When I was younger I moved into a shared apartment. There were two guys already there. A guy around my age who was into punk and getting high like myself, and a 50 yr old college lecturer. He was a real middle class, pillar of the community type. Did a lot of charity. He was also a real stickler for making sure all the bills were paid on time, and the house was spotless. Seemed like a totally normal guy.
Anyway, one afternoon me and the younger guy were sitting around smoking hash when there was a loud knock on the door. Turned out it was the police. They asked if "Steve" was in, I laughed and asked if he'd run a red light or dropped litter. The guy was such a total Flanders it was impossible to imagine him in trouble with the law. The woman cop gave me a look and handed over a file, said to give it to him.
So, after they left we sat looking at it. It wasn't sealed, so we opened it. We were laughing and making jokes about "steve" being in trouble until we actually started reading and realised it was a transcript of a police interview and "steve" was a massive pedophile who'd been fucking his daughters, nieces and his ex neighbour's kids over a period of 20 years. It was one of the worst things I've ever read, mostly because the horrors inside were put down in such a dry and matter of fact manner.
Afterwards the pair of us just sat and stared at each other, minds blown. We put the confession back in the envelope, left it outside "steve's" room door. "Dave" said he was going for a walk. I said i was going to phone the landlord and see if they had any other apartments, because obviously once that shit went public, the pitchforks would be out and there was no way I wanted any kind of association with that fucker.
So I went to work, called the landlord and told her what we'd just found out. She went straight round to the flat, read the file and arranged for the pair of us to move out immediately, which was really cool of her.
I went back home after work and there were 7 or 8 guys I'd never seen before sitting in the front room with "Dave." Turned out he'd decided to go to the pub, got drunk and opened his mouth. I was having nothing to do with that bullshit, and I told them I wasn't going to join in. There were a few comments until I said, I'd do him on my own, but I wasn't cool with the group thing, which calmed things down. Then "steve" walked in the front door and it all exploded. "Dave" ran straight up and belted him in the mouth, the vigilantes grabbed him and dragged him into a room and then there was a lot of shouting and screaming. They were basically torturing him.
I called the cops. I had no sympathy for "Steve" at all, but Dave would get in total shit if things went too far, and they pretty much already had. Also, I wanted those assholes out my flat. The cops came and dragged everyone away. I gave a statement saying I'd come home, heard a lot of shouting and screaming, didn't know what was happening and called in.
So, Dave spent a night in the cells, Steve was removed by the police for his own safety, and the next day the landlord came and gave me a set of keys to a 1 bedroom apartment, so I moved out.
The one thing I've always wondered was if it was a set-up by the cops. I know for a fact that they searched our house and knew who was in there, because I came home early one day, and a guy I'd never seen before came down the stairs, and when I went into my room, I had the feeling someone had been in there. It looked like nothing had been touched, except there was a t-shirt i'd laid out on my bed that morning, and it was the wrong way round. You don't just go round to a flat where a couple of young guys live and hand over a file like that.
So, I think they deliberately gave that file to us, hoping that we'd read it and it would incite us into beating the shit out of him. It's not a story I ever share in public. I did once and the guy I told looked at me like how could you live with someone and not know they're a kid fucker. That taught me to keep quiet about it, in case, people thought I was a part of that sicko's circle.
