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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for stories of people you knew who turned out to be criminals?

261 replies

QuackPorridgeBacon · 28/07/2017 21:03

Ok so I knew this guy at school and also at a club type thing (think scouts but different). He always annoyed me, I hated having to take orders from him as he was 'higher up' I would argue and get told off.. anyway, I moved away and a few years later it's in the news that he has committed crimes against under aged girls, between the ages of 14 and 16. I was shocked but I always thought he was creepy.

OP posts:
Paperdove87 · 29/07/2017 13:31

My friend's dad killed his business partner, business partner's wife and their two young daughters. When my friend texted to tell me I thought he was joking. The dad seemed a lovely man.

Also one of my students stabbed another ex-student to death outside the school. London gang problems. SadIt's always extra tragic that people so young are involved.

Tisgrand · 29/07/2017 13:33

Mathanxiety I was taught Irish by that man in Dublin and none of us ever suspected what he was up to, although I think some of the boys he abused may have been in my class. I think because it was the seventies and child abuse was not ever discussed. He was known as a horrible loudmouth bully of a man, he really seemed to hate the female pupils; I finished secondary school completely unable to speak Irish and to this day I hate it, I know its ridiculous but I somehow equate being fluent in Irish with being an abusive bully.

I do remember seeing him "turn on" the charm with parents one time I helped out with parent teacher meetings and being amazed that he could do that; in hindsight of course thats how so many abusers got away with their crimes for so long back then. Children were supposed to be seen and not heard, to respect their elders and betters etc. I'm so glad that the days of mindlessly obeying and revering those in authority are gone in Ireland, far too many lives were destroyed by teachers, priests, gardai, sports coaches etc.

O'Lovely my arse!

Fredthefrog · 29/07/2017 13:47

It is clear that people who want to hurt children will find any position which makes that easier. It is why we need to remember that all a crb does is say someone hasn't been caught. People have to look out for the signs.
I had a lucky escape as a child. I joined a music school to learn the clarinet and was taught by a nice old man. I was rubbish at practicing so my mum stopped the lessons. A few years later we saw in the local paper that he had been convicted of assaulting some of his young pupils.

steppemum · 29/07/2017 13:57

I agree Fred.
I posted upthread about my friend's husband who seemed nice, but attached a child.

He was helping out at child care at church. But he never attacked anyone there. Why? really simple - they had good safeguarding procedures, where adults were never one on one with a child out of sight of others.

It is good procedure and policy which keeps kids safe, not CRB checks

RhodaBorrocks · 29/07/2017 13:59

Paedophile teacher only convicted 3 years ago but we knew he was dating girls in our year when we were in yr11 - 20 years ago. I always thought he was a bit of a weirdo bellend but others I knew thought he was pretty cool.

A nice old man I met through my hobby group was really friendly and involved until he suddenly disappeared. A member of our group couldn't get through to him and was going to call the police to do a welfare check, but decided to first check his local paper online for an obituary. Instead they found an article describing the outcome of his recent trial and conviction for paedophilia.

2 colleagues were recently discussing how each knew one half of a couple where the husband killed the wife and dumped her body. It was the subject of a television documentary in the last 2 months, hence their discussing it. I learned a few things that weren't in the doc that afternoon, though was a little Hmm they were being so blasé and quite gossipy about it all. The victim was a friend of several friends.

stabbybitch · 29/07/2017 14:08

Quack I was 15 I think, he was 20ish . He was my friends brother & we had always been close, I had grown up with them. I was devastated and horrified in equal measures when I found out from the paper.

Also very recently a young man my partner knows is on remand for raping & beating an 101 year old lady. He used to do odd jobs for her. He was high as a kite & disappeared from the pub he was as with his mates, they all found out what he had done the next day. It's always been know that he watched granny porn too. He's the same age as me & Iv always been very warey of him for no reason. I have refused him in my house.

silkpyjamasallday · 29/07/2017 14:09

This thread makes for some horrific reading, and having thought about it I'm shocked how many criminals I know, and how many of them have not been brought to justice for their crimes.

I know several friends of DP who have been caught dealing huge quantities of LSD, cocaine and pills, al boys from very well to do families who all mysteriously weren't convicted because of evidence being 'lost' or tampered with. But the boys I know from my primary school who come from pretty average families on council estates have been convicted and jailed for dealing a bit of weed. This worries me more than anything else as it shows either a huge bias in the judicial system or indicates that the parents of the wealthy boys paid someone to make sure their children weren't going to get more than a slap on the wrist.

A girl at my school was gang raped at a party by boys from our adjoining boys school and some boys from Australia on a rugby tour when we were 15, it was filmed on a phone and went round both schools. Nothing was done about that, even when the schools became aware, must have been over 20 boys involved and all of them got away with it. Worse was the fact these boys still managed to get girlfriends as the general view at school was that it was the girls fault as she got too drunk and that the boys weren't rapists. She was ostracised and they continued to live normal lives.

I also know a man who has told DP how when he worked for a gang in Manchester, his job was 'breaking in' the trafficked women the gang brought to the UK to be prostitutes. He belongs in prison for life but there's little hope of him being convicted even if it was reported as I imagine there won't be much evidence from 20 odd years ago Sad

I know a man who committed fraud with one of the big banks, a client didn't want to come in to sign off on something and convinced our friend to forge his signature. Friend got caught and lost his job, but it hasn't prevented him having a wildly successful career.

oldlaundbooth · 29/07/2017 15:03

Went on holiday with a lad who turned out to later on get 8 years for being a paedophile.

BabychamSocialist · 29/07/2017 15:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Andrewofgg · 29/07/2017 16:02

My school bully got eight for fraud and I rejoiced when I read it in the press.

Four of my university contemporaries have served time. One was prominent and I won't name him; one solicitor who, alas, fiddled the books, and remains a good friend; one public order offender; and one woman who harassed and threatened a neighbour and looking back I wouldn't have wanted to be on the wrong side of her.

And one of my teachers. She was done for drunk driving (long before the breathalyser and these cases were tried by juries of car-owners) and then arrested driving drunk and disqualified. Six months. All over the local press and how we all loved it!

FoxtrotUniformCharlieKilo · 29/07/2017 17:09

Someone I knows relative turned out to be an international drug importer and imported £7million worth of cocaine and cannabis. He was given 8 years and was ordered to pay £500k or he would get more jail time and because his wife's family are well off anyway (so she still had all her money and assets etc) he asked her to pay. She didn't Grin

Also someone else I knows dad has just been sent down for drugs and firearms offences.

Don't know any pedophiles or murderers or anything like that though.

FourForYouGlenCoco · 29/07/2017 18:21

An ex, not in the uk, was jailed for several years for possession of csa images. I expect it shocked a lot of people but he was always a fucked up, creeepy little prick. He was just good at hiding it. I got out as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast for various reasons, and he left me with a lot of issues that took a long time to get over. I hope he gets the shit kicked out of him in jail.

MrsMeeseeks · 29/07/2017 19:02

I temped at the CPS years ago when I first left school and one of my jobs was to tidy up the archives room. The case files were organised alphabetically by name so one afternoon I decided to look up people I knew. Two of the roughest girls who had bullied me at school had been arrested for stealing meat from Budgens and the stupid pricks had tried to dodge the old bill by getting on a bus.

I was looking through some old photos with my cousin a while back and found one from her Christening. She recoiled when I showed it to her and pointed out her uncle on the other side of her family (i.e, not related to me) in the photo. It turned out he was in prison for sexual abuse and rape of children (including his own) and women.

Notreallyarsed · 29/07/2017 19:30

DP had a neighbour before we met, just a regular guy, working, wife, kid, council house, enough money but not flashy. They used to chat over the fence, have barbecues together in summer and all that.
Turns out he was a proper gangster and the whole gang were running drugs and weapons from Spain! They were all jailed for a total of 200 years or something. DP was stunned when it hit the papers, he hadn't a clue. Neither did the poor man's wife, who had been under surveillance for 2 years!

alcibiades · 29/07/2017 19:34

My cousin. He was the golden boy of our generation. He emigrated to Australia when he was in his early 20s. He worked in a boys’ home.

I lost contact with that side of the family very many years ago, but recently have been doing a bit of family tree research. A couple of months ago I put his name+Australia into google, and some news reports came up. The name was the same (pretty unusual surname) and the age (70 years old) fitted with his year of birth. He and others had been on trial for abuse of some of the children. He ended up drowned, presumably suicide, the day before the case was to go to the jury. The case against him was halted at that point, which meant that his victims never got the chance to see him convicted and sentenced.

UnbornMortificado · 29/07/2017 19:52

DD2's dad served time for armed robbery, rumour is he's now selling drugs.

Unsurprisingly he isn't allowed to see DD.

Ofalltheginjoints · 29/07/2017 20:35

I went to school with two women convicted of murdering their child recently, one was the year above me and one below but we all did the same after school activity, one was always far more controlling then the other but that is no excuse for their actions and frankly they should rot in hell.

I've worked with a variety of offenders from low level crime to crimes that have made national/international news but also worked with some of the victims and its harrowing

BabychamSocialist · 29/07/2017 20:47

My mum was a proper hardened criminal - she got arrested at Greenham Common peace camp and locked in the cells overnight! Grin

krispmallow · 29/07/2017 20:58

www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/most-wanted-hub

One of the young lads on this list 😷

isseywithcats · 29/07/2017 21:13

a lad my daughter was friends with all through infant and junior school, one of the nicest politest lads you could meet, great parents a real golden child, by the age of 18 he had murdered a taxi driver for drug money.

a woman i worked with in the early 80s didnt turn up for work one day turned out her and her husband were involved in a child sexual abuse ring using thier own children who were young teens at the time, they made the news of the world as couple A and couple B she got 6 years and he got 8 years

sparechange · 29/07/2017 21:14

@freshprincess The dad stabbing the OM story that I knew about happened in Somerset in about 2000, if it's the same one you're thinking of...

brasty · 29/07/2017 21:24

All the boys in the street I grew up with have criminal records, including my brother. Some for stupid things like graffiti, but also sexual indecency, theft, etc. It was a rough area.

tccat · 29/07/2017 21:46

ScottishChick, you must be very near me, I remember the news coverage at the time, just awfull

ladybird69 · 29/07/2017 22:13

My lovely window cleaner was sent to jail for abusing young girls! You never know eh

Jakadaal · 29/07/2017 22:25

Curate at my Catholic comprehensive
caretaker at my Catholic comprehensive
My elderly FIL
Hmm

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