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?

I think it's true, as several PP's have said, that younger children with less sophisticated language and social skills can be better tuned in to oddity in non-verbal signals.) We are conditioned to "give people the benefit of the doubt", but luckily some adults keep the instinct.
Years ago, we had a slightly dodgy supply teacher; he seemed personable and well qualified; several staff commented that it was strange he hadn't got a permanent post more easily (a time with far fewer supply teachers)
But some of the little girls started to complain to me that he was "creepy"; I tried to reassure them, but - eg "he puts his arm round our shoulders". Me: "Mr (Headteacher) did that the other day when you were crying and upset". Girls: "It was different when (lovely family man Head) did it". Then they reacted strongly to being told who was covering their class for the afternoon. I told the Head, nothing you could put a finger on, but these little girls are uneasy. The Head agreed that there was nothing he could do directly, but opted for another supply teacher next time the need arose. We learned later that matters had escalated at another school where he assaulted a little girl.

When I was 17, I working for the summer in a rural location far from home. I was on my own one day and was crossing the main road, about to start the 2 mile walk down the country lane to the house I was staying in.

There was a man just hanging about at the lane entrance and I just got this awful feeling about him. I started walking briskly down the lane...and he started following me. I was freaking out and didn't know what to do but as soon as I went round a corner where he couldn't see me, I started running. About 500yards further down the lane there was a cottage. I ran straight up to the door and thankfully someone was in and let me into the house...a young mum with a screaming crying baby who was on the phone and had a dog barking in the background. She looked so stressed but i was so so grateful that she let me in.

I'll never know if something could have happened to me, but I'm glad i trusted my instincts and didn't take the chance.

Karen Matthews, all that posing with soft toy and the overt criticism of Madeline McCann's parents getting preferential treatment, that shouldn't have been her focus at such a time, couldn't help thinking there was something not quite right about Shannon's disappearance.

There was a local newsreader in my area who got caught up in Yew Tree, I never liked him as a child and remember saying so to my Mum. I would have been 9 or so. Also creeped by Savile and had read rumours online

Conversely one of my teachers at school, a really nice man with a community presence was sent down for a sex offence against a minor. I'm still quite surprised by it, because it's so at odds with his character but he was definitely guilty

At the moment I work with someone, a female and I constantly get a vibe that she bears me ill will, I only have to be in her presence to feel it from her tone, her eyes, her body language. I don't know what the significance is or what to do really. I can't think of a single thing I've done to inspire her visible loathing

A lot of localish people were suspicious of Karen Matthews.

MrStark I had the same experience with a woman at work; she absolutely made my blood run cold and I didn't know why she obviously had it in for me as I was good at my job. If the woman you work with is your boss, beware is all that I can say; I had to resign as she made my life hell and when I complained to HR they defended her with a total whitewash and tissue of lies.

Yes I’ve had negative feelings I wish I’d taken notice of. Usually in work environments- one was at interview with a woman who became my line manager a few months later. First review was glowing, next one 6 months later after our Director left, she absolutely slated me and raised a whole load of nonsense that allegedly took place before the previous glowing review had happened. Even HR queried her report. I wish I’d listened to my instinct at interview about her, and saved myself 18 months of bullying from the cow.

Another time it was a place rather than a person. My BIL has bought his first house - great layout, perfect for his growing family. But I felt uneasy every time I visited. Turned out that a previous occupant had murdered his DS, severed her head and left it on show in the hearth.

@airedailleurs Yes, I am definitely planning to leave, and don't intend to be here after Christmas, but it takes time to find the right move, it's a shame for me as I thought this would be quite a long term thing, but to add to it, recent actions on the part of the company have made me feel that this is a company I don't want to represent. I can't deny though that recently removing this woman from my daily life has become my greatest motivation for going.

MrStark that sounds wise, then at least it will be on your terms. Good luck!

DH and I helped his sister and her BF moving to another flat. One of the BFs friends seemed off. At one point he talked about music and then asked what kind of CD player we had. I said it was a very old discount model. That was a total lie. I was bit of a HIFI-nerd back then and had recently bought a state of the art Marantz, but I had a feeling that the socalled friend wanted to hear if we had anything worth stealing. Turned out he had asked my DH the same question and DH had the same feeling and told the same lie. We later talked to my SIL about it and she said that she had heard some things about that friend and was a bit worried he would lure her BF into breaking into houses with him. She is no longer with that BF who had that kind of friends.

At my DBs wedding one of his SILs had brought a BF to the wedding (even though she had only been separated from her DH for some months, but that's another story). My parents, my DH and myself took an instant dislike to her BF. It later turned out that he had gotten her to pay for an upgrade of his kitchen and she had helped painting his house. As soon as the house was done he dumped her. Luckily, his parents were very ashamed that he had conned her out of money and paid her back the money she had spent on the kitchen.

I wish I had this. Last summer I left my son at a drama day camp with a lovely young female teacher. He had a great time and joined up to this group, with the woman as th teacher.

Two weeks later she had been arrested for serious sexual offences against young boys, along with her mother and brothers (not associated with the drama school, but another group she did).

I did not get a single dodgy vibe off her in the slightest and it worries me that I am such a poor judge of character. It has made me much more wary though.

It's a bit hit and miss with me.

Never liked Jimmy Saville. Got that evil vibe off him. Totally missed it on Rolf Harris though.

DM spotted Ian Huntley on the interview and instantly claimed he did it. I wasn't sure but thought there was something off about him.

Our local priest in the late 80's was extremely popular. He had a way of connecting with the parish children & teens and all the parents loved him. I always felt a bit uneasy around him but put it down to my upbringing of respecting priests. He was convicted of assaulting teen boys and basically got a slap on the wrist for it. There were a spate of suicides later of young men that would have been young teens in the parish during their tenure. I will always believe that they were victims of his and that they saw the authorities still in thrall to the RCC and that they were failed in getting justice.

There's a man at work I dislike. He appears charming and is well liked by his bosses, but funnily enough not one of the support staff like him - and we are all women. I would not be one bit surprised if it transpires that he's an abuser of some flavour.

Always got a mega creepy feeling from my great uncle. He was over at our house once and they were leaving, he was edging towards me to give me a kiss bye bye : I remember thinking 'there is no fucking way you're kissing me matey' so I picked up a glass of orange juice and started drinking it. I was only 14 but didn't give a shit about protocol with creepy men. My mum told me at a later date he always used to go and watch schoolgirls play netball

Another teacher type bloke on an outward bound week gave me the serious creeps : I was only about 8 and even the other kids said that he 'singled' me out : he didn't do anything, just teased me a lot / paid me a lot of attention. Fucking creep bag.

I've learnt to trust my judgement and am pretty good at it, I usually make up my mind on meeting people in the first minute and I'm rarely wrong.

There was one man I knew who was very nice and polite, but there was something off about him. I told my DH that he’d be the type to commit a murder, and his neighbours would be commenting on the local news how it was such a shock as he was so lovely. It turned out he’d stolen and sold on thousands of pounds of merchandise from two different employers. I still wonder if he’ll ever be convicted for a more serious crime!

My sisters boyfriend when she was 15 to 16. Everyone in my family thought he was lovely and sister was absolutely in love with him, but i despised him and found him creepy, but couldnt give an answer why.

He was a couple of years older and ended up dumping her after an argument. She was utterly heartbroken but slowly the truth emerged of how sexually/emotionally/physically abusive he was.

A lot of guilt for not protecting my "baby" sister from that fuck nugget

Jimmy Saville.
Knew him from being a very young girl. Always made me very uncomfortable.
I used to say that I don't like or trust him and got told so many times that he was 'a great and charitable guy'.........

The husband of a friend of mine sets off every single one of my creep alarms. He has an incredibly unpleasant aura and way of presenting himself - the best word I can find is that he's predatory. I can't bear to be in the same room as him. My DD and her DD were good friends for a while, and DD once said she didn't like to go to her friend's house when her dad was there because he frightened her. From then on, they only played together at our house. A number of my female friends (including one who's a police officer) get the same vibe off him. None of my male friends, though.

He hasn't been convicted of anything yet, but I am 100% confident that he'll be on the news one day, under a bad, bad headline.

It’s strrangw about Jimmy Saville I watched Jim’ll Fix It. When my friend suggested we write to him asking if we could meet ABBA I can remember feeling terrified that we would have to meet him. Maybe it was from comments of dirty old man that would often here but I don’t know what that meant I knew I didn’t want to meet him.

I had a guy come round to fix cable tv and he made me feel very uncomfortable but his chat was friendly and appropriate. I sent a text to my ex so he called me and made it obvious I was taking to my boyfriend. About 6 months later he knocked on my door around 930pm said he was just in the area and thought he would see how I was doing. Then three months later late at night he left a disgusting pornographic letter for me. I was about to have ds, I was in my own so felt very vulnerable.
The police were great and contacted him and warned him. Virgin were not interested until the police contacted them

I work with ex offenders quite a few have given me the creeps some can project their anger without acting out a little reminder of how dangerous they can be and that is unnerving. One I met made my blood run cold he looked at me with absolute hatred. But hostility even if hidden isn’t uncommon but something about him was different. He is a serial rapist (didn’t know at the time) he is the most frightening person I have met

I forgot one.

At 25 I moved into my first house. I had an intercom right by my front door, but when a knock came at 7.30 I went unthinking straight to the door.

On my door was this skinny, scruffy, ne'er do well looking guy asking for a neighbour and it put the shits right up me. I pointed in the direction of the house I thought it was, but felt a bit shaken afterwards and reminded myself to use the intercom

About a week or two weeks later the door went again. This time I went to the intercom.
It was the guy again, I asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted to speak to me and I said but I don't know you and then he said he'd come to give me a present.

I have no doubt he would've overpowered me and tried to rob me or worse if I'd gone straight to the door like last time.

Looking back I should've called the police

I had a bad feeling about someone who we employed in our small business. He stole intellectual property, was worse than useless at his job despite references and cost us £30,000 with a lost client.

Didn't like a school mum. Everyone else in that group thought she was fab. She takes cocaine and has three way sleep overs with her dh and girlfriend when her dd's friends come to stay.
Another school mum. I had a very bad feeling about her. She tried to murder her ex.

@MiggledyHiggins Brian Routledge? He was so, so creepy. I was terrified of him. He absolutely lost it with me once in the church car park and it was so wrong of him - not just an adult but a priest FFS to be that upset - I was rollerskating past nothing more but it was Friday night and I was a girl. Why no one queried his Friday Night Boys club with its overnights I dunno.

I think we all pick up on things subconsciously, but we interpret them differently. So for example, a woman who’s was abused/saw abuse in her childhood, may pick up signs of an abusive man on meeting him. Some of these women will be repelled by him, others will interpret a familiarity, and find comfort in him. Similarly men looking for a partner to abuse, can pick up on which women might be more vulnerable.

AngelsSins yes I agree with you

I wouldn’t put it down to being a good judge of character it’s picking up on the unconscious signs and recognizing that that uncomfortable feeling is there for a reason sometimes though as you say it’s comfortable in the familiarity

We pick up so much information that we don’t consciously recognise at the time but as we unpick something it is often far more obvious

A colleague, I had a gut feeling about her when interviewing her and despite her ticking all the boxes something made me say she’s not a good fit for us. I was persuaded to give her a chance and something has always made me keep a professional distance when normally I’m naturally friendly. We have caught her lying, eavesdropping private conversations and if spoken to about poor behaviour cries so makes it impossible to continue the conversation. I was right I guess, but we are stuck with her