened to her and I hadn't warned her, I'd feel guilty for not at least attempting to flag it up.

As long as you are sure. My husband helps a lot of people track down relatives and works out family trees based on DNA. There are often lots of people with the same name - even names you would think quite unusual - and living in the same area and of similar ages. I know you've said there was a picture but how distinctive was it for something that might have happened say10 years ago. Is there any possibility that it could, for example, be a cousin?

Many people are assuming that she must already know but I wouldn’t feel so sure about that. Without question, I would send the link anonymously, with a short note to the effect of “You may be aware of this but in case you aren’t I think you should be.” Then it’s up to her. It’s not being intrusive — it’s being responsible.

Tell her, or find someone close to her to tell. I once dated a man for a few weeks before googling his name, dumped him as soon as I read he'd been in prison for rape. He harassed me for a few weeks after that until some of my male friends told him to stop. Turns out a friend had known he was violent and had form for harassing exes. Finding out his both convicted and unconvicted incidents I feel lucky I got out of it so fast. If I'd known I'd never have gone anywhere near him. I also had to start parking my car a few minutes walk away as it got vandalised evey time I parked on my street. Could have been coincidence but probably not. (Way before ring cameras etc were a thing unfortunately)

Nosiness is watching out of your window if police come and arrest you neighbours.

It is not normal to google the name of an old friends boyfriend.

I have never googled anyone’s name because there’s literally no reason to.

If you think a name sounded familiar or you were concerned about the behaviour of someone, then I would understand the need to look them up but even then doing a Claire’s law search would be better.

But to just randomly look up a name of someone you’ve never met (and probably never will) of the partner of someone you’ve not seen in years and barely speak to is the opposite of normal behaviour.

People like this need to get a hobby as it’s very weird.

Nosiness? Which is a very common, normal human attribute. A lot of the content on MN would disappear if people stopped being nosy. Sometimes it's useful. People here seem to be conflating it with being judgemental, which is also a normal human attribute, but obviously not great if it's based on kneejerk reactions and prejudices. In the case of a man with a criminal record for a very serious assault on another man, you bet I'd be judging. If he'd led a blameless life devoted to good works for 40 years after a fight he got into as a very young man, that would be one thing, but that's not what's happening here.

She probably does know, but he will have spun it into a woe is me story.

PPs need to put their virtue signalling to one side, stop focusing on the OP's actions and acknowledge the real risk of harm this woman is at.

Great post.

Is there a third party you could tell. You’ve mentioned her family members. Perhaps she may listen to them better too.
You can’t be the only one who has googled him.

he beat up a man, not a woman

He still has a history of violence. That is where the risk is.

Oh and that is the one that got him in the paper, do you honestly think that an individual who beat another up so badly they had to eat through the straw is a) a reformed character and b) has never been violent before or since?

Women need to run at this first step, this is the biggest red flag going.

I'd find it very weird if she didn't know, especially as you say you sound his real name on FB in his info page

I had something similar many years ago. My best friend had met a new man and he was known to a circle of my other friends, this new man had a fight,hurt somebody ,I told my friend because she'd just come out of a DV marriage.. she took his side,he wanted a written apology of me for telling my friend (he denied it actually happened) she cit off all contact wirh me,but I few years back we bumped into each other in the street and low and behold they had split up because of his violence towards her.

I would suggest staying out of it if you've not seen each other for so long. But it's very caring of you

Omg! Are you all nuts? OF COURSE you should get a Claire’s law, or send a message .
why are you all fixated on judging OP? She has a friend, she has a hunch, which she follows. She might save her friend a lot of hassle.
even if he doesn’t get violent, I’m assuming he won’t be 5he nicest of men, underneath the love bombing,.
WELL DONE OP. I’d like you to be my friend

i think its odd that you googled him in the first place.
stay out of it
he beat up a man, not a woman
he has paid his time

Not sure why you are getting so much flak here. However, this is the issue with being nosy you might find something.

Clare's Law or send an anonymous email- then let it go.

Send it anonymously as others have said, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of his violence. If it was me I’d want to know, and I’d be very grateful.

I personally wouldn’t tell her because many people have got into fights and he’s not necessarily a danger to her compared to any other man.

He probably is though.

No never.

Why would you google someone’s name?
What would be the reason?

I agree.

It's so fucking weird all this MYOB obsession. Not sure if it's some kind of virtue signalling that they are so able to keep themselves to themselves.

Who cares what the OP's motivation is? In this case it's irrelevant. The only question is, would it possibly save a woman from being exposed to violence either against herself or perpetrated by someone she's close to. It's up to her to decide what to do with the information but it won't harm her to have it and make her more likely to notice any future red flags.

Do you never Google a person’s name, ever? Cos I don’t believe you!!

Why would you google his name?

Its a very odd thing to do to a person you’ve not seen in 20 years.

I’ve never done this to a close friend or family member, let alone a practical stranger!

I personally wouldn’t tell her because many people have got into fights and he’s not necessarily a danger to her compared to any other man.

However, if it is playing on your mind then perhaps send an anonymous message if that’s even possible.

I’d tell her and I would not do it anonymously. I’d be brave and say I thought you need to know this information, but what you do with it is up to you.

I would really be so grateful if a friend was brave enough to let me know. Even if I knew already, I would feel someone was looking after me.