I want to use Sarah's Law on my neighbour, despite never having spoken to him... AIBU?

[Throwaway1980]

Hi there,

Throwaway account.

I was sexually assaulted as a child (I use 'assault' rather than 'abuse' as it happened once). I've sought appropriate therapy, and live my life quite 'normally'.

I do, however, have really good instincts for when I meet a potential child abuser. There have been a couple of times I've got a bad feeling about someone, for it to be proved right at a later stage.

I get this feeling VERY infrequently, probably six times in total over the course of 35 years (three times the person was later shown to be a sexual predator, the other three were people I only met in passing).

I'm not saying I'm some kind of psychic, or have any special skills, just that I have a heightened awareness of the way some adults look at children.

We got new neighbours last week, and I got that feeling about the guy moving-in.

I have two DDs (5 years and 2.5 years) and live with them and my husband.

The new neighbours are at the front of the house, so do not overlook our garden, they are directly opposite so have full view into our living room.

This guy has done literally nothing to make me suspect him, other than the way he inspected my children on our way into the house.

I don't know the logistics of invoking Sarah's Law, whether as a near-neighbour my request would be considered valid. And I don't know if I'm being unduly harsh.

AIBU? Maybe. I really don't know.

They wouldn't allow a total stranger access to details like that based on your gut feeling and your perception of how he looked at your kids I'm afraid. Nor should they.

I'd have thought you'd have to give the police a good reason why you suspect the individual and want them checked. Saying they're a new neighbour who looked at your DDs as they went in the house doesn't seem a very strong case. What do you mean by "the way he inspected my children"?

What @pessimisticstateofperception said.

You need lace or net curtains in your window so that he can't look into your house.

I thought that was the point of Sarah’s Law, to disclose if a sex offender was in your neighbourhood?
I think you are perfectly reasonable to ask, although I do hope you are wrong on this occasion x

I don't think there is any harm in trying as that is what the law is there for, but I suspect you may be unsuccessful. I tried to use Sarah's law to access information about my MIL's married partner (so my dh's 'stepfather' though he doesn't consider him that as his mum met once he was an adult and they don't have a relationship really at all). He is in fact convicted of child sexual offenses and went to prison for it. We had been told this by others and we wanted to confirm this and get as much information as we could to make a decision about what level of contact we would allow (if any) between him and MIL and our children. We also wanted to know what restrictions he was currently under as he was on the sexual offenders register and we wanted to make a report to the police if he had violated any of these in regards to our children before we were made aware.

I applied for access to his records under Sarah's Law but was told by the investigating officer that we didn't have a right to them in our circumstances. We had been told by others about his convictions (but neither he nor MIL would discuss it with us) and based on that the police told us that we had a duty to protect our children given what we had heard. We should allow no unsupervised contact and that we had enough information already to make that determination. We have no contact at all with him obviously and very little interaction with MIL by herself. But the line I got was that the privacy rights of the individual were paramount and if we had suspicions we should act accordingly to keep our children safe, regardless of what information we might be able to access. They didn't care much about whether he might have violated his license restrictions either, to be fair. We'll never know if he did as we never saw them and he is now off the sexual offenders register (it was only for 10 years).

I don't know though how far rights to access that information expand outside of someone who has regular close, unsupervised contact (like a family member or caregiver would). But there is no harm in trying. You might get a more sympathetic officer than we did. I'm sorry you're having to worry about all of this, but I do think you are right to trust your gut.

As I understand it, this can only be requested if the person has access to a child. Your own children would not be considered children your neighbour has access to.

I’d like to do this to my new neighbor too. I get an awful feeling from him and when he first came to view the house he approached my child which I found quite terrifying. I also know he’s been moved from an area 100miles away (it’s a HA house) which just seems a little off to me. But I don’t think it’s realistic. From my basic understanding I think it’s for people that are directly involved in a child’s/your life, I don't think this would extend to neighbors?

mindutopia I’m surprised that your request was rejected. What’s the point of the law if you can’t use it to check a ‘stepgrandfather’?

My understanding is anyone can invoke sarah’s law, over anyone.

The police will cross check all their databases, and make a decision on whether this person is a risk to your children.

If he has no contact, you are following normal safeguarding rules- no sweets from strangers etc, and he has no history of offending in these circumstances, you won’t be told anything.

If there is any risk- ie he previously groomed a neighbour for access to their child, or he is speaking to your child, or anything that may increase the risk, you will be called in to discuss how to keep your child safe. This doesn’t mean disclosing his offending history.

You can ask. If there’s no risk no harm.

I wouldn't.

Trust your gut to make sure that your DDs are protected. Sarah's Law would, after all, only tell you if someone has a criminal record. It doesn't make someone safe if they do not.

Mindutopia- sarah’s law doesn’t allow you access to an offenders records or previous convictions, or even terms of his licence.

What it does is trigger a police inquiry into whether your children are at risk. You knew he was a risk, and had put in place adequate protection. Therefore he wasn’t a risk in your situation, whatever his offences.

If you were allowing him access the police would have then had the opportunity to tell you he was a risk and had a strategy meeting to ensure your kids were protected.

That is how sarah’s law works. It isn’t a foi request for everyone to see someones police records. It is a tool to protect children- and clares law id the same for dv.

You have about as good a reason for invoking Sarah’s law as this other bloke does for invoking it with regards to your husband. Stop wasting police time.

Lots of misunderstanding on this thread. A quick google shows Sarah's Law

No you can't use it because you feel a bit odd about your neighbour.

Find out his name and google it. If he's a convicted sex offender, his offences will be made public. In the meantime, safeguard your DC. Keep away from him. Your spidey senses are going off for a reason.

This is so damn creepy and dangerous.

Your behaviour that is, not the neighbour.

I'm sorry for what happened to you OP but you sound paranoid. You have no evidence whatsoever that there's anything wrong with him.

In the same situation I would go through safeguarding lessons with my DC and make sure he was never alone with them.

TBH a criminal record isn't the be all and end all of checks since the fact someone doesn't have one could mean they aren't attracted to children or could mean they are and haven't ever done anything or could just mean they haven't been caught.

You can take measures to keep your children safe, but contacting the police and informing them you have a 'hunch' is wrong. They will have to make a note of your enquiry and it is awful to come out with a presumption based on the way somebody looked at someone else.

You can’t use Sarah’s law. It wasn’t approved in the way that Sara Payne intended and rightly so!

You can only request disclosures for people who care for your child. Eg. partners, relatives, babysitters (I assume). Disclosures are only given for those with close contact with child

@MaryMcCarthy - What's so creepy/dangerous about OP wanting to know if there are predators around? Better to be safe than sorry.

In America you can put in your address and see how many sexual offenders live on your road - do you also think that system is creepy and dangerous?

OP just trust your gut and keep an eye out

Protect and educate your kids, keep them safe that’s the best you can do. There’s always been paedophiles but people seem to have an irrational fear of them.

Luckily I was brought up in a time where there was not this fear and as a result I was given freedom and enjoyed my childhood

Your spidey senses are going off for a reason.

Stereotyping, that's the only thing setting off OP's so called spidey senses. She associates a certain look with sexual offenders.

What would you do it you did have definitive proof of neighbour was a sex offender? Maybe your instinct is right maybe it's not ,not all sex offenders will have a record , you need to follow all normal safe guarding procedure ,anyone could be a sex offendor.

rubyroot fearing paedophiles is not irrational.