"Last night a sex offender living in Belfast was driven out of his home for the second time in a week."
Stephen Nolan has spoken about the "anger" he felt in a Belfast community last night as local residents attempted to remove a sex offender living there.
The BBC Radio Ulster presenter spoke about his experience on his Friday morning show and questioned where sex offenders are meant to live in society and "where do we put them"?
He said: "Last night a sex offender living in Belfast was driven out of his home for the second time in a week. A crowd had surrounded the house, banging at the door. As numbers grew the PSNI raced to the scene last night and hurried the offender out as the crowd jeered.
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"Last night, people in Belfast took the matter into their own hands.
"There were tense scenes around this home last night, and the crowd, I was on the ground reporting about this story, while the crowd were angry they also wanted to talk, and they wanted to talk about their lack of confidence in the justice system and they wanted to talk about not wanting a paedophile, a convicted sex offender, anywhere near them or their children. It begs the question for us as a society, where should these offenders be housed? What do we do?"
Stephen Hamilton, director of operations are the Probation Board, was invited onto the show and said that while he understands the anger and concern in communities, sex offenders being put out of properties in this way can make things "more risky" for communities as they could start to live a transient lifestyle, "less appropriate accomodation" or sofa surfing and authorities do not know where they are.
He said: "I understand in some way that communities don't want people with sexual convictions living in their area, but the fact is that people are going to be released from custody, that is a fact, and there is an endpoint to that, and they have to go somewhere. So if we know where they are and home visits can be carried out, there are checks done with social services, there is police involvement in that case, it reduces the risk and makes the situation safer.
"The Probation Board is not in the business of helping to secure accommodation for offenders or sex offenders, or are in any way apologists or want someone to have a nice house, it is simply because if we know where people are, we can manage the risks much more safely. But it is difficult, it is a very difficult issue."
He was questioned by Stephen Nolan about what local residents had said to him last night, who said: "There is a real anger within some of these communities that it is only in their communities, it is only in working-class areas that are struggling that these offenders are being put into. And what people were saying to me last night is why can't they be put into a hostel, why can't they be pushed away from children? These people can't be watched 24 hours a day, and the community is frightened."
In response, Mr Hamilton said: "I would make the point that each individual case is risk assessed on its own merits, and people won't know the background of certain individuals and certain cases. We absolutely have a number of approved premises or hostels where the most risky individuals are placed, and in that situation, people are effectively monitored 24/7. It is the closest thing that we have to prison in the community because prison can't go on forever; however, hostels in that setting give the probation service a constant flow of information as to whether people's risks are increasing and action needs to be taken.
"The action that is taken a lot is, if there is any breach of licence conditions, if people don't reside where they are instructed to reside, or they are discovered undertaking risk-taking behaviour, we will immediately take action and recall people back to prison, for instance, and that happens every day of the week."
He continued: "Risk is risk, it can never be fully eliminated, but we work to reduce that risk as much as possible."
Mr Hamilton also said that convicted sex offenders have a very low reoffending rate, and the sex offenders that society needs to worry about are those who have not yet been caught and are out in the community, living in family homes, committing offences.
A PSNI spokesperson said: "Police received a report that a crowd of people had gathered outside an address in Belfast just before 8pm on Thursday, 19th September.
by Portal_Jumper125
17 comments
This highlights one of the big things that concerns me about people getting so riled up, as the guy from the probations board raises a really good point: if these people get driven out of their homes, they’re going to start living transient lifestyles (sofa surfing, being homeless etc) and the authorities are less likely to know where they are. This increases the risk to communities.
I know the response from the crowd would be to just lock them up forever, but we’re not going to start handing out whole life orders to all sex offenders.
Where do we put them? Death row that’s where
This is mainly happening in East Belfast and being orchestrated by the UVF using a vigilante hunting group called COPE NI and their front man is a well known loyalist.
Let’s all shed a tear for the terrified sex offenders.
Low income loyalists communities just can’t help themselves they love mob justice and any excuse to be violent
Also being morally just in your mind allows you to commit evil acts
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It’s a complicated issue. Obviously you can’t lock someone up forever as we don’t have the capacity to do that. All offenders will also have different risks too. Some may learn their lesson, some may not. While anyoen can understand the concern of living close to one of them, like others have said, it makes more sense to have them in a known address so they can be monitored by the authorities.
If they are constantly moved around or end up homeless, it becomes a lot more difficult to track them and their activities and this will only put communities at greater risk.
I can sympathise with parents who would feel uneasy living near one, especially if they let kids out in the street to play.
They were probably more angry at Nolan being in the vicinity than having a nonce living nearby.
Here’s a video from someone called Emtax Media. I had never heard of them before.
Nolan has a police ring of steel and arrives and leaves in a police car
https://youtu.be/_wmVJolKppY?si=qvD3T9kWxE-id9_k
I’m a total pacifist. I don’t like violence and I believe everyone deserves a chance. These beliefs are questioned with sex offenders. I can’t in any conscience see a way that their integration back into society is a benefit to society. Abuse isn’t just physical, castration doesn’t fix the problem and the police/social services don’t have the staff power or training to supervise the perpetrators sufficiently to reassure neighbours.
What is the answer. What risk assessments are being done, it’s an impossible answer.
Prevention would be one way to reduce the risk. Educate kids from a young age about content and privacy. Teach them secrets make u sick. Give them the voices and knowledge to prevent this in future generations.
Invest in grassroots support. Counselling,support groups, education for everyone who wants and needs it. The provisions aren’t there. The problem doesn’t start when they get out of jail, that’s a result of the foundations of society failing the victims and perpetrators.
Wonder how many of these protestors are sex offenders themselves that have just never been caught.
Wouldn’t be the first time that one of these ‘save our kids type’ turns out to be a danger to kids themselves.
Would this be the same Nolan who sent someone elses dick pics unsolicited to his work colleagues?
Doctors specialising in children and their diseases must be very nervous right now
I think a big part of the problem is sex offenders very very often just get suspended sentences after lengthy court processes. It’s a slap on the wrist then back out they go to continue harming those around them. Can’t blame people for being pissed off about it.
Is there anything Redditors love more than defending pedo’s lol?
> It begs the question for us as a society
It doesn’t beg the question, it raises the question. I know it’s hardly an important detail but the English comprehension of professional journalists these days really saddens me.
They’re calling it “working class” areas. But the majority don’t work in these loyalist shitholes.
They’re not working class.
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