Re: My friend has just been RAIDED!!

Right.

I will try and spell out what happened based on what my friend told me on the phone.

My friend (the one who has just been raided) has been my pal for 46 years. We met on the first day of infant school and have been buddy's ever since.
To be honest, our paths have not crossed as often as I would have liked, for example, he passed the 11+ exam and went to a posh school, I went to the comprehensive. Because of that we didn't see each other much when I was aged 11-16, but as he lived about a mile away, we bumped into each other regularly. We share a passion for footie so once we had both left school we played five-a-side for many years.
He never got married. If he had a regular girlfriend I didn't see any evidence of one. He lived with his parents, and after they died, he continued to live in the family home.
He got religion. I never got religion. He is a Conservative, I am a liberal (in the UK sense), so whenever we met we would have heated but friendly discussions about all sorts.
He knew that I had a predilection for "younger" girls, I didn't come out of the toybox explicitly, but he always nodded in agreement if I ever pointed out a bit of talent at the mall.
About six years ago, shortly after I had been convicted, I bumped into my friend. We went for a coffee. He had just started getting involved in local church affairs, and he introduced to me a friend of his from church.
Now, I'm sorry if I offend any believers here, but most religious types (especially the keen ones) come across to me as nutjobs, or potential nutjobs. His friend came across as a potential nutjob. But after the coffee I never saw his friend again and I forgot about him.
It turns out that this "friend" of his started accusing him of acting inappropiately with some of the young teenage girls who attend the church, saying that he must be a pedo because he was a friend of mine. As my name had been in the press this guy knew the score.
Apparently he tried to blackmail my friend and when that failed he rang the police anonymously and said that he was interfering with the girls, that he collected child porn videos, and also that he was friends with a pedo (me).
The police presumably assessed the situation.
They had a 50 year old man, who had never married, who attened church meetings with young girls, who lived alone. He ticked all the boxes for pedo profiling, and the cherry on the top was that he knew me, and what is more, he knew that I was pedosexual and he continued to be friends with me.
I assume that armed with this flimsy evidence, they managed to persuade a magistrate that it was worth paying 17 officers six hours overtime each to decimate his home.
I am only going on what my friend has told me during one phone conversation, but they apparently entered his home by force shortly after he left for work. They searched the house thoroughly, and took away a large quantity of videoes. My friend is like me in that he loves to hoard anything. Like me he has hundreds of videos, books, magazines, records etc.
He was interviewed at the police station, and he was told (wrongly) that I had mentioned to my probation officer details about his lifestyle and behaviour. This is a lie. The only time I had mentioned him was when I said that he was one of the few long-time friends that had stuck by me through my troubles, and that he was a good friend.
The police apparently said to him that he should choose his friends more carefully!
They found absolutely nothing amongst the videos, and as he didn't own a PC or have internet connection there was obviously no question of cp.
They have had no complaints from any young girls at the church about him. The police apologised to him, and, as far as the raid is concerned, the matter is closed.
I certainly feel guilty that his association with me not only prompted the nutjob to start accusing him, but it also was the tipping point for the police to take action.
This nutjob has threatened to kill my friend, and he has now had installed an alarm that alerts the local police station. I don't quite know where this situation is heading, but it has resulted in my friend putting his house on the market. He is not a rich man, has rarely had a regular job, and his house is his only asset. I truly feel sorry for him, and of course will help him in any way I can.
I hope this is a one-off, but I can't get over the fact that his troubles has been as a direct result of his friendship with me.