My new neighbour is a convicted murderer

[murdernextdoor]

Have recently found out from another neighbour further up the street that my new next door neighbour has spent 4 years in prison for man slaughter of another man. I was sceptical so I googled his name. I saw all the newspaper articles about him. He had a fight and killed another man.
Don't know the reasons for the fight but I can't help but wonder if it was one of those cases of a one punch kill. Or maybe he stamped his head?

I am horrified that this man lives next to me. I now don't want my children to mix with his children anymore. I know some will say he's done his time, but imagine if it was your son he killed? It makes me sick to my stomach.

Should someone have notified us in some way about him moving there? Or maybe not as he's done his time and isn't a sex offender.

AIBU or would you be horrified as well? AIBU to tell my children to stay away from the house altogether. (I know it's covid now but I'm thinking in the future)

Did u not manage to find out what happened in the fight via Google?
I wouldn't want to live next door to someone like that anyway because I don't want to be near aggressive people and actually as pp states Murder is harder to prove.
It's hard to pin anyone down for anything these days as the sentences are so flimsy.
I would be tempted to move.

I might have missed the post but how long ago was the fight and prison time? If he was in a fight 20 years ago and has been a law abiding citizen since, it wouldn't bother me.

If you got an uncomfortable vibe from him op them follow your gut instinct as you would even if you didn’t know about his conviction.

I’d try to put the actual offence out of your head u less he is doing other things that make you uncomfortable because, as someone else said, in all likelyhood most of us have people living within our street who have committed serious offences at some point, we just don’t know it.

I would guess that I’m assuming his living with the children after so recently being released means that he isn’t assessed as being high risk to children, although obviously you could t be certain.

Dr Shaitso: Better for whom?
...
For the op. The 'knowledge' has done her no good.

I have a family friend (who I’ve known all my life) who was convicted of manslaughter.
He went to “see too” a female work friends partner who had hospitalised her and her 2 year old in a domestic violence incident.

He punched the women’s partner who tripped and hit his head on a table and died.
He called an ambulance.

No way would I want my kids around someone proven to be violent. And I wouldn't want to be around them myself. I prefer to socialise with people who haven't killed anyone.

This is weird. In a site where it's practically a requirement to have depression and anxiety (guilty as charged), where people won't answer the door or sit on a public toilet seat, where affairs are absolute evil with no possible extenuating circumstances, there is something frankly bloody weird about the number of posters insisting they would have NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER living next door to a guy with this history. It absolutely wouldn't change their feelings at all, they'd be so relaxed about it. No. Absolute rubbish.

I agree. It's complete nonsense.

Hi children are innocent. Can you imagine being a child and shunned by other children because of something your father has done. Your children don’t have to play with them but please don’t treat these poor kids like they are leapers.

He's obviously got no regard for human life that's for sure. You don't just die from a fight unless one persons takes it too far.

Bloody yell, that’s all a huge stretch based on absolutely nothing.

There are many cases of people guilty of manslaughter which the general population would raise an eyebrow about as it seems crazy. Lots of abused women in prison for it when they fought back and got the better of their abuser in fear of being killed themselves otherwise. Quite a few cases of men recently also found guilty where I am when they killed intruders who had weapons. Apparently you are not meant to kill them but ‘subdue’ them for police - while they are in your house attacking you with a weapon! I haven’t been in this situation, nor has anyone I know but there’s been quite a bit of publicity recently with several cases.

As for ‘taking it to far’, it’s not that simple. You could be defending yourself and hit someone but in exactly the right spot to cause death. The person may have underlying organic issues that cause complications. The possibilities are endless. I’ve had people die that have fallen in the street and hit their head in an unlucky spot. Most people don’t die if they fall over. Law of shit happens with lots of this.

I can’t comment as have no idea of background to it all but it appears neither do you, so without that who knows if your hysteria is warranted or not?

You can die from a fight quite easily. A misplaced shove, bad fall, hit your head on the kerb.

I find the idea that people wouldn’t want to live next door to someone who they knew to be violent laughable and that they would move to get away.

Firstly, the OP knows what he’s done. Actually she doesn’t, since she’s embellished most of it, calling him a murderer pretending that she know him to be violent but all this from the back of an apparent google search which doesn’t confirm anything of the sort.

Secondly,because everY single person on this thread will live close to someone who is violent and will have committed, or be in the process of, committing crimes but simply haven’t been caught. If you don’t want to live near to someone who is violent then best you go and live somewhere completely secluded.

And let’s be honest, if the OP simply wanted to keep herself to herself then she could have done just that. Instead she clearly wants a witch hunt by engaging with gossip with the neighbours and then making up half the story she read on google so she could broadcast it on the internet.

Local newspapers usually love reporting in great detail about cases like this, so Im surprised that you cant find anything online. However, there should be a public/court record of it that will satisy your curiosity.

especially if it was a careless accident.

Whilst getting into a fight is not acceptable behaviour and can obviously lead to much worse
The attitude that it was an accident is bizarre. Fighting is not accidental by any stretch

However, there should be a public/court record of it that will satisy your curiosity

Court records are not available for public access for a number of years 30+ so you won’t be able to look through the court records to satisfy a curiosity

Nobody is trying to be cool. Released prisoners have to be housed somewhere - their kids have to go to school somewhere, the ex con needs to work somewhere. All the ex cons released from prison are living somewhere, working somewhere and their kids are attending school somewhere. What else do we expect to happen?
This one happens to be next to OP - but there will be many more living next to us all that we have no idea about.

My husband employed someone who was convicted of GBH. He had been protecting his son after someone had started on him outside his home. He went to prison, served his time and was once of the most kind and gentle people I had met.

I would suggest not getting into a drunken fight with him outside the pub...

But one event isn't necessarily indicative of his character. (There was a thread last week about whether anyone thought that they could kill, and most posters agreed that they could under the right circumstances).

If the man had a history of fights or other crimes, that would influence how I felt about it.

But it's understandable that you got a weird vibe from him. The guy will have been in long enough to become institutionalised and that doesn't fade quickly once they get back out.

I too don't believe half the posters on here. I would not be engaging with him either op and no, my children would not be allowed into his house, ever.

This thread is such nonsense

Of course we speculate it helps to keep us safe if we feel we are not

And of course we come into contact with very violent people more regularly that we would feel comfortable with

But we are unaware thankfully

When you are aware you feel differently it’s natural to be wary and feel uncomfortable it’s instinctive

The op will no doubt get used to the situation she may see that (hopefully) is isn’t or no longer aggressive but she will always wary

I would certainly be very wary. I wouldn't let my children play there, but would see how it went with them playing together supervised at your house and assess the suitability of them as playmates directly from the children (like any other potential friends) rather than him.

@ittakes2

Hi children are innocent. Can you imagine being a child and shunned by other children because of something your father has done. Your children don’t have to play with them but please don’t treat these poor kids like they are leapers.

Yep, personal experience of this. Some of the posters on this thread are disgusting.

@murdernextdoor

Have recently found out from another neighbour further up the street that my new next door neighbour has spent 4 years in prison for man slaughter of another man. I was sceptical so I googled his name. I saw all the newspaper articles about him. He had a fight and killed another man. Don't know the reasons for the fight but I can't help but wonder if it was one of those cases of a one punch kill. Or maybe he stamped his head?

I am horrified that this man lives next to me. I now don't want my children to mix with his children anymore. I know some will say he's done his time, but imagine if it was your son he killed? It makes me sick to my stomach.

Should someone have notified us in some way about him moving there? Or maybe not as he's done his time and isn't a sex offender.

AIBU or would you be horrified as well? AIBU to tell my children to stay away from the house altogether. (I know it's covid now but I'm thinking in the future)

Mind your own business and keep yourself to yourself.

You don't know the circumstances. Like you say, it could have been one unlucky punch - which you don't know the reason for. The person he hit could have touched up his kid for all you know.

The person he hit could have touched up his kid for all you know.

OP said that it was related to Scottish sectarianism.

I would remain open minded. For all you know he could feel completely remorseful about the tragic outcome of that fight and he may never be violent again. Here’s hoping, anyway. The fact that it was deemed as manslaughter and not murder would make me feel better if I was in your situation. Saying that he has no regard for human life is extreme as you have absolutely no way of knowing that and it probably isn’t true. I probably wouldn’t date someone with this background but living next door to them wouldn’t be an issue for me unless they started losing their temper and making a nuisance of themselves as a neighbour.

As others have pointed out the title of the thread is incorrect and inflammatory.

My dad was a prison officer and always said people had no clue who they lived next to. And that's how it's supposed to work. This countries legal system is based on rehabilitation.

Would I care if I lived next door? No, not especially. I maybe would see how things went longer term before the kids went into the house, but wouldn't let them in a strangers house anyway.

People make mistakes, get drunk and start fights (not enough info on here so maybe he didn't start the fight) all the time. Yes this particular fight had tragic consequences but for all we (and you) know he is maybe filled with remorse over that.