Innocent Person Accosted by Kildare Mob

AllForIt

I was watching Prime Time this evening to see a man from Kildare describe how he was attacked on the street by a mob of morons who took such action in the belief that he was a sex offender.

The particulars of the case can be found here:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/i-was-the-victim-of-mindless-mob-mentality-innocent-man-fears-he-will-be-incorrectly-identified-as-sex-offender-again-35773007.html

It appears that the face of a underage sex-offender was distributed on Facebook who was wrongly believed to be living in the area and the locals set about on a hunt to find him, and accosted an innocent man that had a similar appearance to the sex-offender.

This story turns my stomach.

You have the idea that sex-offenders should be named and identified with their address, so that the community would be wary. The worry being that the sex offenders living in your area are a threat to your family.

The previous Prime Time episode went into the disturbing neglect of children in social care and by their natural parents, and the failings of TULSA, a child protection agency. Harrowing accounts of how completely dysfunctional some families are and the consequences for very young children living in their care. Shocking stuff but no mob mentality taken against those sorts of general scumbags that mob types drink and socialize with.

What is more disturbing to me than a convicted sex-offender living in my area which would be rare is that your general geezer family is so thick that they took it about themselves to go about on a manhunt and ultimately they were so thick that they accosted the wrong person such that he had to go on national television to convince ppl in his locale that he was not the person they were after. What a horrible situation to be in.

If I was ever to go to live in Kildare I would like to have a register of thickos where I could have a choice not to live anywhere near them. Very disturbing story that highlights what kind of low-brow people we live amongst in our society.

Edit: I take back my vitriol on the general peoples of Kildare. Obviously this kind of social media wildfire vigilante phenomenon can take place anywhere because thicko mentality knows no borders and could happen anywhere. I think.

Persephone kindness

Vigilantism is not ever the way to go about things ..go straight to the guards let them handle things.

Arghus

A bad situation and seemingly - judging by today's Irish Times - not a shred of remorse or regret shown by some of those responsible for whipping up the lynch mob. The lack of care or concern about the safety of an innocent man is shocking.

RobertKK

I don't get this mob mentality. Men who think they are hard men...

They come across as having a few brain cells short of a brain.

riffmongous

Poor man, one more reason not to go for the Conor Mcgregor look

wonderfullife

AllForIt wrote: »

If I was ever to go to live in Kildare I would like to have a register of thickos where I could have a choice not to live anywhere near them. Very disturbing story that highlights what kind of low-brow people we live amongst in our society.

Avoid some parts of Athy and Monasterevin anyway.

Pretty sad stuff. They probably just thought "He looks like a pedo" and that was good enough for them, regardless of the fact he did nothing to anybody.

It's similar to the way Larry Murphy is like Where's Wally, he's been spotted in every town in Ireland at this stage yet nobody ever finds him. He must have clones. People just like attention-seeking-drama on facebook and the easiest way to get attention is to claim you know there's a pedo in the town.

endacl

RobertKK wrote: »

I don't get this mob mentality. Men who think they are hard men...

They come across as having a few brain cells short of a brain.

The IQ of the mob is calculated as (average IQ of mob members)/number of members of the mob.

Mobs generally don't get it right. Mobs tend not to be very smart.

Curly Judge

I hope that the horrible unrepentant woman who started all this can be discovered and exposed.

AllForIt

wonderfullife wrote: »

Avoid some parts of Athy and Monasterevin anyway.

I though Kildare was a civilized place. Unlike say the unexplored mountainous regions of Northern Peru.

Pretty sad stuff. They probably just thought "He looks like a pedo" and that was good enough for them, regardless of the fact he did nothing to anybody.

That prolly was the thought process, if one could describe that as a 'thought process' at all.

It's similar to the way Larry Murphy is like Where's Wally, he's been spotted in every town in Ireland at this stage yet nobody ever finds him. He must have clones. People just like attention-seeking-drama on facebook and the easiest way to get attention is to claim you know there's a pedo in the town.

I think there is a little more to it that that. It wasn't the Facebook campaign that in itself caused the vigilantism , it was more that there were thickos out there who wanted to flex their thicko muscles, for their own gratification, and expected respect for it.

please helpThank YOU

Arghus wrote: »

A bad situation and seemingly - judging by today's Irish Times - not a shred of remorse or regret shown by some of those responsible for whipping up the lynch mob. The lack of care or concern about the safety of an innocent man is shocking.

This is like the Salem Witch Trials in the year 1692. It only a matter of time before a innocent Man our Men are Murdered by the Witch Hunt Mob in Ireland in 2017.

Murrisk

Awful stuff. I remember hearing of a guy getting attacked somewhere in the UK because he was new to an area and people decided he looked like what an adult Jon Venables in witness protection would look like.

the_syco

KildareNow put up HIS PICTURE.

NOT THE PEADOs.

HIS.

AND NAMED HIM LUCKWILL.

And then the people started to follow him.

All because of the thick sh|tes at KildareNow.

fatknacker

"Maybe you are ALL paedophiles!"

Murrisk

Curly Judge wrote: »

I hope that the horrible unrepentant woman who started all this can be discovered and exposed.

Mentions that a man was one of the ringleaders and some couple. Not sure where you've got that it was a woman that started it?

Donald Trump

Get that renowned Kildare denizen Clifford T. on the case



(And yes, that was a real election poster folks. Fake news CNN obviously stopped him getting elected)

hinault

"Pediatrican"
"Paedophile"

Yes, a vigilante mob in the UK failed utterly to distinguish the difference between both words while taking the law in to their own hands.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/30/childprotection.society

Esel

They'll be after the pedagogues next. :eek:

This is a serious issue though.

MysticMonk

I bet the OP has been mistaken for sex offender in the past,hence the vitriol at 2 am.

Turtyturd

Curly Judge wrote: »

I hope that the horrible unrepentant woman who started all this can be discovered and exposed.

If she is we should form a mob to teach her a lesson.

Samaris

Turtyturd wrote: »

If she is we should form a mob to teach her a lesson.

Yeah! I heard she was an ex-girlfriend who gave his photo to the Kildare newspaper in revenge!*

Since there was no mention of a woman in the article (not sure where the first guy got that from unless it was an assumption)... good example of how chinese whispers start a mob. (I assume you were joking about the mob, but seriously, there's no mention of an "unrepentant woman" being behind it from that article at least.)


*I made that up.

harr

Not from the town but do have friends near by.... terrible thing to happen to that man and it must have been a very frightening experience..but yet again it has been blown out of context by various media outlets.
An online publication posted a photo of the innocent man and on the day he had a resemblance of the known Paedophile...of course parents are going to get jumpy..the mob in question was a group of concerned parents who believed that a known Paedophile was roaming the town. The guards were called a number of times throughout the day to verify the identity of the man.
A strange man walking alone in tight nit residential area where kids are playing raised suspicion and then to add fuel to the fire kildare now reported the innocent man to be the known Paedophile, between that and the guards not acting earlier caused the situation to escalate like it did...
Some people really need to stay away from the likes of Facebook because even up to yesterday people were still claiming the convicted Paedophile was in the town..

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

harr wrote: »

Not from the town but do have friends near by.... terrible thing to happen to that man and it must have been a very frightening experience..but yet again it has been blown out of context by various media outlets.
An online publication posted a photo of the innocent man and on the day he had a resemblance of the known Paedophile...of course parents are going to get jumpy..the mob in question was a group of concerned parents who believed that a known Paedophile was roaming the town. The guards were called a number of times throughout the day to verify the identity of the man.
A strange man walking alone in tight nit residential area where kids are playing raised suspicion and then to add fuel to the fire kildare now reported the innocent man to be the known Paedophile, between that and the guards not acting earlier caused the situation to escalate like it did...
Some people really need to stay away from the likes of Facebook because even up to yesterday people were still claiming the convicted Paedophile was in the town..

So basically, it's everyone's fault apart from the mob, and the woman who started it in the first place.

Cool.

harr

Alexandra Tight Rattrap wrote: »

So basically, it's everyone's fault apart from the mob, and the woman who started it in the first place.

Cool.

That's not what I am saying, I said it was a number things that caused the end result...including kildare now for publishing the unverified photo and of course the original person who sent kildare now the photo.

c_man

the_syco wrote: »

KildareNow put up HIS PICTURE.

If true, I hope he takes a civil action against them. What a shockingly, stupid story.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

harr wrote: »

That's not what I am saying, I said it was a number things that caused the end result...including kildare now for publishing the unverified photo and of course the original person who sent kildare now the photo.

And your little spot of victim blaming the man for walking around a place. The temerity of him checking out an area he's thinking of buying in, the locals were correct to be suspicious. It's right and proper that the first conclusion that any parent should jump to is "I don't recognise that man, he must be a paedophile, GET HIM"

How did KildareNow even know about him? Some idiot local obviously contacted them, same fool who probably called the Gardaí "numerous times".

Atoms for Peace

Really shoddy journalism displayed by that Kildare rag, pulling unverified crap from Facebook.

Erik Shin

If only people had put that much effort into stopping Brian Cowen getting elected

Uriel.

A poster in the comments section of their website posted the photo but kildare now appear to have delayed on removing it or correcting the record with regard to the fact that the photo was not that of the convicted paedophile

vicwatson

I hope he sues them for massive damages

buried

Facebook has a good majority of these type of young parents in the mid 30 to late 40 age bracket completely switched on outrage mode. Any story or any tale that appears on their newsfeeds may as well be the absolute word of God - "Islamic extremists grow gills to travel here under the ocean!!" "New Peado camouflage is human size fidget spinner!!" = cue the mouthbreathing outrage

Cheensbo

One member of the mob posted on fb that they are sorry that the man got scared but they stand by the fact that they accosted him because it's better to be safe than sorry.

Idiots of the highest order...

Kildare now have a solid track record in publishing pure shíte, probably most notably their "hill of allah" april fools joke :pac:

bucketybuck

No smoke without fire...

Isn't that how it works?

harr

buried wrote: »

Facebook has a good majority of these type of young parents in the mid 30 to late 40 age bracket completely switched on outrage mode. Any story or any tale that appears on their newsfeeds may as well be the absolute word of God - "Islamic extremists grow gills to travel here under the ocean!!" "New Peado camouflage is human size fidget spinner!!" = cue the mouthbreathing outrage

Completely agree on this point...I have had work colleagues who in the past have believed posts and so called advice on Facebook rather than believing their own GP. The absolute garbage that people believe as fact just because they read it on Facebook is astounding.. herd mentality and all all that..

sydthebeat

First off is the mobs fault for forming on such baseless evidence

Second off is the posters fault for deliberately posting a picture of someone who wasn't the person the article was about

Third off its 'kildarenow's fault for not removing the post immediately, and trying to corroborate for themselves.

The fall out had been ridiculous, with people calling for "Facebook" to be sued for allowing the post.

SuperS54

the_syco wrote: »

KildareNow put up HIS PICTURE.

NOT THE PEADOs.

HIS.

AND NAMED HIM LUCKWILL.

And then the people started to follow him.

All because of the thick sh|tes at KildareNow.

They didn't, they posted a photograph of the real pedophile and someone else put the photograph of the innocent guy in the comments section. From the article; "However, in the clarification, the outlet said that a reader posted a photograph of another man in the comment section when the article was posted on Facebook. KildareNow has since issued a clarification and apology."

Drumpot

RobertKK wrote: »

I don't get this mob mentality. Men who think they are hard men...

They come across as having a few brain cells short of a brain.

Arghus wrote: »

A bad situation and seemingly - judging by today's Irish Times - not a shred of remorse or regret shown by some of those responsible for whipping up the lynch mob. The lack of care or concern about the safety of an innocent man is shocking.

I agree ... So what can we do as a society to help allieviate the mobs concerns ??

Cause insulting these kind of people like Trump and Brexit supporters doesn't work...

To be frank, you are part of the problem. We all are... The smug people pointing fingers at the events and those orchestrating or engaging in it.

People want change but don't know what to do. People don't feel safe or protected (for whatever reason) and they don't know what to do. The established politicians puke out the same ****e that ignores their concerns or doesn't really address them...

We have politicians and serving parties all over the world who haven't a clue how to address the concerns of many in their country. That's why we are seeing such a dramatic shift from mainstream politics to extreme and populist candidates.

Nobody is looking for a way to unit people...

c_man

Let's not have this ugly incident put us off forming mobs though. You can achieve a lot, feel like a big man and the sense of community is beyond compare.

Uriel.

I didn't see prime time last night, but the sentence on the indo article stating that the man wore his work ID during his prime time interview is really strange.

Did The interviewer ask him to confirm his identity or something? If not what ****ing difference does it make and why does the reader need to know that fact.

Kimbot

Its amazing that back in the early 90's people used to group up and run drug pushers etc out of estates. Now they are all ganging up on innocent people. This isn't the first time something like this has happened recently and it won't be the last. Someone will end up hurt.

whoopsadoodles

I went ape sh*t on FB a few years ago, when those poor little girls in Athlone were raped. Suddenly this guy was showing up on my facebook feed as the rapist, being shared blindly and mindlessly by people who hadn't a notion who the lad was.

Now, he may well have been the right guy, I've no idea, but I guarantee you not one of the people who shared it actually had a clue either. It could well have been a joke or someone who just didn't like the fella who started it.

People can be stupid, and that's fine, but when their stupidity becomes dangerous it's worrying.

kunst nugget

Let's be honest about things here, lads. He works for Revenue so he's fair game.

(That was a feeble attempt at a joke. Please don't form a mob against me!)

Are Am Eye

I heard this guy on the radio yesterday.
He's certainly guilty of being an annoying bastard.
I say we lynch him.

pilly

I think it a lot of this is down to the media in general to be honest. This Anthony Lockwell story has been all over the papers for weeks with "he's now in Dublin", "he's now in Cork", blah blah blah.

I had a friend of mine tell me she saw him in Fermoy and I said where and she said on Facebook!!! Please people, stop taking Facebook as gospel!!!

It's scaremongering of the highest order and riling up members of the public into this sort of action.

It's only luck in this case that someone wasn't badly hurt.

Either way those thugs have made a public show of themselves and certainly put off a lot of people who may have been thinking of moving to Monasterevin (mind you they would probably of the type who don't care about that).

If you can't walk down the street without having your photograph taken I wouldn't even be bother stopping on the way through.

Glenster

Terrible.

But he looks SO MUCH like a paedophile.

But shave off the beard, get some contacts, wear a shirt and jeans and you'll never be called a paedo again.

Dravokivich

I see this stuff flare up regularly on Facebook. But it's baseless most of the time, people sharing people's comments about who was seen, where they were seen and a picture. But very few would have known who the person was in the first place and certainly not I.

Glenster wrote: »

Terrible.

But he looks SO MUCH like a paedophile.

But shave off the beard, get some contacts, wear a shirt and jeans and you'll never be called a paedo again.

It's a matter of fashion now is it?

xabi

Glenster wrote: »

Terrible.

But he looks SO MUCH like a paedophile.

But shave off the beard, get some contacts, wear a shirt and jeans and you'll never be called a paedo again.

This type of crap belongs on Facebook.

Murrisk

Alexandra Tight Rattrap wrote: »

So basically, it's everyone's fault apart from the mob, and the woman who started it in the first place.

Cool.

Where does it say in the article that a woman started it, I can't see it anywhere?

Sierra Oscar

the_syco wrote: »

KildareNow put up HIS PICTURE.

NOT THE PEADOs.

HIS.

AND NAMED HIM LUCKWILL.

And then the people started to follow him.

All because of the thick sh|tes at KildareNow.

They didn't publish the picture. They put up a story which in turn they linked to on Facebook. Someone then put up the incorrect photo in the comments section of that Facebook post.

harr

harr wrote: »

Completely agree on this point...I have had work colleagues who in the past have believed posts and so called advice on Facebook rather than believing their own GP. The absolute garbage that people believe as fact just because they read it on Facebook is astounding.. herd mentality and all all that..

however a few posts earlier you defended everything about this 'herd'

harr

bubblypop wrote: »

however a few posts earlier you defended everything about this 'herd'

Never defended anyone...I was just explaining how things got out of hand on the day, don't know how you can take it I was defending anyone.

Curly Judge

Samaris wrote: »

Yeah! I heard she was an ex-girlfriend who gave his photo to the Kildare newspaper in revenge!*

Since there was no mention of a woman in the article (not sure where the first guy got that from unless it was an assumption)... good example of how chinese whispers start a mob. (I assume you were joking about the mob, but seriously, there's no mention of an "unrepentant woman" being behind it from that article at least.)


*I made that up.

Google is your friend!
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/woman-defends-wrongly-identifying-man-as-sex-offender-1.3101998

I don't do assumptions!