Neighbour is a convicted paedophile

[Abitlosttoday]

I have just found out that our close (proximity-wise) neighbour has been given a suspended sentence for looking at peadophilia online. His address, in the news report of court proceedings, is not our street but an address in a different town. However, it is him (there's a clear photo) and he has been living on our street with his partner for at least a year. I saw him a few days ago when he pulled his two dogs out of the way so I could pass with my kids. They're 4 and 7. (The kids, not the dogs!) I don't know what to think. It's a small street. I can see into his living room from mine. It's a small town too. His partner is my SIL's sister's boss. I don't know their names though - that's the level of familiarity. Just because my head is battered with half-term and I am exhausted, aibu to ask what your thoughts would be about this situation. All his crimes were online but some of the images were the worst sort.
We only know because another neighbour has a distant work connection to the guy. He may believe he has some anonymity here. I cried when I heard. I'm angry too. My head hurts, but that may also be because of this endless school break!

Yes exactly. The opposite: he is a known threat surely.
Is be upset too OP and I would talk to the police.

he has been living on our street with his partner for at least a year

I have seen his face regularly for over three years

which is it op?

We live in a popular area in the south of Birmingham. I'm sure there's men in my immediate neighbourhood who have looked at indecent images of children.

Am I worried about my children? No, because none of my neighbours babysits my children.

Most definitely not.
A paedophile is a paedophile.
I'm not minimising op situation unfortunately these fuckers do live amongst us.

Whilst I appreciate that online looking is not a victimless crime by any means, there is a difference in risk according to whether someone indulges in a fantasy or takes steps to put it into practice. You are right to be concerned as paedophiles are notoriously hard to reform. I operate on the assumption that they are probably a fair few in every neighbourhood. However, as i'm careful with who has access to my children, it's not something that rules my life.

Well thinking logically I would rather live near a convicted peadophile than an unknown one. At least you know what this guy is and to keep your distance. If he had gone undetected you might be making neighbourly friends with him, especially due to the family connection and be none the wiser.

Both, I imagine. He's been around for three years, living there for one year.

And it’s that stupid vigilante type behaviour that drives them underground. Given they are all around us I’d much rather know who they were!

The two are not mutually exclusive. Both can be correct.

And all that would achieve would be making the risk unmanageable.

@Unbelooth I know, but I took that poster's comment to be meaning live near where children live. I could have misinterpreted.

I don't get this logic at all.
It's not a choice between known and unknown - all your other neighbours could be paedophiles too!

I have thought since we moved here three years ago that they were a married couple. I thought that until today. He has Parkinson's very visibly and we'd see her much more often. I thought he was very ill, which was why he was less visible. More recently though, over the last year, he seems to have been out and about more, usually with their dogs. Maybe he was living between their two houses for the first two years.

It's not vigilantes that "drives them underground". It's the fact that it's illegal. Should we change the law so that they can all frolic around so we know who they are?

Very unsettling for sure OP. I remember working with an ex-copper who said if we all knew the amount of sex offenders that lived near you at any one time, you'd move to Mars 😳 As we all should do, keep you and yours as safe as possible and remind your kids of stranger danger but other than that there's not much else you can do I'm afraid

He's a convicted paedophile, people have the right to know that and keep their children safe. I never mentioned vigilantes, I would let everyone in the street know by posting the newspaper report of him through the door, no vigilantism necessary.

I’d feel sick as well OP and of course there’s nothing you can do but it’s still vile to know, especially when you have two young kids. It astonishes me that these creepy perverts have partners who stand by them. That’s sick as well knowing what they’ve been up to.

Try not worry OP, they appear to everywhere so at least you know to take a wide birth if he comes anywhere near you. I wouldn’t be able to help myself giving him the evils and a disgusted look if I walked past him.

It must be horrible to find out that a neighbour has been found guilty of possessing images of child abuse. Unfortunately most people will have someone living on their street or the next who has been accessing those kind of images and they’ll have no idea who it is. It’s was a shock for you but at least he’s now a known danger.

It can be both.

Why would it be unmanagable? The risk is already there.

It is a valid restriction put on convicted criminals can't live near a school. Can't go to shopping malls, parks places where children will be. As OP has children presumably she lives somewhere near a school. Or church, village hall places where children congregate.

They're like rodents, you're never really more than a few feet from one even if you can't see them.
I moved out of a house because our local paper had named 4 separate men on the road as convicted pedophiles to move to a lovely wee area and the bloke next door but one was a abuser of children physically as opposed to abusing them via Internet images.
Remember that you can't be too careful, remember you'd rather be an overprotective mummy than a sorry one and just crack on living life and have a nice brew and some biscuits because half term is so exhausting.

Of course it’s vigilantes that drive them underground post conviction. There are 1000’s of sex offenders that are working, socialising and living in communities all over the UK and are risk managed on a need to know basis. Someone deciding to make an unnecessary public service announcement undoes all the risk management work and increases risk significantly, often to totally innocent parties.

No, they don’t have the right to know, certainly not in law.

Unfortunately, we are all probably living in close proximity to a paedophile and not knowing it 😔 I would check with local police if they're aware of his change of address. Hopefully he's on the sex offenders register and subject to checks.