Searched man's name and don't like what it showed

[AngieFromStockport]

Met someone randomly and he seems nice. I thought we clicked. Wants to meet up.
I don't know much about him but he gave his name and the where he lives . I
'googled' him, and it returned a newspaper article, someone with that name from there was charged for an offence (attempted grooming of a minor). After that it went to crown court. Don't know any more.

The name isn't unusual but not 'John Smith' common. He might have a namesake, and I don't know if the ages matched. He might not have been living there then. If he was why hasn't he moved?
All I told him was my 'nickname' and roughly where I live so there's a limit to how much digging I want to do.

Do I just block him? I'm in shock.

Newspaper reports for the local area might give some more info OP.

there was nothing dodgy in that post.

Don’t waste your time, block and move on

I googled my partner when we first met and someone with the same, not very common, name had stabbed someone fairly close to where his parents lived. It wasn’t him. I think dig further first, find an exact age or a middle name or something, and if you can’t resolve it to your satisfaction then let him go and put him out of your mind.

@sherbetlemonade , I could only find the one.
@nopenotplaying , matches name and his current location, the article is from about 15 yrs ago. I don't know where he lived then.
I don't know if the ages match, he might look a lot younger than he is.

More info needed until you can make a decision I reckon, especially as the age isn’t right.

I know someone who almost lost their new job due to failing their security checks because of a crime they hadn’t done! Someone else had the same name, date of birth and born in the same town despite it not being a common name at all.

@PissedOffNeighbour22 , I'm not great at guessing age and it would be possible that someone age 45 might look about 37.

If he’s only got your phone number send him the article, see what he says, you can just block him depending on his reply !

But she doesn’t know if it’s him or not! Or do we all just block everyone that has the same name as a criminal?

Someone where I live went into hospital for an operation and a chap with the same 1st and 2nd name was scheduled for an operation at the same time. He said he was lucky he got the right op, he could have been going in for an ingrown toenail and come out with a breast enlargement. Apparently there are 5 of them with the same name in our part of London. His surname isn’t even English, it’s Irish.

You've got nothing to lose here OP. If you are that bothered, show him what Google spat out and ask him about it straight. His response will probably tell you everything you need to know

Ask him what he does for a living as part of your general chit chat. If he needs a dbs that will give you a steer. I’d maybe just tell him you googled and what you found rather than go through all these hoops.

surely the neighbours would have made his life hell him living in the same place/area afterwards!!

I’m baffled at people telling you to block him when you don’t even know if he’s the same person!

I met my partner online, and he only had one small photo on the website so I wasn’t certain what he looked like. He has a name that’s not desperately unusual but not at all common. I looked him up on Facebook and there were 2 men with the same name, similar age, living in the same town, but one of them had a wife and kids! Obviously my partner wasn’t that one!

OP I would keep in touch with him for now, but do some more digging so you know for sure before you get involved.

Why don't you just tell him?
His response will give you your answer.

Look up birth records using something simple like GenesReunited. You’ll be able to work out how many were born with that name in the relevant years.

Not worth the risk.

Risk to benefit ratio is massively skewed against further contact.

Put his name in the search engline but click on images or news instead of a general search, that might come up with something?

Just ask, 'I came across this article, is this you?'. As someone has already said, no need to be polite to pedophiles.

It could well be coincidence. There are so many people on the planet, barely anyone has a totally unique name nowadays. That means, unfortunately, some poor sods end up sharing their names with Very Bad People. I personally, know three Andrew Tates, and have met two Fred Wests.

Yes, she could do, and it's a fair point.

He might choose to be offended if she asks him, which is a good red flag too. Any man pretending not to know why a woman might check his history, or getting upset about it, is probably a red piller.

Of course there's such a thing as coincidence! Most people have the same first name-surname combo as someone else and many have multiple namesakes.

Search all your local Facebook groups. Locals love to ,'out' people like that. There are also local Facebook groups called something like, 'Are we dating the same guy?' 'Do you know this guy' type of thing depending how invested you are on finding out.

@AngieFromStockport Why don't you just ask him his age? I think it is a reasonable question if you are considering starting a relationship. If it doesn't match the article he is eliminated, if it does well the probability that it is him is much higher and you can decide what to do.

You looked.
You found.
You know.

Block him, forget him and move on @AngieFromStockport.

Give it a swerve @AngieFromStockport
You know it makes sense.
No excuses, zero tolerance.
Or have you never heard of read the warning signs 🤔