What would YOU do if you had children, nieces and nephews, grand kids, friends with kids that visit etc and you found out you had a convicted pedophile living on YOUR street?
Would you accept his right as a paroled prisoner who had served his term and been released to live among you – or would you, knowing the statistics of sex offenders that reoffend ( and this is a hard number to pin down – I have read estimates of anything from 10% to 95%) be filled with fear for those you care for and feel anger that the government will do nothing to stop it?
I know I would fall into the second category.
Thankfully Convicted pedophile Dennis Ferguson hasn’t moved into MY street, but he has moved into one in the suburban area of Ryde in Sydney’s north-west.
The NSW housing minister, David Borger, has asked Justice Action, a prisoner support group to convince him to move from the area after admitting he did not have the power to insist that Ferguson be relocated.
But the fact remains – where to put him anyway? He has previously been run out of communities in Queensland. Who would want him on THEIR street? Not me!
I don’t care if he is likely or not likely to re offend – the fact is he could, that there IS a chance – be it tomorrow or in five years time he just might offend again as he has repeatedly in the past. So why the hell is he considered fit to be released into the general population?
We are talking about a man who served a 14-year jail term for attacking , kidnapping and sexually molesting three young children for three days. A man who failed to complete a rehabilitation program or even admit his guilt and then went back inside for breaking parole terms and taking a job that exposed him to children!
According to www.mako.org.au He was also charged and taken to court for allegedly sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl at her home in Dalby, west of Brisbane, in November 2005. Judge Botting granted a permanent stay on the proceedings based on evidence put before him by Ferguson’s defense team that pre-trial publicity about his past convictions would make it difficult to find an objective jury.
Where can a monster that was convicted of 19 charges including kidnapping, sodomy, gross indecency, indecent dealing and carnal knowledge go, I sure as hell don’t want him around my kids!
We protect the insane from hurting themselves or others. We lock mentally ill people up that are a danger to the community – so why not sexual predators? Why does he have a right to live among us?
He thinks there is nothing wrong with having sex with children!!!! WTF?
It is not up to the community to punish this man – it is up to the government to protect the community – and they should be doing it NOW not after another innocent gets hurt.
What do YOU think?
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If you suspect a child is being abused in any way contact your local police! If you are Australian please visit this page for information on how to report it http://www.mako.org.au/report.html
Ghost, yes he has served his time and I am very aware of the issues that offenders face when they re-enter the community. However, there is a very high rate of recidivism for offenses of this nature. He has not shown signs of rehabilitation – this case is clearly a very special one and needs to be responded to as such.
Ghost – yes I have and quite frankly I don’t care. He is not fit to reside amongst decent people
Hi Linda, thanks for stopping by and your comment.
I agree, this is very extreme – I would not feel the same way about a 19 year old boy on the sex offenders list for making a stupid mistake of dating a 14 year old girl who told him she was 17 – this is a very disturbed man who is a huge risk to any young child he has the opportunity to get close to.
I understand the fear that is driving his neigbours – I am fearful that if he is not removed for his own protection something bad may happen.
To prevent this in the future though something needs to be done to stop monsters like this ending up on our streets in the first place.
Have you stopped to think about the fact that he has served his time as the law expects and is now a free man who can live any place he wants?
I agree this is a tough one – I would prefer to see him remain incarcerated. I’m very pro-prisoners rights/anti-incarceration generally, but not for offenders at the extreme end of the spectrum which he definitely is.
I saw the footage of the neighbours last night, the posturing of the alpha males, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they’ve considered the risk they pose to all the other residents in the building. I wish they would think about that.