close
close

Ourladyoftheassumptionparish

Part – Newstatenabenn

Terrified Belfast father Stephen Barr lashes out after his sick son Scott was wrongly identified as a sex offender on Facebook.
patheur

Terrified Belfast father Stephen Barr lashes out after his sick son Scott was wrongly identified as a sex offender on Facebook.

Father tells of his terror of being attacked because his sick son has the same name as another man accused by a group of pedophile hunters.

Stephen Barr says he is terrified of a vigilante attack after his son Scott was wrongly identified as a target of a pedophile-hunting gang.

A photo of another man called Scott Barr was shared in a Facebook post, which later spread on WhatsApp, claiming he now lives in west Belfast.

Includes a photograph taken from a video shared by the group. The man accused in the video has not been convicted of any crime.

Stephen’s son Scott, who does not look like the man in the social media post, lives in Fife, Scotland, where he is battling kidney failure.

Stephen (59) decided to speak out after a recent vigilante attack on Paul McCabe on the Suffolk Road in west Belfast.

Paul McCabe beaten by group of men in west Belfast

He was brutally beaten by four men armed with a baseball bat and a wheel spanner after he was wrongly identified as the man behind two reported sexual attacks in west Belfast in September.

Paul was left physically and mentally devastated with a broken kneecap, staples in his head, broken ribs and a broken nose.

His house was vandalized and a family home was also attacked.

The self-employed plasterer said World Sunday He would have to sell it and move after the attack.

Stephen says that incident underlined how serious rumors can be on social media.

“This is dangerous. “Someone is going to end up hurt,” he told us this week.

“This has nothing to do with my family, but things like this put people in danger.

“People get very angry when children are involved and I worry that this will lead to vigilantes at my door.”

He contacted Facebook to ask it to remove the post, but received no response. He also contacted the PSNI, who called the person who originally posted the false information, but it was not removed.

“Once it’s on WhatsApp there is no way to stop it.

“I got a call on Monday about the Facebook post and I’ve been getting so many calls about it that they’ve been turning my head away.

“People have called me, they have sent me the post on WhatsApp.

“Many people have asked me ‘what’s wrong with your son?’, but this is not my son and I keep telling them that.

“Scott is crazy about this and is on dialysis regularly because his kidneys are only functioning at 15%, so this is the last thing he needs.”

The online video was posted in recent years by a so-called pedophile hunter group in Britain and shows the alleged target being hunted. “When this video came out last year, my son had some people joke with him that he had the same name, but he never thought about it because Barr is a common name… and it’s not him in the video,” says Stephen . .

“My son is so sick that he can’t run away from anyone.

“But I know what people are like, especially when it comes to children. “I have grandchildren too and I wouldn’t have anyone around me who could hurt a child.”

Stephen says it is disturbing that the cruel Facebook post identifies the area of ​​west Belfast where he lives, although Scott, 35, has never lived there.

“Scott lives in Scotland, but people who live in this area know that my wife, his mother, is Scottish.

“And I’m the only Barr around here, so people would know me.”

His son Scott Barr

He says social media companies should be more vigilant about allowing such dangerous information to be shared and should take action when they are informed about such posts.

“I have contacted Facebook and I know other people have as well to tell them that this post is dangerous and incorrect.

“But I haven’t received any response and it’s still there. I also contacted the person who posted the post but it’s still there.

“I could go to a lawyer and try to get it registered that way, but that won’t stop someone from coming to my door.”

The father of four says the recent vigilante attack on Paul McCabe prompted him to speak out.

She says it’s vital to tell people that their child has been misidentified and that they are not harboring or protecting someone who could harm a child.

“I don’t want to end up like that guy from Suffolk Road.

“This is not my son and it has nothing to do with my family,” Stephen says.