People you had a sixth sense about and were right

[HarryPotterISreal]

I’ve just been reading one of the spooky threads here and a poster talked about someone she got a bad feeling about and some months later was arrested for abuse or something. When someone is arrested who is a ‘pillar of the community’ someone always says ‘I never liked him, I could always tell’.

Do you have a story where you genuinely knew someone was bad news, though everyone else thought they were wonderful? How could you tell and did others eventually see their true colours?

Are people getting confused between Fred Dibna the tall chimneys guy and that weather bloke from Richard and Judy?

Pervy map man was Fred Dineage, wasn't he?

FirstOfHerName haha, no, and that poor bugger got destroyed when some news agency used his picture instead of the paedophile! I think he sued them too

A man at a sports club that my father went to was a lovely, salt of the earth type who was respected by many. We were there once and my father was out and about doing some sports when my friend from the club and I were in the club house. He was sitting in a chair facing the window with a curtain pulled over the back of his chair so he couldn't be seen from behind, my friend and I would often do that with several curtains and sit there looking out the window so we had a den.

He had his penis out, we were about 7/8 and didn't know what to do. I can't remember what we did, all I can remember was thinking it was odd. I can remember it like it was yesterday :-(

otherwise i am afraid i ahve no sixth sense at all. i am suspicious of all men due to early abuse Yup, me too. I am generally nervous and avoidant of people in general IRL but especially men. I cannot remember a time when i did not witness some kind of verbal/emotional abuse ande some DV and then as a school age child i was bullied and sexually assaulted

i can tell you though that my father was a real pillar of the community, nice guy type but different behind closed doors. A schoolfriend of mine used to say she wished she had parents like mine . she had no idea what was going on in our house. I thought everyone thought liek my schoolfriend until someone who had met my dad told me "i always sensed your dad wasn';t all he seemed." Then i met a former friend from school a few months ago and she told me she had always known right through secondary school that my dad was somehow hurting us.

It wasn't Fred Dineage, no.

Fred Dineage is the newsreader Alan Partridge-alike. Also not creepy.

I saw H from Steps last week having a panini in the Forest of Dean. Also not creepy.

ffreakedbutcalm Oh, wow. That is awful. Good that nothing else happened though. Heaven knows what he was maybe doing to other girls he had access to.

Fred Talbot is the weather map creepy guy.

I have come to rely on my intuition a lot more as I've become older, as I trust my own judgment more. I'm equally right about good people too. My DH of 15 years often gives off bad vibes and, when I introduced him to the family they all thought he was just plain weird, but all these years later they all love him to bits and totally understand why I fell in love with him.

My instinct has served me well over the years, especially when recruiting and oddly around my DS's friends.

I've also oddly managed to predict the winner of bake off by the end of the first episode.

I think it is mother nature's way though and some people are not as tuned into their inner vibe or ignore at their peril.

I never got that "evil" vibe off Jimmy Saville, but i remember being creeped out by his shell suit in the Jim'll Fix It Days. Am not being glib, I really did think shell suits were disgusting. i also thought he was very skinny and ugly and looked as though he must stink of fags, somehow.

If I'm unsure about someone I introduce them to my lovely thoroughbred mare. Within minutes she will tell me if they are iffy or not, normally with the 'face' and if she really dislikes them, followed by the teeth. She has not misjudged anyone yet smile

Gavin de Becker would say the mare is reacting to YOUR reaction to the person. so it isn't your horse or dog who is getting the correct insight - it is you.

I also think we are more aware of danger that we think and subconsciously pick up and stuff and draw conclusions.

Had a friendly argument with dh last night who was talking about Steven Pinker saying that the people of New Guinea at a particular time were probably the humans using most of their intelligence because they lived in a society in which you were at high liklihood of being killed/attacked. I disagreed. I think it is almost more challenging to live in a society (as we do) where you may be at huge risk but you might be just fine too. If you know any man coming toward you is likely to want to kill you or rape you, then you can organise your life/response easily enough. If you don't know if the guy coming toward you is likely to throw acid in your face from that bottle or take a swig of lemonade from that bottle, you have to use a lot more of your brain - the database of human behaviour that some previous posters have referred to.

I dread to think. I haven't told anybody about it before and nothing happened to me but I am feeling really shaken up now. Silly of me I know. I hope he did nothing to any girls.

I form a judgement/opinion on someone within 15minutes of meeting them. I can't remember an occasion I've ever been wrong!

A very close friend of mine has been with her DH for almost 20years. In all that time I've never seen him mistreat her nor even once heard her say a bad word against him. Yet for some completely unknown reason I've always had this image in my head that he saw her as a "trophy" bride and wanted her to be the perfect little Stepford wife. My DH even agreed with me and used to say that despite him being perfectly pleasant he really disliked him but didn't know why.

My friend confided in me very recently that she's utterly miserable and it turns out my mental image was pretty much 100% accurate

Thanks to the posters with autism who've replied. Really interesting that other people function similarly. I thought it was just me tbh. It gives me some extra confidence that when I 'read' someone a particular way and my DH can't see it, or thinks I'm overthinking things, that I should actually be glad of my totally excellent database and trust myself to be right, or at least as likely as him to be right. (Although his ability to 'translate' for me is a big help on lots of occasions too.)

Sorry to derail. Carry on with these anecdotes. I'm really enjoying this thread, even though it's a bit chilling in places. for everyone with upsetting memories.

I too tend to know within a very short time period about someone, and have only misjudged someone twice both Street Angel House Devil type men. That was in my early twenties and I now see this type of guy, in my mid thirties coming a mile off.

A number of years ago, a close friend split from her DP all the friends she had made post the relationship were shocked.

I was not remotely surprised and had predicted exactly how the relationship would end when it was still in its honeymoon phase.

Another friend I have I've also mentally predicted the end of, and circumstances of the end of their relationship. I haven't shared it with anyone, least of all her.

I just get "feelings" sometimes

Not read everyone's yet but I agree with Ian Huntley. I was only 16 but just had that sense he did it.

There was also a DT teacher at my school I didn't like even though everyone else did and it turned out he was arrested into my third year there for sex with some of the minor students. Another teacher at sixth form I always got a bad feeling. Everyone thought it was just me and then it turned out she was grooming some of the boys.

Then there was my sister's ex. A lot of people loved him. He seemed like 'one of the lads' and everyone kept telling me that's who he was. It turned out he was an emotionally abusive, manipulative arsehole and I had every right to hate him. On the plus side, her new boyfriend I really like. I liked her previous one too but that just didn't work out as some relationships don't. Just saying that to point out it was just this ex. It's not like I don't think anyone is worthy of my sister

I was once on a night out in a bar with my best friend, I was very newly pregnant so not drinking obviously but she was, a couple of guys came over to our table and she fancied one of them so they sat down, the one she fancied was gorgeous but instantly gave me the heebeejeebies and I was so surprised she didn’t see it too
I hadn’t mentioned I was pregnant to these guys so as they were buying us alcohol my friend was subtly drinking mine and hers and I was nursing my coke
I was watching this guy like a hawk particularly at the bar as I just knew he was going to do something, I just knew it

Anyhoo the night went on and she’s pissed as a fart and wanted to go back to his flat in the city centre with him
I was saying no and begging and pleading with her to come home but she was adamant that she was going home with him
So I said I was coming too, I couldn’t let her be alone with him, hot creepy guy was fine with this, the other guy had gone off with friends but said to sleep in his bed (I had no intention of sleeping)

On the walk back I text my DP and told him where we were and that I’d text him every hour and if I didn’t to just come and get us - he thought my hormones were making me crazy but he agreed

When we got back to the apartment hot creepy guy went off to make drinks, he wouldn’t accept that I didn’t want alcohol so I pretended to go to the loo but hung back to watch him make drinks
He pulled out a little medicine bottle and put it in both of our drinks

I just knew it!
In the bar I’d been watching him with our drinks for no apparent reason, I wasn’t watching the other guy when he was buying drinks only the hot one, I don’t know how I knew but I just knew

I shudder to think what would’ve happened had I not third wheeled it back to that flat that night

I am a pretty good judge of character from meeting someone just the once. Been right about people's intentions and stuff before..can always tell the fakes

I have actually quite recently learnt that an "uncle" of mine is, in fact, a paedophile - married to someone I'm related to. He's one of those real "pillar of society" types, very involved in the local church etc.

In hindsight it's so easy to see the signs... why certain close families had suddenly dropped off all contact, why some women since childhood had been painted as "bad, lying girls" and ostrasiced...

No, I wouldn't have guessed. I never particularly liked him, but as I said before, that was just on par.

And even in this day and age, no one will speak publically. Not the people abused, and not the people who know about the abuse. Not even me, even though I know first hand what that does to you. I can't even explain why. It's just... I don't know... how do you start to talk about something like that, when it's your family...

My DH and I have an iffy feeling about a friend of a friend but nothing concrete... We have discussed that we expect he'll be in the papers at some point (and then feel guilt for judging him - perhaps he's just a bit odd). Thankfully we've moved away and haven't seen him in 4+ years now.

When I was 22, I was walking to a 24/7 garage half a mile away from a local bar, at about 2am, after a night out, to buy cigarettes, intending to dander the mile home after. I was tipsy drunk, but not staggering or anything, I had heeled shoe boot things on and could still walk okay, was coherent etc. About half way there, a random bloke, small, skinny, leather jacket, jeans, skater boy spikey blonde hair, 40-55 ish, fell into step beside me. No idea how long he was behind me for.

We started chatting, he said he was going to the garage too, then x town about 6 miles up the road. He drifted closer until we were walking together. I started to sober up, and couldn't wait to be shot of him (had a lot on my mind). I bought what I needed, but he didn't buy anything, said he'd changed his mind. He started walking with me again. I had the most terrible feeling by then, my instinct was to turn back but I told myself I was being silly. Got to the point our paths would verge, so I sat on a wall to have a smoke, and pretended to be texting my dp. Said I'm going a different way from you now, sure I'll let you get on, safe home. But he wouldn't leave. He gave me a lot of guff about how he was worried about me, and wouldn't feel right unless he walked me home. I told him he was creeping me out/scaring me etc. After about 20 mins of arguing, he looked at his phone, and I ran until I got to a short cut (through a church, where I stopped for about 15 seconds to whip my shoes off). I could hear him running behind then nothing, until I hid behind a bus stop and saw him poking his head round the corner looking for me. As soon as he disapeared, I ran again, until there was sweat dripping down my back. Nothing happened, but if I had let him walk me home, or even know where I lived, there's no way that would have ended well.

ShredMeJillianIWantToBeNatalie

My Dad had exactly the same response to JS in the 70s and early 80s. Mind you, he did have to work with him for a while.

I just need to see the way someone walks from 200 metres away 🤨