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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To report this to the police?

175 replies

Hardbackwriter · 09/08/2020 20:49

Today I happened to click on the neighborhood FB place for where I used to live until a few weeks ago (which is a not very nice/slightly rough area - this may or may not be relevant). The top post, with many comments and 'angry face' reactions is someone saying that someone living in the area is a convicted paedophile. In the comments someone has included a screenshot of a news story relating to his conviction (the crimes involved are obviously sickening), his name, his approximate address and his photo. While obviously not in any way condoning what he has done, this has really worried me - the comments make me think there's a pretty high chance of people taking vigilante action, though no one actually goes as far as saying they will do this. I went to report it through the police online reporting system and this made me doubt myself, though - it asks a lot about the crime, the victim, etc and I don't think I have witnessed a crime or a victim, more a potential one, but if you click 'no' to 'have you witnessed or been victim to a crime' it redirects you out of the reporting system. AIBU to think this is a matter that is worth reporting?

OP posts:

HJ372 · 09/08/2020 21:39

That's why I'm glad people alert the general public when pedos are living in their area.

itsgettingweird · 09/08/2020 21:40

@Warsawa31

What can they do if no one has made any specific threats?

The alleged nonce will need to call the police himself like anyone else would if they need to

It's your reply that makes this worrying.

"Alleged nonce"

For a start if it's alleged then he isn't guilty yet and using the word immediately means you assume he is one.

All criminals can be rehabilitated.

He should have a parole officer and if they are decent at their job I'm sure they would be aware of things like this and be advising the man.

I agree his safety would be a concern and I'd report it as witnessing a crime as it's harassment or cyber bullying.

I don't condone sexual crime but I hate vigilantes who act on what they think they know ever more.

HJ372 · 09/08/2020 21:40

That's why I'm glad people alert the locals when a pedo moves into the area.

HJ372 · 09/08/2020 21:44

And as for the OP. It's not alleged. It's a convicted pedo. I hope he never leaves his house as he's too scared to go anywhere. I hope he feels like that forever.

itsgettingweird · 09/08/2020 21:44

My concern would be mistaken identity.

There was a house near me that was believed to be a halfway house for sex offenders. Obviously this isn't advertised but the rumours were rife. Someone found this resident and did exactly the same.

Except it wasn't him. This was just some bloke who happened to look like him and the house was actually run by a charity for ex forces and had been left to them by the previous owner for this use in their will. Previous owner was ex forces.

Just because people are convinced it's this person doesn't mean it is. How many people have been absolutely convinced they seen venables, Thompson, bell etc over the years. I think they've spleen seen south, west and north in the same week before now!

Eatyourbanana · 09/08/2020 21:45

I have this really weird thing where I don't think people committing crimes against other people who have committed crimes is the right way to run society. It's this personal quirk where I believe in things like jury trials, judges, legal standards of proof, etc rather than 'dave says this guy's a paedo so we'll go fuck him up'. As I say, clearly it's terribly strange.

Mmm-hm. I’m sure you feel very noble & law abiding. Well done. Except, no one has actually said they were gonna ‘fuck him up.’ Maybe they just like to know what he looks like incase they bump into him in tesco & he starts chatting away to their 5 year old 👍🏼

@Lockheart
I do think he has the right to live in peace and safety now he has served his sentence.

We disagree. I think he should feel uncomfortable, & should know that everyone living around him knows exactly who he is & what his done. Sometimes shame is more of punishment than jail.

HJ372 · 09/08/2020 21:47

Agree -EatYourBanana

Eatyourbanana · 09/08/2020 21:48

I don't condone sexual crime but I hate vigilantes who act on what they think they know ever more.

I struggle to see how you could hate ‘vigilantes‘ more than child abusers.

ChibiTotoro · 09/08/2020 21:49

@Hardbackwriter you've done the right thing in reporting this. The police do take this kind of matter seriously, partially because they won't want them being driven underground, to stop engaging with their monitoring teams, vigilantes, cases of mistaken identity, community impact etc.
Crimestoppers is really useful in these situations. The information you provide will be treated as intelligence and will be reviewed.
crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously

AWryGiraffe · 09/08/2020 21:49

I would personally. I would rather not live in a society of mob rule and vigilantism.

YorkshireTeaIsTheBest · 09/08/2020 21:49

@VaggieMight

It's a concern if it's mistaken identity, or the wrong address being shared.

Exactly, I'd report in case it is a case of mistaken identity -but I'd report to the group admin as well as screen shot.

Passmethecrisps · 09/08/2020 21:49

This thread is batshit.

You did the right thing OP. It’s not a waste of police time to report a concern. They decide whether they take action.

People frothing at the mouth wanting torches and pitchforks and declaring the OP a “paedo-apologist” imagine themselves heroic while in reality they exist only in the comments section of the daily mail

itsgettingweird · 09/08/2020 21:50

@Eatyourbanana

@Lockheart
I do think he has the right to live in peace and safety now he has served his sentence.

We disagree. I think he should feel uncomfortable, & should know that everyone living around him knows exactly who he is & what his done. Sometimes shame is more of punishment than jail.

And if this isn't him? Just someone who looks like him?

I'm assuming if someone found a newspaper article of someone identical to your DH/DP/brother or father etc and splashed it all over the local FB page guide be really happy because at least if it is true and the speak to someone's 5yo in Tesco they are safe?

LillianBland · 09/08/2020 21:51

There was a video circulating a year or So ago, of a ‘paedo’ sitting on a bench, ‘watching children in the playground’. The accuser is shouting abuse at him, calling him a nonce, telling him that everyone is going to know who he is. The ‘pervert’ kept saying “sorry, sorry, sorry”. It was shared thousands of times. He looked so guilty and scurried off.

Unfortunately the ‘pervert’ was actually a young man with SN who sat on that bench every day, when on his lunch break from his supported job. The bastards sharing it and foaming at the mouth, totally destroyed him. He left his job and refused to leave his house. All because some wanker took it upon himself to ‘prove’ that the poor bloke was a perverted because he looked ‘shifty’. I’ve no sympathy for perverts and would gladly see them hang, but I will never share posts that claim people are perverse, animal abusers, etc, because I’m not a band jumping wanker and even if 99% of the posts are real, that still leaves 1% of innocent people with their lives destroyed.

BananaPop2020 · 09/08/2020 21:55

@LillianBland sadly, some of the people you describe are alive and kicking on this thread. They have no understanding of the harm they do.

oakleaffy · 09/08/2020 21:56

Worryingly, There have been 'paedo hunters' who are in fact paedos themselves.
Very alarming and concerning.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/26/online-paedophile-hunters-abusers-trying-reinvent-good-people/

itsgettingweird · 09/08/2020 21:57

Well said Lillian

Eatyourbanana · 09/08/2020 21:57

In OP’a original post -

In the comments someone has included a screenshot of a news story relating to his conviction (the crimes involved are obviously sickening)

justanotherneighinparadise · 09/08/2020 21:58

I would do precisely nothing.

itsgettingweird · 09/08/2020 21:58

@Eatyourbanana

In OP’a original post -

In the comments someone has included a screenshot of a news story relating to his conviction (the crimes involved are obviously sickening)

The person who they have a photo of.

Badly worded I agree. There is also plenty of evidence where lives have been destroyed this way through mistaken identity.

The man in the picture has commited sickening crimes - would you be happy if that person looked like you dad, brother, partner or son and the vigilantes came out in force?

LillianBland · 09/08/2020 22:03

@Eatyourbanana

In OP’a original post -

In the comments someone has included a screenshot of a news story relating to his conviction (the crimes involved are obviously sickening)

So? I‘d be happier if they never saw the light of day, but while they’re out of jail, they have to live somewhere. Vigilantes succeed in nothing, other than making them go underground. There was a paedo living on my street, my friend said he should be put out. I don’t agree, because at least I KNOW that he’s a pervert and can take steps to protect my child. I guarantee every single one of you have a child abuser, wife/child beater, rapist in your life. He could be in your golf club, scouts/GGs, teacher, neighbour, relative or even within your own home. I hate to break it to you, but they’re everywhere and putting them out, just means they move to another area, where people don’t know what he is.

randomchap · 09/08/2020 22:04

Vigilantism can lead to cases like Bijan Ebrahimi.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25139185

Eatyourbanana · 09/08/2020 22:10

Op asked if she was BU to report it, I think she was. Maybe if she had seen an actual act of violence... I still wouldn’t but could sort of understand her reporting that - an actual crime.

It’s all well & good to say he has done his time and deserves to live in peace but you just are going to get people who disagree with you on this topic. Not because they’re common, angry, violent vigilantes but because they have children to protect & his crimes are, as the OP put it.. sickening.

Original poster

Hardbackwriter · 09/08/2020 22:11

The comments definitely referred to a real conviction (in 2012). What I have no idea about is whether they're right to say that the man convicted of that crime is the same man who apparently frequents the local shops and lives in a particular (locally notorious) block of flats - the post also said that he now goes by a different name and the man convicted lived in a different (though reasonably nearby) town, though obviously he could have moved. There was a mugshot posted but as I said it was generic enough that a lot of people could look like it, especially 8 years later.

OP posts:

oakleaffy · 09/08/2020 22:12

@LillianBland
Agree. It is terrifying how many child abusers and violent people there are, of either gender, in our communities.

The vigilantes seeking to be 'heroes' while hiding murky pasts/presents give me the creeps.

Well vetted and qualified staff are needed... Not flaming pitchforks .
I heard of a story that made me weep of an innocent man beaten to death, in a case of 'mistaken identity'..on the say so of some women who ''got the wrong person''.
vigilanteism isn't good.
We have to guard our children ourselves...keep them safe.. and educate them to tell us if anything happens that makes them feel remotely uncomfortable.

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