By ANNA JAMES.
It’s probably the one of the most confronting situation a person can deal with: face to face with a child sex offender.
And there it happened – 9am on a Tuesday morning.
Like every other Tuesday morning, I was hightailing it to the train station, gulping an Up and Go. Half running half walking down the street, I spotted a hyper-yellow tricked out ute parked outside the local primary school. Amused, I peered in to the car to see what kind of person would drive such an ostentatious car, and I really wish I hadn’t.
The driver had his footy shorts on the ground and he was masturbating.
Three things struck me instantly. Firstly, the man would have been in his 20s – around my age. He looked like a normal gym-going sandy haired bloke that I’d meet at a bar. He was far removed from the decrepit trench-cloaked, stereotypical paedophile that I had built in my mind.
Secondly, he was parked on a brightly lit main road at a time where mothers ferried their kids to school. This was no late night car park attack, which again, challenged my stereotype. The time and place of the incident indicated that the man clearly didn’t care who saw him. Perhaps he wanted to get caught.
And finally, I realised how ill-prepared I was to deal with this situation. I’d never in my life envisioned how I would react to a man abusing a child, in any shape or form. I’d never had that discussion with my friends and it was not mentioned during the Stranger Danger demos at school. Hauntingly, for one of the most horrifying situations a person can face, there is no plan of action.
The man didn’t notice me as I paused outside of his window in horror. He was utterly engrossed. Thankfully there were no children around, despite him being mere metres from the playground. Stunned, I began to run towards the train station.
What if he snatched a kid? This thought stopped me in my tracks five or so metres in front of his car. I bolted around and walked towards him. The man was still masturbating furiously completely zoned out. He didn’t see me coming towards him. I managed to climb behind his ute and take a photo of his number plate. Then, I ran all the way to the station where I called the police.
Would you know what to do if you came face to face with a child sex offender?
When I arrived to my office, I explained to my colleagues what I had just witnessed. They debated what they would have done. Many would have confronted the man (one suggested with a baseball bat). Few said they would have stayed next to the car until the police had arrived. A surprising number of girlfriends would have ran straight out of there. One called me an idiot for going back.
Being five foot nothing, I’m never inclined to take the Hulk approach and staying with the offender until the police arrived didn’t feel safe. I thought I had done the right thing, but I’m no longer sure.
The fact is, no one is prepared to manage this situation, and we need to start that discussion.
I never heard back from the police despite my insistence that they contact me with any news. Three years on, I still replay the incident in my head, reassessing how I could have handled it better.
What would you have done if you had seen the same thing?
Top Comments
He's committing a crime - Offensive Conduct at a minimum if he wasn't aware (just relieving himself on side of road) or Willful and Obsence Exposure if he was directly exposing his genitals - she did the right thing by calling the cops and letting them deal with him.
Of course this is the right thing to do. I have had the unfortunate experience of working with a number of pedophiles whilst working in psych rehab and they almost always started offending very young and start out small just observing children before they actually offend. And because they start offending young they almost always already hVe criminal records that can be searched by police who can then keep a closer eye on them if reports like the above come in. They can't be rehabilitated its their sexual preference and the only thing that really works is long term incarceration or chemical castration ( which isn't as bad as it sounds). Point is they will keep offending all their lives thus although only a small threat they are an ever present one which society can't ignore.
I'd like to respectfully disagree with some of that. Castration - chemical or otherwise has been shown to not stop child sex offenders & jail only works while they are inside. Paedophiles don't always have a prior criminal history, you can't rely on that. Some have been known to start well into adult life. And therapy has worked for some of them - though I think it's true that this is only a small number. This is my understanding from reading the psychological literature which has studied hundreds, perhaps thousands of cases. I do agree that it's smart to call the police in any case like this.