The Text

Hi S,

We want you to be aware of how uncomfortable and anxious we feel as parents living next door to someone who has been charged with child sex offences and is on the offenders register for downloading category A images of children. XXX works in child protection and we understand fully what crimes have been committed. XXX and I have been in contact with both the neighbourhood policing team and the sergeant in the sex offender unit in XXX.

We would hope that you can understand our position and the impact that finding out has had on our lives. Overnight we do not feel comfortable in our home. We are texting to ask you to respect our feelings and to not cut down any further hedges at the front or back until we have secured the finance to put proper security fencing in on our side of the boundary line. This will be at the front and back. I think this would be considerate under the circumstances. We also feel uncomfortable with all the windows being fully open every morning at the back of your property looking directly into our garden. It may be that you consider this and our point of view.

Finally please do not accept deliveries on our behalf (we have changed our settings we think on most things) and we would not want you or X coming onto our property or knocking on our door for any reason. We understand that it is not you who had committed the crime but you have chosen for X to stay in the neighbourhood and this has put a large number of families in a difficult position. There are a lot of families who are concerned and others who have contacted the police for support. We would not have known had another neighbour not shared this information and we have respected the complications sharing this on the neighbourhood group would have for you so would hope that you can consider our feelings.

Finally, we would like to know whether you and/or X intend to move before we invest a lot of money in security.

Thank you.