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 once worked somewhere where you had to have a DBS check and it was just an offjce with no children or vulnerable people. Like a magazine business. I questioned the dbs check to a colleague once and they told me they brought it in as a few years earlier a couple of the office juniors were bored and started to google peoples names in the office. They randomly googled one of the managers and it came up with pages of news articles about his conviction for paedophilia. I can't imagine the shock of just seeing all that. Anyway he got the sack and they instated dbs checks for all employees!

A relative was convicted of weapons offences because he built a bomb and threatened to blow up the guy who was beating the shit out of his female best friend. He was in one of his psychotic episodes as he has severe paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis. Though I was surprised obviously, I understood because he's got a real hatred of men who hit women

Yes, a few - all rather serious crimes. In three out of four cases it was actually very sad - people in desperate situations doing dreadful things even though they were not inherently evil - just couldn't see a way out, or just lost their minds temporarily. Just tragic. The fourth was a male former colleague. When news of his sex offences came to light it wasn't really a surprise because he had always been quite odd.

Also a boy i used to hang around with in my teens. His family had a massive mansion house in a prestigous area, he went to private school, he was kind, quiet, intelligent and good looking. Someone showed me an article about him a few weeks ago, he had just got time for burglary and assault of an elderly lady and the judge described him as dispicable and the lowest of the low. I can only assume he ended up on serious drugs to have gone from what he was to how he ended up.

I knew a couple very well, same group of friends, used to see them regularly. He killed her and then himself when she was trying to leave. Both professional and quite wealthy. 2 kids left orphaned.

"Record" isn't a useful marker here. A third of men in the UK haven't had a criminal conviction. The stats that have been shared around include cautions.

I was friends with someone who murdered an elderly woman. I sat beside him in primary school and we were friends up until I was about 16. He was always stoned by then and I didn't know until it happened that in the next couple of years he ended up addicted to heroin. The woman he stabbed knew him which always made me really sad. I would never have thought he would do something like that, he was a really nice boy growing up.

I also knew a boy who killed his gran. He had some kind of psychosis.

The practice manager of a GP surgery that I worked at was robbing the place left right and centre. She had robbed other workplaces as well. She had no shame.

An ex-colleague murdered his wife and wrapped her in a blanket under his bed, where she was found by his son who was about 7 or 8 at the time.

No clues at all - although very attractive in a slightly smarmy untouchable kind of way, never saw any other side to him.

I work with someone who was sentenced to 20+ years but is recently out after just half that time. It wasn't a violent crime. It involved some high level international skullduggery. I do believe they have been rehabilitated in prison - studied a degree and did a lot of hard work on the inside. Their work ethic is second to none. I have no problem with them as a person. I believe they have a very clever business brain but just applied it to criminal matters in the past, and now they are applying it to more worthy pursuits.

Crikey I’m shocked at the number of people who have said they know murderers.

I have three relatives who I know have committed crimes and been arrested but then it’s been dropped - ABH/GBH offences.

An old school friend got convicted of a drug offence - not sure of the exact name - but importing drugs from abroad.

The best friend of a friend of mine who I’ve met a few times over the years, her now ex husband was convicted of child sex offences.

This one doesn’t really count but I had a job interview once - didn’t get it. But a couple of years later I was reading the paper and saw he’d been convicted of stealing money from clients, given a prison sentence, and his law firm had been shut down. What a blessing in disguise that job rejection was!

I do know of a man who murdered his wife during lockdown. He was a really gentle soul from what I knew and just seemingly lost it during the pandemic.

My first boyfriend was arrested (30 years after we broke up!) after being found guilty of making indecent pictures of children. I found out on the news. Know of a couple of others who had child pornography on their computers and were people 'from the church'.

I once taught a boy who a year after leaving school was found guilty of raping and robbing an elderly woman

He was always a horrible kid

I've met two murderers socially after they were convicted and out of prison. Both intelligent, creative people who moved in the same (very naice middle class) social circle as me for a couple of years. One you would never guess in a million years, the other had an air of barely contained anger about them. I used to work with ex-prisoners and we weren't told what they were convicted of, in case it jeopardised how we treated them. But news did get leaked occasionally, and the sweet woman who everyone adored turned out the ex-madam of a brothel specialising in underage girls. A sort of Ghislaine Maxwell type, recruiting vulnerable teens for men. We'd all assumed shoplifting.

Two strip club customers I associated with were convicted of child sex crimes. Neither surprised me.

My milkman! Wondered where he'd got to and why no deliveries then later saw in the news that he'd been convicted of murder.

I also knew a weedy academic who beat his wife almost to death. I was extremely shocked that he was physically violent but had always thought him a horrible man. Mid forties but sulked and scowled at social situations like a badly behaved teen, and sneered at everyone as he thought he was better than them.

A bit tenuous, but my Mum has told me that she and her mother were once leafing through the paper and came across a news report of a man who'd been convicted of killing his wife. My granny was aghast because from the name and place she knew he was one of her many brothers-in-law. I don't think she or my Mum had ever met him. My Grandpa came from a large family who ended up spread all over the place and there was very little contact between the siblings.

I don't know any details of what happened or what the charge was, but it can't have been first degree murder or the equivalent as he went to prison. This was in the 1940s or 1950s so he could have been hanged. The news report said that his wife had nagged him, which of course was presented as mitigating circumstances. If I ever sign up to Ancestry, I might be able to find out more.

I also used to know a family who seemed completely unremarkable. Not close friends, but we spoke in passing. One day we got news that one of the children had attempted to murder the entire family by arson, and sadly one of the other children died. He was convicted of murder and died by his own hand some years later. Remarkably, his parents stood by him as they were always convinced he was not responsible for his actions and should have been found not guilty and sent to a mental health setting. There were apparently no warning signs at all. Awful, awful thing.

Also three teachers of mine (all different schools)
One for theft of school money, one for being a pimp to 6th formers, and one set themself alight after all their child abuse came to light

I have to admit that I would never trust someone like this. The clever brain is one thing but the lack of morals and restraint is something I think people either have or don't have. People either think it's okay to get away with fraud or they don't and I'd suspect them of spotting new opportunities and exploiting them.

Surprising (or maybe not) how child sex/images are a common theme through this thread. Is it on the increase because of ease of access to it or has it always been prevalent just hidden?

I used to live in York

I was also a single parent who used a local single parent group for support and advice

Anyway,this woman and her 3 kids started coming (eldest was 9 and the other two a bit younger)

I've never met anyone like her,filthy,dirty,smelly,thick,foul mouthed,greedy and only cared about money (she didn't want to work for this money-she wanted max benefits and more)or herself and the kids could go to hell,this was her money and she didn't see why she should feed or clothe them

The father claimed to be a psychic and claimed benefits while working as one on the side

The kids where feral,the poor little sods lived the most awful life (their lives would have broken most adults)

The house was a mix of dog shit ground into the carpet and up the walls,dirt,mess not cleaned up and even more dirt,nothing was ever washed or wiped down

To cut a very long story short,the father turned out to be a pedophile (he'd only had a dd so he could abuse her when she got to the 'right' age) the mother didnt give a fuck about anyone but herself and the kids where taken into care

I lost touch with the the family,didn't see or hear about them and forgot about them if I'm honest

Fast forward a few years and my eldest dd messaged to say she was on her way home but she'd be a few minutes late

She came bursting in through the front door a few minutes later,screaming about a 'young lad,covered in blood,in the park and laughing but not in a human way' (her words)

I sat her down and calmed her down and rang the police who said they had it under control and they'd be in touch (they never did)

It turns out,the eldest lad had zero contact with his mother while in care but they'd reconnected once he'd turned 18

He wanted revenge on his parents but couldn't touch his dad as he was in prison for child sexual abuse so went after his mother

For whatever reason,he didn't go for her,he went for her new (innocent) boyfriend and killed him in his own home,(smashed his head to a pulp) had walked back to a building at the end of our street (it was like a halfway house for kids leaving care) and had walked past dd (and im guessing other people) while covered in blood and laughing/howling

He was caught at the local taxi firm after they called the police because hed walked in and was bragging about what he'd done

Daniel Reed-he didn't deserve the life he got lumped with nor the parents he got

I do have some sympathy for him as it was his childhood that caused it but he should not have killed an innocent man and what a waste of life,he's in prison for the rest of his

His mother?

She found God and went running to chat magazine,squealing about how she was the best mother in the world and she didn't know where she went wrong!

She laid it on thick about how she was going to see him to say a tearful goodbye to him (have a go at him and get her say in before leaving him-again) while playing the caring mummy who'd done her best by her boy

Utter bollocks

Two kids (14 & 15yrs old) in my school lured their friend (13yrs old) to the woods, stabbed him 18 times and left him for dead in a bin bag. A dog walker found him. He lived thankfully and they went to jail.

A guy in my college class got into a fight on a night out. He punched the other guy so hard, he fell and hit his head on the curb. The guy he hit was brain damaged for life. The guy I from my class also went to prison.

I recently found out that someone I used to work with is now in prison for murdering his neighbour. I knew he had a troubled past and a criminal record but it was for theft and criminal damage. He had never been violent that I was aware of. He seemed quite shy when I knew him and was always so polite. I remember thinking how well he had done to turn his life around. I was utterly shocked and saddened when I found out what had happened.

I used to know a man who was responsible for the death of a baby in his care. He got 4 years in prison.