York man shocked to receive sexual offences details from council by mistake (From York Press)
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York man shocked to receive sexual offences details from council by mistake
9:08am Friday 11th February 2011 in News
PERSONAL details of a man charged with sexual offences have mistakenly been sent to another York man.
Alan Wilson, of Leeman Road, was shocked to receive the information from City of York Council, including the name and address of the man, a stranger to him, who is at the centre of an inquiry into indecent images of children.
Mr Wilson, who is currently involved in a social services case with the council, is now refusing to return the document unless the authority can assure him his own confidential details have not been mistakenly sent to anyone. The council has responded by bringing legal proceedings against him for not sending it back.
Mr Wilson said the information was contained within paperwork about his own case, which was sent to him, his ex-wife and her mother.
He said: “I am willing to give them [the council] it back, but I want to make sure the council hasn’t also sent my details, by accident, to anyone else. I don’t want people knowing my business. This man could have been lynched if it had been sent to the wrong kind of person, but they don’t seem bothered by that, they just want their piece of paper back.”
The information at the centre of the row details how the man has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of making indecent images of children. It was sent to Mr Wilson along with his own correspondence from the council.
When contacted by The Press, a council spokeswoman confirmed that the authority had now launched legal proceedings against Mr Wilson in an attempt to retrieve the information.
She also said: “We can confirm that information has been incorrectly sent out. We can give the assurance that Mr Wilson’s details have not been sent elsewhere. We had no alternative, but to take legal action because Mr Wilson wasn’t giving us the information back that had received.”
* Mr Wilson asked us not to use his real name when writing this story.
