Publically outing a sex offender / peadophile on social media

[rosegoldivy]

This morning DH said to me he had seen something on Facebook that had stated that a sex offender / paedophile had moved into an address a few streets away from us. I asked how he knew this and he said that something had been shared on facebook. He openly joked about how people would be going round to have a word with the guy and said it seemed from comments that it looked like his door had already been kicked in by angry residents.

I went on to facebook to have a nosey (obviously) and found the post he was talking about.

It was from one of those vigilante groups and they had named and shamed the individual, given details of his past crime (molested a child several years ago when he was 15) and gave his full address. From reading the comments on the post it was clear his door had been vandalised and kicked in then further down in the comments it came out that the address that was publically outed was not his address but actually a member of his family’s address and that young children live there. The sex offender actually lives in a town nearby but had been visiting. (why he had been visiting a house with young kids after his past I don’t understand)

So my AIBU is more that I don’t think the vigilante group should have shared a full address on social media without knowing all the details. Yes named the street so residents were aware but giving out the full address I think is a bit much especially in this case when the sex offender doesn’t live there and in fact there is a family living there who have now been subject to violence.

Thoughts?

You'll still say that when you are your loved one is hurt or killed by mistake will you @AntiSocialLOL ? Or your house set alight or your front door kicked in?

You sound a bit cerebrally challenged. Everyone of your viewpoint does.

For me, it's only acceptable to share info like this if you're absolutely sure of the facts - and some of the knuckle-draggers who join vigilante groups would probably struggle with their own name, never mind anyone else's

So I agree about informing the police of the post

A fella in my area got lots of abuse because of something like this. He was completely innocent it was just a malicious rumour. Even though he is innocent, there's still some numpties claiming 'oh well he looks the type' and stuff like that

I hate posts of this type coz who's to stop someone just creating one of one of us, making ludicrous claims that we actually would find difficult to disprove? It takes one malicious bored person seconds to post something that could potentially ruin your life, career etc. It's scary

So anyone who doesn't support vigilante violence is a "sympathiser" of sex offenders?

That's quite the stupidest thing I've ever read on MN in more than ten years @AntiSocialLOL - which is saying something - and just proves my point.

What an interesting place your world must be.

The paediatrician thing never happened, it's an urban myth

Not according to the Guardian. I hate to link to the rag at all, but here you go:

www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/30/childprotection.society

Yeah so forget the fact that the vigilante mob might well have got the wrong information AntiSocial and be targeting an innocent person or in this case their relatives Street justice rules

The paediatrician thing never happened, it's an urban myth.

Not entirely. It's true that it was blown up into something far bigger than it really was, and police think it was 'probably' a few idiot kids, but someone did graffiti 'paedo' on her house and she did move away.

She was my dd's paediatrician for a while.

@AntiSocial only goes on or starts threads to be deliberately provocative.

@Puzzled Well, it is not quite as clear as The Guardian would have you believe. It's a semi-urban myth. See this one:

pressgazette.co.uk/a-tale-told-too-much-the-paediatrician-vigilantes/

I went back to find the post and the vigilante group have taken it down so im guessing it must have been reported.

@antisocialLOL theres always one on these posts that likes to stir the pot the wrong way.

These sorts of groups are awful, I don’t think they are bright enough to understand the potential consequences of their actions.

didnt tina malone recently get done for sharing something on social media about this

Tina Malone broke a court order for identifying what she believed to be a killer do James Bulger.

There is not offence in sharing this rubbish unfortunately.

You don't know where any of us live @AntiSocialLOL (not a bridgedweller's NN at all, that 🙄).

Where do you suggest they go? Particularly when they own their own home.

And the vigilante groups aren’t targetting convicted sex offenders to they have not been “dumped” there by the council.

I don't agree with vigilante rule AntiSocial, I don't live in a naice middle class leafey suburb, either ,I live in social housing in a,deprived part of town ,my point is these vigilantes are often as bad as the people they are "bringing to justice"

I also live in a deprived town where these kinds of people often end up. I see these posts often in local groups. I still don’t agree with it, the potential for innocent people to get caught up is too high and I also don’t agree with mob rule.

I am generally not at all in favour of these vigilante mobs but I've had to question my own thoughts recently.

A year ago our residents association FB page alerted us to the fact that we had a vigilante group doorstepping one of our neighbours and broadcasting it live on FB. They were. Broadcasting live to the world the single most bizarre (and quite chilling) interview I've ever seen. All this while waiting for the Police to show up. It was nuts. Anyway, last week that man was in court and is now a registered sex offender. The video evidence of that group helped convict him.

I am truly astonished that we haven't had the pitchfork brigade round. However, I wonder if that might be because we live in a naice area and people are more concerned about keeping it on the down low? We all know who and where he is.

My intellect tells me these vigilante groups are bad news but my experience has me glad they did it. It's difficult.

Btw hello to everyone who now recognises where I live!!

Great the man has been brought to justice @FlyingElbows but why did the group feel the need to broadcast live to facebook? Everyone is entitled to a fair trial and their behaviour could have jeopardized the court case obviously it didn't in this case but i t often does .

I live on a council estate and I totally disagree with these thick thug vigilantes, there was a post on here a few weeks back where a woman who lived next door to one who was 'stung' had her car trashed after her house was shown on the video ffs!

I have also seen the effects on the families of the accused person and guilty or not their families DO NOT deserve the abuse and vandalism!

Actually have hidden a couple of close facebook friends for sharing this shit and may even consider deleting them.

I'm actually pleased to see that apart from one pp all others on here have the same opinion.

The families of the accused person have usually been the forgotten victims in these matters, whether or not the person is guilty.

I have a particular problem with the facebook live doorstepping, actually, and the viral sharing.

This stuff goes viral, right? That means not only is Mrs Smith from down the road watching and shuddering at Mr Sex Offender, anyone who he's met through having similar "hobbies" may also be seeing it. Do you know what they do next? They microwave their hard-drives, that's what!

Im surprised any convictions happen post-vigilante action, seeing as groups seem to like to film themselves heckling the target before they pass their evidence to the police. What do you think targets do, having been warned information on their online activities is about to be passed to the police? Would it be tearing through the house destroying evidence of participation in child abuse, evidence of having had images of child abuse, and any evidence of being linked to other sex offenders online? Yes, yes it would.

When the police do raids, they do it as fast and as clean as possible, taking the suspect into custody and his property at the same time. At dawn if necessary!

They don't give him an hour's advance warning to nuke his computers and tip all his mates off!