“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.
READ MORE: Man who sexually assaulted woman after Belfast night out jailed for “predatory behaviour”READ MORE: The areas with the most registered sex offenders in Northern Ireland
“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.
“One person was escorted from the area in order to ensure that there would be no breach of the peace. Enquiries are ongoing.”
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
#Stephen #Nolan #faces #angry #scenes #Belfast #housing #sex #offenders #protest
