Would you want to know if one of these people lived on your street *content warning - SO*

[usernamechanged1]

Was careful with the title so as not to cause any unwanted distress.

I watched Stacey Dooley’s documentary where she went to Florida and they literally signpost “The occupant of (address) is a convicted sex offender” at the edge of the neighbourhood. They also have an online database where you can put someone’s name in and see if they have convictions of that nature. It’ll tell you what they’ve done and when.

I know there are a few illegal websites in the UK which do the same, but nothing published by the police or government, as in the US.

Would you like to see something like this available?

Would you want to know if a convicted sex offender or paedophile lived on your street?

@AliceOlive How do their children manage in school?

How so?

I used to work with sex offenders and unfortunately they are everywhere.
I think a more practical solution is to report where necessary, safeguard and teach our kids.
You see posts on here where someone will say ‘I have suspicions about my neighbour and abuse I can hear’. Report report report.

They do need to live somewhere and rightly it wrongly we don’t have a death penalty so at some point custodial sentences end.

Registered sex offenders cannot just go wherever they want, and as someone who claims to have worked with this user group, you would know that. There are SHPO’s, licence conditions, prohibited activities and SOR requirements for a start. Licence conditions can include the surrender of a passport.

You’ve misinterpreted what I wrote.

I wasn’t referring to what they’re allowed to do, more what they could do. Certainly not in the realms of travelling internationally as they wish, but, if someone wants to drive slowly past a primary school, they will. If they want to linger near a park, they will.

These individuals are hardly known for being truthful and law abiding are they?

Perhaps it’s a case of you explaining it poorly rather than me misinterpreting it. Anyone “could” do anything at any time, so that’s a flawed premise. That’s also not how risk management works. As for people hanging around parks and the like, GPS tagging and electronic monitoring helps to tackle these issues.

MAPPA know where every registered sex offender lives. As a PP said they are everywhere.

Legally, this is true. But do you really think that this is policed sufficiently that all SOs adhere to the rules of their probation or licences? SOs will always find ways to reoffend. Gary Glitter is a prime recent example, put in accommodation with a load of other SOs, given access to the Internet and dark Web etc. It's impossible to keep everyone of them supervised 24/7 and it's their absolute nature to find any way to get access to our children.
As to the original question as to whether we should have access to information about people living on our street, by extension, wouldn't we then want to know who works in our local shops we take our children to, where we might stop and talk to who is serving us while they're giving our DC a free lollipop out the kindness of their hearts cos they think they're 'adorable' or 'cute'. Will we then want to know who is registered at local gym that has a pool, anyone who who works in local cafe or library or the window cleaner or bin man. The vigilantes would then take away the scarce availability of our police who are already so short staffed they're unable to keep up chasing the SOs who are not sticking to their licences and sneaking into our parks or hanging around our school gates - it's a vicious circle.

Absolutely agree. No my problem about their livelihoods.

Offenders are not tagged or kept track for the rest of their lives. And again, I'll use the Gary Glitter example. He may not have had physical access to children but watching it on the net means someone somewhere is abusing a child to sell or share on line. To put it crudely, it's supply and demand. If someone somewhere wants to watch, someone will be willing to commit the atrocity to fill that demand.

MAPPA guidance which covers sex offenders

I’m in Scotland and they are actually monitored as GG SHOULD have been. I assume the rest of the UK follows the same guidance that I’ve linked.

@Bootlass I appreciate that not all RSO’s stick to the relevant terms and conditions, but there are harsh punishments for this, and ultimately, short of locking people up 24/7, which isn’t an option, I am not clear what else can be done. Also, I doubt Gary Glitter was GIVEN access to the Dark Web. I would be surprised if he was even allowed an internet enabled phone. The GG case is actually an excellent example of the system working as it should. And yes, some offenders ARE monitored for the rest of their lives.

I was horrified when I found out that a family friend of many years was a serious sexual predator. I wish I had known. He did not abuse my children, but they did visit him a lot with my husband. I still feel sick about it.

I'm more worried about the people who aren't on any database to be honest.

@Greenshake I'm not saying GG was given access to the Internet by anyone in authority but it was certainly reported (correctly or uncorrectly. I mesn who can trust what you resd in the papers anymore?) that he had access to an Internet enabled phone and was heard asking how to get onto DW. And yes, maybe it could be considered the system 'worked' because he was recalled but it's just as true that he attempted to reoffend almost immediately upon his release and somehow, very quickly, found a way to do this, so the strict rules or threat of going back to prison clearly do not stop this type of offender.
And as you say, only SOME offenders are monitored for life.
And honestly i totally respect what you're saying and respect it, and I do understand that people who work with SOs in trying to rehabilitate and/or monitor them do a mostly excellent job but they are severely hindered by lack of funds, staff and resources.
But of course, we're perhaps going slightly off the originally topic the OP originally brought, so apologies.

Paedophiles and convicted rapists... Yes.

People who have done something like streaking at a football game? No.

There's levels of offences, but I think the above are fair game and deserve whatever they get from the community. I don't believe for one second that a paedophile or a rapist can be reformed.

@Bootlass I am one of those people you refer to, so that is appreciated.

There's a guy in our town who is well known about having been in the local news at conviction. I remember seeing Paedo scrawled on his front door. Now he's out of prison and every window in his house is now boarded up because people kept throwing stones through them. I don't condone this even though I understand not wanting him living near your kids. (He lives next door to a scout hut too 😩 I'm sure this is not a coincidence) So I think often people do find out. Tbh I would want to know if it was my neighbour. There is a national sex offender registry in the UK which all sex offenders have to be on but I don't know if the public can access it.

@Greenshake well thank you for working so hard in what must be one of the most challenging jobs, one that probably consumes every minute of your life, even when you're off duty trying to relax. Thank you for trying to keep our children as safe as possible 💐

No. I don’t see the point as you will still be unaware of the sex offenders on your street who haven’t been convicted.

My ex FIL has been to prison and is on the SO register, I wouldn't care (because I've been NC for 20+ years and so has my child, and he's a horrible human) either way but his ex wife and daughter would probably take the flack for his crimes.

There's probably more out there that aren't convicted than are. Seems a bit pointless to me.

I do know there's one living round the corner to me

🌷 thank you again. I have some very good colleagues too and the last few months have been pretty tough for us all in terms of events and subsequent media coverage, so that hearing that is very welcome.

@MrsJaxTeller3 agreed. No-one is thinking of the families of the offenders and the abuse they'd get hurled at them in street, the 'paedo' slurs painted on their front door or walls, the bullying the poor DC would inevitably endure in school etc. These people have already gone the trauma of discovering the crimes, living through court cases and then separation/estrangement from a person they loved, trusted and cared for without all the harassment or danger of vigilantism thrown on top of all that