A British mother who killed a pedophile who abused her sons is pushing for new laws to prevent sex offenders from hiding their past and changing their names.
In 2014, Sarah Sands, of London, left her apartment on foot, walked a few blocks over, and stabbed 77-year-old Michael Pleasted eight times. Pleasted, a convicted pedophile, was facing child sexual abuse charges at the time of his death, BBC News reports.
Sand’s three sons, including Bradley and twins Alfie and Reece, were all abused by Pleasted. At the time, Bradley was 12 and the twins were 11. Now as adults, all three victims remember the abuse clearly and although Pleasted is dead, the aftermath left them with nightmares.
“It did make us feel safer,” Alfie adds. “It didn’t slow down the nightmares. But it did give us a sense of security because you didn’t have to walk down the street thinking he was going to come around the corner.”
Bradley added that Pleasted lived so close that they could see his residence through a window in their home.
The abuse started after Sands befriended Pleasted, who was considered high-profile in the real estate business. He would often sit outside and talk with children, but initially, Sands didn’t see any red flags.
“I thought he was a lovely old man,” she told BBC News. “I cooked for him, looked after him, always kept him company when I had the time.”
During their friendship, Pleasted gained access to Bradley by offering him a weekend job sorting newspapers, but he was secretly grooming the boy. He later met the twins and began grooming them as well.
The children told Sands what happened and in turn, she contacted the police. Pleasted was arrested but was granted bail while awaiting trial. He was back in the neighborhood shortly after, showing zero remorse, according to Sands.
It was during this time that Sands learned Pleasted was a convicted sex offender who changed his name; his birth name was Robin Moult, according to The Telegraph. She also learned that he had already accumulated 24 sex-related convictions before they met.
“I didn’t know what I was doing there,” Sands said, recalling the day she killed Pleasted. “I realized I had made a huge mistake. He was not remorseful in any shape or form. He said ‘your children are lying’. The whole world froze. I had the knife in my left hand and I remember he tried to grab it.”
Sands said she never intended to kill Pleasted and ultimately turned herself in. She was convicted of manslaughter and served nearly four years in prison.
Now, Sands is hoping that a new law will make it illegal for sex offenders to change their names without alerting the public.
A suggestion currently being proposed is for the offender’s driver’s license and passport to be marked so that law enforcement will automatically know that they’re dealing with a sex offender.
A Home Office spokesman, however, told The Telegraph that the UK already has “some of the toughest powers in the world” dealing with sex offenders.
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[Featured image: CCTV/Facebook]
