AN OFFICIAL decision to house a convicted child sex offender in a village in Co Down has provoked concern and resentment and raised a dilemma over civil liberties versus the rights of children.
Social services officials yesterday evening met parents from Dundrum, Co Down, to hear their worries about the move. A senior police officer warned that local people should not "take the law into their own hands".
The man concerned said he was entitled to live in the village with out fear of harassment. Now in his late 40s, he wanted to settle down, he told BBC Radio Ulster.
The matter arose when the Down and Lisburn Social Services Trust warned a primary school that the convicted paedophile had been housed in Dundrum. Some parents threatened to withhold their children from the school as a result. They were advised to accompany their children to and from school and to avoid a lane way nearby.
A local priest, Father Donal Kelly, said it was a difficult issue in which he acknowledged the concerns of the parents while allowing that compassion should be shown to the offender.
"I can understand the fears of parents who feel threatened about their children," he said. "But on the other hand we have to show compassion for someone who has offended, and to forgive."
He had no solution to what was a difficult matter. "I think we just have to be careful about this, that we don't go over to an extreme either way," said Father Kelly.
Mr Colin McKay, of the Social Services Trust, said the trust had an obligation to alert parents. He denied the trust had mishandled the issue. It was "unfortunate" the way the issue had been interpreted by certain individuals, said Mr McKay.
He agreed that life in Dundrum now would be extremely difficult for the man.
