Hassle with local kid & his father

LegacyUser

So friday evening I was closing the blinds in our front room and I noticed that there was a group of kids hanging around a house across the street from me.

The neighbour is not living in the house as they're having a large building job done.

The kids were doing the usual kid stuff - jumping off the stacked bricks and generally chucking stuff around. They then cut around the side of the house and into the back garden.

With it being a building site and with nobody living in the house I was worried that either one of the kids would hurt themselves or try a bit of vandalism. More the former than the latter, they're small enough kids (maybe 9 to 11 years old). I walked across the street and went around to the back of the house, shouted at them to get out and they ran past me pretty fast. One of them bumped into me he was trying to get out that quickly.

I thought nothing more of it until some bloke arrives at my door this morning accusing me of assaulting his kid. He was pretty agitated and wasn't interested in talking and more interested in a fight. He got neither. He wouldn't leave so I called the Gardai.

Seems this kid is saying I grabbed him, kicked him and the other kids or something (I'm not quite sure) .

Gardai were great and tried to reassure me not to worry. They went to speak with this chap who lives nearby and then contacted the parents of the other kids involved. Some of the parents had no idea that anything happened or that their kids were messing around at the site (basically a neighbours house). They said that standard procedure is that they'll take statements off the kids and one off me. Chances are the kids will be inconsistent (they mentioned that already some of what they were saying wasn't adding up).

I'm pretty worried about this. I know he'll probably realise he was stupid to come to my house threatening me but what about his kid making this stuff up?

Anyone found themselves in a similar situation ? i.e. your word against a kid. Any advice ?


[yes, it's the last time I bother looking out for my neighbour and if parents are prepared to let their kids play on a building site then I shouldn't care. lesson learned.]

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

I had a rant about this some time ago because of the amount of cotton-wool-kiddology that goes on, especially in the media was told to toeff off as I was a bleeding-heart liberal.

Anyway. Kids are terrible liars. The cops are right. I'd be very surprised if ALL of the kids' parents went along with the assault line as well and everything was consistant. It only takes one to crack and the hole thing comes tumbling down.

If you want to put a little extra pressure on them, you can always counter-complain for liber/defamation of character or wahgtever the correct term is.

LegacyUser

Thanks. I don't really want to bother escalating it. I just don't want this person repeating the allegation because it's untrue and as far as I'm concerned damaging to my reputation and standing in the community (I'm on a board of managment of a local school).
I'm an ex-teacher and know not to lay a finger on any kid.

I guess I'm just stressed because I don't have any dealings with the Gardai. I keep my head down and really don't know the procecure with something like this.

LegacyUser

I'm a bit calmer now and probably more annoyed that this allegation has been made against me.

Can anyone out there tell me what the usual procedure is from here ?

I've never had to do anything involving the Gardai and I felt a bit bad just calling them because they've got more important stuff to be dealing with.

I do a bit of volunteer work with kids and it requires clearance. I can't even contemplate the idea that an accusation like this would be on a record somewhere.

The Garda I met with tried to reassure me but it's easier said than done.