There is a paedophile living on the next road to me.

[Wellthisisjustfuckingbrilliant]

Found out today through the medium of Facebook. Pleaded guilty to downloading cat A images and received a suspended sentence/put on the sex offenders register.

He lives almost next door to a play park.

At the moment there is plenty of pitch forks at the ready from the neighbours from what I can tell. But can anyone tell me seriously how this will be policed/monitored?

I find it unlikely that a newspaper would publish the man's address. I think there are rules to prevent that happening, just on case of this sort of scenario.

I have seen articles in local newspapers containing full name, road and town when reporting on a guilty verdict in a court case. There doesn't appear to be any rules against it, and I guess if it was read out in open court then any member of the public could hear it anyway.

We have one a few doors away. I know this because it was reported in the local press, woh his full name, age and street, I went to school with him and my parents (his parents' neighbours) have spoken to his parents about it and the trauma it has brought them. So I know local press definitely do report it with details.

He lives very close to a primary school and there was a huge outcry at the time locally, but nothing to be done. Realistically if he's downloading others' images, he's no risk to local children and the risk is certainly no higher than if you didn't know about him.

Realistically if he's downloading others' images, he's no risk to local children and the risk is certainly no higher than if you didn't know about him.

That is not true - the danger is that he has a sexual interest in children and him using images does not mean he will not contact offend.

That said, OP you know about him so he poses very little danger to you.

I don't think the precise details of how he is monitored would be public knowledge. Those that need to know (ie family and those children he would have access to regularly) would/should be seen by social workers and disclosure discussed. Any monitoring equipment, again wouldn't be shared with the general public.

There was one a few doors up from me, I live directly opposite a primary school. He is no longer there but I always find it odd when they are placed in such close proximity to children

At least you know about this one, there will be others you don't know about.
The saddest fact of all- it's hardly ever the stranger who hurts children.

I just wondered if he would have to stay a certain distance from park etc. I’ve always happily let the dc play by themselves, walk up the shop etc.

I know it’s better the devil you know and all that but the paper included sketchy details of what he had been watching and the guy seriously needed locking up.

One on my street
One on the road behind us
Police told me there is a paedo on most streets, I just happen to know where ours is 😢

@SabrinaTheMiddleAgedBitch

There was one a few doors up from me, I live directly opposite a primary school. He is no longer there but I always find it odd when they are placed in such close proximity to children

Surely they're not placed anywhere. They just happen to live there.

@Notabove25 Not in this situation, he was relocated from his original address due to harassment for his conviction

There's a man that has been convicted around the corner from us. Name, street & town published in the paper at the time.

Initially I was worried but now I think at least we know where he is. All the children have been told (age appropriately).

What I can't understand is that his wife stuck by him but then that's another post altogether!

Op to answer your question - yes he will be monitored and supervised, both by probation and a specialist police officer. He's on a suspended sentence, this can be activated if he commits another offence. He may be subject to other conditions, such as not having internet enabled devices etc

He has to live somewhere

What Mikejardine has said, and also working in this field, we all live near a sexual offender, convicted or otherwise, this one is monitored and subject to restrictions and supervision. Also how do you know the cat A images were of children?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

The press listed his name and address in an article?

How is that even allowed?

If someone is that interested in children then living near a play park or not makes no difference, if he is motivated to seek a hands on victim he will go out to find one. Most internet offenders don’t go on to commit hands on offences. He will have an allocated police officer to manage his sex offender registration and any sexual harm prevention order imposed, this might prevent him from having internet enabled devices, cameras etc, or allow police to inspect any he does have whenever they like. He will have a probation officer who will monitor his lifestyle, who he is in contact with etc and do work with him with regard to managing his offending related thoughts and feelings. The police and probation will work together and see him together, share info etc. Unless he has been to prison and is on a licence no one can make him live elsewhere (unless he rents and landlord evicts him). There are thousands upon thousands of convicted sex offenders in the community that we know about - many many thousands more not yet caught.

@enjoyingscience

I hate to say it, but this is probably true for an awful lot of us. There are a lot of sex offenders out there.

This is exactly what I was going to say. We just don't know.

Public court information is just that, public.

My dad has two convicted sex offenders both on the sex offenders register in his road... they are around a lot we just don't know about it, unfortunately they are not injected with blue dye so we can tell our kids to keep away. Just keep a watchful eye out is my advice anything that's makes you feel
uneasy / suspicious call the police they have a dedicated sex offenders team that watch them and check in on them from time to time.

@supernova89 Our local newspaper does this. So it would be Joe Bloggs, 58 from street, town

The offender will have a SOPO in place. This will be agreed in line with the offences, and contain a list of prohibitations. For example no contact with under 18's, unless under the supervision of and adult who knows their offences. Also they could be prohibited from using a smart phone or electronic devices, and random spot checks will be undertaken on this.

There will be a probation officer who will be working with the offender, a long with a psychologist. If the SOPO is breached then it will go back to court.

With the distance to the park it depends what is defined in the SOPO as to the distance the offender has to live away from parks, schools, swimming pools etc.

What Mikejardine has said, and also working in this field, we all live near a sexual offender, convicted or otherwise, this one is monitored and subject to restrictions and supervision. Also how do you know the cat A images were of children?

Sickeningly the article said he had over 80 images of Cat A of ‘children effectively being tortured by adults.’

@Ilovetoast10 thanks for clarifications

I think you'd be horrified as to how many sex offenders there are out there.

I once had a lodger who was friends with a man that - as it later transpired - had served a lengthy sentence for raping a child. I'd met him several times, and he'd sat in my lounge. That was a bit of a shock.

I also live within spitting distance of a bail hostel - and for a time, I lived next door to one (the landlord must have forgotten to mention that on the viewing! Thankfully I never had any problems). I happen to know a serving probation officer socially, and he tells me that they use bail hostels a lot for housing high risk sex offenders. Here's a list of the ones in England and Wales, if you're interested. freedom.is/open.php

I just checked, there were over 60000 people on the sex offenders register in the uk in November 2019.