To think I live in a bad street? **warning from MNHQ - contains upsetting content**

[user1498582366]

THOUGHT I was bringing my children up in a lovely area. Lived here most of my life. Beautiful countryside, very small town, very expensive housing market, outstanding schools, low crime rate (so I thought). Turns out.. there have recently been three convictions from people on my road committing horrific crimes. One couple killed their 8 week old baby, one man raped his 6yr old step daughter and another man convicted for being a paedophile and grooming girls online. All have just gone to prison to start lengthy sentences. Does this happen this regularly in all streets and towns!? Am I not up to date with how times have changed?

Wanting to move area. Was I stupid to think that things like this didn’t happen in places like here?

To add.. I would love to live closer to the sea but thought I was doing the best by my children to raise them in a nice area!

I grew up in a nice village surrounded by thatched cottages etc. In about 18 months, we had a murder and a suicide and murder. In addition, the boy two houses down was raised by his granny because his dad had killed his mum.
People are people, unfortunately.

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion

Was I stupid to think that things like this didn’t happen in places like here?

Yes. Did you think it was only poor people who murdered/abused children or committed other crimes?

This happens everywhere behind closed doors.Some people may be rich enough or famous enough to buy their way out of things so it seems like the poor are "criminals" but eventually they will be accused too. Think, Bill Cosby. If you like the neighborhood, stay there. Learn who your children's friends are and get to know their parents. You live on that street and you are a good person. Chances are your remaining neighbors are too.

“Was I stupid to think that things like this didn’t happen in places like here?“

There’ll be nasty people on the nicest roads. Don’t bother moving.

I thought I knew my children’s friends parents but one of those were the ones found guilty. I’m just completely shocked to be honest.

That's unlucky but not 'a bad area' - that would mean lots of break-ins or people dealing drugs in the street or knife crime etc. It's unfortunate, but this shows that being a 'nice area' isn't free of 'not-nice' people.

I don’t know of any other crimes on the street, I wouldn’t say there is a problem with burglaries and knife crime here so I suppose it’s true what you are saying and put into perspective, isn’t a bad area, just a case of some evil people who are now locked up where they belong.

I feel you, you've just found out OP and it can be quite shocking. We found out that a known and previously in prison paedophile was recently moved into our village, and not too far away from both a play ground and a school. But then I came to the realisation that there are paedos everywhere, and that at least we knew where they lived and what they looked like which is an advantage over not.

We used to live in a close to city centre location and there would be regular grow house busts, a few violent attacks and plenty of drug dealings as well as I'm sure plenty of wierd people you'd not want to introduce to your kids.

Saying that we used to live in a very naice desirable village where half the allotment grew weed...

There's bad people everywhere, sadly. Try not to let this get to you.

Evening all - we're just bobbing on here to let you know that we've had a fair few reports from folk asking us to put an 'upsetting content' warning in the thread title. We think that, in this instance, it's a reasonable request so we've now done that.

Thanks everyone.

I think maybe you are just unlucky. We have lived in the same street for 20 years and only known one case in our road where an older man groomed and filmed young girls that he was plying with drugs. There have been other crimes though, lots of drug dealing, cannibas farms, a few murders etc in our village but not our street.

These creeps are everywhere.
Someone on my street is a convicted paedophile who went to prison for 8 years for his crimes.
I have multiple friends who have confided in me that they were abused by their step dads as children.
I knew children being groomed by teachers at school when I was at school.
My friend grew up with her best friend the same age living next door to her. When they were in their teens it came out that her father had thousands and thousands of child abuse images on his computer. My friend was shocked because she had spent her childhood summers splashing in their back garden swimming pool and she will never find out if he had taken images of her.

Overall your crime rate is low and it is a beautiful part of the country. It's just a case of the three crimes being so close to you. All three crimes are the most horrific kind, so they would naturally make you feel that you would want to move. I wouldn't let this be the deciding factor, though.

We have had 3 cases of domestic violence in our street. All women beating up their spouses. Again we live in a lovely semi rural area with fantastic schools and an expensive housing market due to the commuter belt to London. All of these families are professional and two of them have children at independent schools. I think it is the stresses of middle class professional life. I knew of one of them as we saw her being taken away in a police car after she tried stabbing her partner the other two just appeared in the court listings in our local paper!! I hate it here now. There is often shouting going on from several houses and people driving off really fast at all hours. I just think everyone is highly stressed and the nice house, car and area mean nothing. It is just a facade to hide behind and make others think you have this perfect life!!!

Bad things happen everywhere, though it does sound like a lot of them have been happening near you, lately. It could still be a relatively "good" neighbourhood, though. As horrific as those crimes are, they weren't acts of random violence, which is the type of crime you're usually able to avoid by living in a "good place". Those can happen anywhere, too, but they are more common in some places than others.

I'd base any decision to move on the bigger picture. Maybe it is best to move, but I wouldn't say that the crimes you've mentioned make that a certainty. Anywhere you live, you'll have to remain vigilant about who you allow into your life or the lives of your children.

Agree with a PP that these kinds of crimes happen in families from all kinds of demographics. I babysat with a friend a few times for a woman who went on to axe murder her boyfriend in their bed. She seemed totally normal to me and they lived in a very naice detached house.

I think those sort of crimes are one offs and not indicative of an area. ( I'm not saying they aren't serious crimes). We moved into a house 30 years ago, 20 years on, a man whose house we could see the front of from our kitchen was prosecuted for standing on his bed exposing self to the office workers from a bedroom at the back of his house.
After finding out it was this particular house I remembered a bloke used to stand in his bedroom window naked drying himself when I was washing up in the evening. Turned out my neighbour had the same experience. The family moved and it didn't have an impact at all on the houses. You have been very unlucky.

It can't be as bad as where I live now & where I lived before this one, in the block I live in there has been a murder 3 years ago at Christmas a man strangled his partner & left her in the bath, my next door neighbour was arrested by armed police, nothing like having police in full riot gear armed with guns passing your kitchen window. He was previously arrested for drug dealing. The previous House we lived in it was entirely normal for someone to get a beating with baseball bats in the middle of the afternoon, knife & gun crime was rife, drugs users used to knock at the house next door to us for their fix. I've learned to keep my head down, hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing.