Have you ever known someone who committed a serious crime?

[TheGhostsOfMeAndYou]

I’ve been listening to a true crime podcast recently and it got me thinking. One of the episodes was about Fred and Rose West. When Fred was first arrested (at the stage where police had only uncovered three bodies in the garden), his brother and sister-in-law spoke about him and said they couldn’t believe he’d done what he was accused of, as he had always seemed so gentle and polite spoken.

It made me wonder — has anyone here ever known someone who’s committed a serious crime, and did it come as a total shock? Or were there warning signs in hindsight? Did you ever suspect anything at the time? And how did others around them react — was it disbelief, or did some say they weren’t surprised?

I had the misfortune of growing up with that Roxanne Davis who murdered her 3 week old baby Stanley who was found with 41 fractures and a fatal skull fracture.
Everyone was shocked she was aloud to keep the baby in the first place, she didn’t have a good reputation and was always vile, gobby and doing drugs. We were all expecting for her have that baby taken away and then that happened.

A good friend of mine turned out to be a paedophile. Never assaulted anyone, but was involved in online communities and had images on his computer. He did time.

It was a total, unbelievable shock to all of us, there’s no way you’d ever have thought it possible. He was the sweetest, gentlest man. Nothing in his background would have predicted it (unlike eg Fred West, who was messed up from childhood). It really does seem to be just bad wiring. Not that that in any way excuses what he did. I don’t think any of us stayed in touch.

He’d never had any kind of relationship, which I’m afraid does make me wonder about adults like this now.

I know quite a few, but then I live in a rough area with an interesting past.

A lad in my class at school. I would have said he was quite naughty and badly behaved and these days we would probably have said he had some form of ADHD. On a couple of occasions he came to our house. He could be quite nice and my mum really liked him. I was aware he had been in trouble after school and that he had a serious issue with glue. I had left home and been away for a while. My mum let me know that had been arrested and was eventually convicted of murdering a Priest who had offered him a room after his family kicked him out. He was high on glue at the time. Sent a shiver down my spine.

Yes, someone I used to know is in prison for aggravated assault. I wouldnt have expected it but when he became a drug addict it wasn't that unexpected because he changed beyond belief.
I also used to work with a man, the nicest man you could ever meet (or so it seemed) but who conned the company out of over £100k.
In another job there was a sister restaurant in the next town and someone who I'd met on work functions a few times, he was mid twenties at the time, seemed normal but was actually an old lady rapist and the last I heard he was in prison where I hope he rots.

Yes half my family tree.

I used to yes. But he killed himself after he murdered her so I don’t know him anymore. I didn’t appreciate being chased around by aggressive men from the Daily Record and Mail afterwards either.

a friend from my youth murdered his wife as she was leaving him, A neighbours husband is in jail for fraud and someone my sister was friends with is in jail for kidnapping and armed robbery!

I live in a rough area….

My (ex) close friends uncle was a scout master and was arrested for rape and sexual assault of 4 young boys & girls. He got quite a long prison sentence. His family all stood by him and have always said that the children had made it up

Yes, my brother murdered four people, including my beloved DGP’s, in the late 80s. I was too young to really know him, but those old enough were not surprised as he had had a very rough upbringing which led to mental health issues and he had been in trouble with the police before.

Yes. I have several family members in jail for pretty serious violent crimes. Two cousins and an uncle. They were involved in organised crime. Yes I saw it coming because I knew what they were like. They were fine to me and the main memory I have of my uncle was he brought me a harmonica and sat me on his shoulders to walk me home from the pub once when I was little.

My dad did a stint in jail when he was young for assault but to be honest never asked and don’t really wanna know - it wasn’t a shock when I found out he had spent time in jail, but it doesn’t change how I see him. I know he wouldn’t hurt a fly now and that’s he’s a changed man. Also he’s 70, he’s more into his boat now than battery.

No one on my mum’s side though lol… well that I know of. My mum used to be a cleaner so maybe she started cleaning the scene of the crime!

A neighbour who accused of something attempted to take her own life after killing her daughter. Desperately sad that she felt she had no way out but that.
Co worker who vanished for months then was in the papers for offences against teenage girls.
Someone I was at school with went to jail on a kidnapping charge. Always wanted to ask him how/why?

Yes, my biological father. He is so charming, upbeat and polite but just has this belief that he is above the law (in addition to his more serious crimes (for which he has served prison sentences), he would park wherever he liked, for example, then just throw any issued parking tickets on the floor…just a flagrant disregard for “rules”). His brother is also a criminal, but far less charming.

I’m no contact with DF as I just can’t reconcile his personality with the awful things he is capable of - it’s hugely disconcerting.

An ex boyfriend went inside for sexual assault, but claims he was innocent.

A relative of mine threatened arson, and was jailed for two years.

He was experiencing severe work-related stress (think, national-emergency level), and he lived alone and was largely coping with it alone.

He was and is genuinely a mild-mannered man with outdoorsy/nerdy hobbies, and my dad (who is the very definition of a mild person) is still very close to him.

I also worked with a man who broke another man's jawbone. I was very nervous about him coming back to work (he was imprisoned before I started there), but he was the most careful and respectful of his team, in an industry not known for respect for women.

I've also worked in a charity supporting ex-offenders. There's a huge spectrum of behaviour and responses that comes with criminal behaviour, but I have to say that I was definitely treated with more basic respect by some serving prisoners than I was by the wealthy trustees of the charity.

Yes. Lovely girl I worked with in the early 80s. Had a real innocence about her. Inoffensive. Arrested in the USA. I won’t go into detail as it’s quite outing

Yes my parents foster daughter's daughter ( whom they treated as a grand daughter) involved in a horrible murder at a young age although did not actually do the murder. Went to a young offenders centre. Seems to have stayed out of trouble since. this was many years ago.

Several people and in all cases, I was flabbergasted.

One ex-colleague from many moons ago was convicted of being part of an international drug smuggling ring and got an 18 year prison sentence. I was absolutely stunned as he was such an affable guy plus he was quite a senior manager on presumably a high salary.

I knew one guy who was the partner of a friend who was convicted of a serious sexual offence and jailed but eventually released on appeal. Always thought he was a bit odd but was still very surprised.

In some ways though, the worst was someone I knew who was involved in child porn offences and had kids of his own.

At work I once interviewed and almost offered a job to a guy who turned out to have got a 3 year sentence for threatening to kill someone with a machete. That was a lucky escape!!

Yes, someone I know/knew was convicted of making many thousands of images of child sex abuse. I had literally no idea, and never would have thought it of them.

I knew a guy who went on to murder both his parents.
He was highly intelligent, almost a little eccentric but seemed a gentle soul.

Yes. One for serious financial crime and one for a murder. I’m not going to say of who.

I know three.

before i read about their antics, i would've said they were all lovely, kind, honest, family men. It just goes to show you can never tell. They all justified it through 'the drink.'

I have an ex who is currently the subject of an international money laundering investigation, suspected of stealing millions and millions from a Venezuelan president or war lord or similar.

He always played fast and loose financially, and made a lot through various VAT schemes in the EU, including a stint in prison in his 20ies.

Very very smart.

I was at Uni with a mature student who was revealed, half way through the course, to have been previously convicted and imprisoned for murdering his mother.

He wasn't the most outgoing bloke which I put down him being much older than most other students, but he didn't come across as being a nutter.
After the degree he went on to become a CofS minister.

yes- a murderer. Lovely bloke and very funny.