Moment police drag paedophile from his home to protect him from baying mob outside

This is the dramatic moment police removed a pedophile from his home after he was surrounded by an angry mob for returning to his property.

Dozens of angry residents, including mothers and children, gathered outside the house in East Belfast last September, leaving the sex offender barricaded inside.

The man, whose name has not been released, was removed from the home by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) the previous week and returned against the advice of officers.

Footage showing police returning to the property to let him out again is featured in the new BBC documentary ‘Peelers: The PSNI for Real’, which coined the ‘real Blue Lights’.

BBC presenter Stephen Nolan joined police officers at the scene and was also confronted by angry locals who called him a “fat bitch” and accused him of talking down the area.

As tensions continue to rise, officers, along with the force’s Tactical Support Group (TSG), devise a plan inside the house to get the man out and into a police van.

The incident begins on the night of September 19, when the police are called to the scene by car and they are told on the radio, “There are allegedly people breaking in.”

An officer explains: ‘This was a man who was removed from the property last week. The police helped remove him. The neighborhood protested his being there.

An officer talks to a sex offender inside the home as he prepares to take him to safety

Stephen Nolan faces an angry mob outside, one of whom calls him a “fat bitch”

The police begin to push the man through the crowd while trying to make way for the minibus.

‘He then returned to the property against police advice. I looked for this, I looked for it last week. ‘There are a number of people trying to influence access to the property.’

Nolan, who was in the car, added: ‘The sex offender is trapped in his home and with crowds growing the team need to get there quickly to make sure no one is injured.’

The officer tells Nolan that the group of 40 men ‘wanted this guy out’ and adds that getting the man out would be ‘a fucking nightmare’ and a ‘fucking disaster’ given the numbers gathered.

A police officer stands next to Nolan because ‘you’re going to get a lot of heat here’ and the presenter says: ‘I’m terrified in the middle of this volatile environment and yet these young officers are calm.

‘Adam and Tom begin dealing with the mob and Nigel must make contact with the sex offender trapped in his house.’

Police try to push the crowd back and ask the call handler to talk to the man and tell him to let the officers into the house.

When Nolan is spotted, someone in the crowd shouts: ‘Oh, here comes the fat man. How about bringing pedophiles back to our area?’

Nolan asks them what’s going on and a protester tells him: ‘He got thrown out last week, he’s a pedophile, they brought him back and society doesn’t want that.’

The PSNI is working on a strategy with the TSG, with one officer explaining that there was ‘a railing with probably 10 or 15 women on each side and baby carriages’.

He adds: ‘They think we’re facing the bottleneck when we get there, so we’ll probably have to clear that up to get him in directly, get him involved and get the OTF.’

Meanwhile Nolan looks out into the crowd and one person says to him: ‘You fat bitch, fuck off’. Another says: ‘You don’t know what’s going on in the bloody streets.’

The third one shouts: ‘You insult this society at every opportunity. Sit in your big house and leave him alone. ‘Get the hell out of yourself and back home.’

Dozens of angry residents gathered outside the home as officers tried to get the man to safety

Clip features in new BBC series ‘Peelers: The PSNI for Real’ – invented ‘real Blue Lights’

Officers eventually managed to get the man through the crowd and took him away in a police van.

A police officer is trying to get the protesters to cooperate and asks someone to help, telling him: ‘Can you move everyone back to give me a chance to work here?’

Inside the house, the man said he returned home last Friday and had not left the house since then, not even to eat. He says: ‘There’s no obvious way for anyone to know I’m here. Literally no way.”

The officer tells him: ‘Okay, I know you don’t need me to tell you what the process is because you went through this a week ago, but we’re probably at a point now where we can’t come back here.’

The man replies: ‘Yes, quite a lot. So I’m really bored now. And I really have nowhere to go.’

A member of TSG says: ‘We will put a wedge in, we will bring it out. It will drive people away. ‘You can have some of your officers behind me just to check behind us.’

And a police officer says to the crowd: ‘Can we clear a road here, this is supposed to be a peaceful place, remember, folks?’ But a woman replies: ‘How can it be peaceful? He was fired last week.”

Then the officer inside the house says to the man: ‘Here’s the summary, okay? There are several TSGs here. As the Tactical Support Group, you will fall behind them. We will follow you, they will accompany you, we will get in the truck and go out of the field. ‘Are you happy enough?’

They tell the man to ‘bend down, stay low’ and ‘keep your face covered, move nice and fast’.

The officer then says: ‘Shout when you’re ready. Ready? Let’s go.’

As they step out of the house, angry shouts can be heard as police try to clear a path through the protesters.

One of them can be heard telling them: ‘Please get out of the way, out of the way, out of the way, we’re heading this way. Get out of our way. ‘We’re going to this van and you’re getting in the way.’

As the man is loaded into the police van, the slogan ‘stay away from our fucking children’ can be heard among the shouts and chants.

Stephen Nolan appears in new BBC series ‘Peelers: The PSNI for Real’ streaming on iPlayer

Stephen Nolan interviews Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton as part of the documentary

After the man leaves, some in the crowd want to talk to Nolan.

Someone tells him: ‘We’re talking about the justice system. Another child predator walked free from court today with sexually explicit photos of children. What did he take? 30 hours of community service.

‘He was removed from his home last week and moved back into his home.’

Nolan asks what should be done and a man says: ‘Relocate them all together somewhere.’

When Nolan asks them where they should go, another man replies: ‘Prison. Put them all on the same wing and let them go, pulling the wavers away from each other. ‘I don’t care what they do here as long as they’re not looking after our children.’

When someone tells Nolan he lives on “a fancy little island far away,” he responds: “Wait a minute, because that excites me, right?” I came from a working-class estate.

‘Here’s the second thing. See my big fancy house. Where do I stand on Thursday night? Where am I? I am her.’

After speaking to the crowd, Nolan leaves with the officers and says from the back of the patrol car: ‘This was a moment I will never forget where the local community is and they are very angry.’

An officer tells him: ‘We saw this last week Stephen, we were in the same situation, I’ve been in the same situation twice this week, crowds gathering in the street. Largely peaceful but ultimately difficult.

‘We’re stuck in a political space where policing probably doesn’t belong, but we have people on both sides that we need to keep safe, and they’re so volatile that they can literally escalate in the blink of an eye.

‘And ultimately it’s about trying to get out of them while keeping everyone safe. ‘Policing is really hard.’

Back at the police station, Nolan asks another officer if he ‘had the situation well under control’, but he replies: ‘I think people in general don’t like your presence.’ And he tells her: ‘Thank you so much!’

Speaking about the incident, a PSNI spokesman said: ‘Police received a report of a crowd gathering outside an address in Belfast just before 8pm on Thursday 19 September.

‘One person was removed from the area to prevent peace. Investigations continue.”

‘Peelers: The PSNI For Real’ is available to watch on BBC iPlayer