‘Pretty protective’ mother horrified to have unwittingly trusted convicted child sex offender who changed his name

Lisa is the first to admit she’s “a pretty protective” parent, a byproduct of decades working in social services with vulnerable, at-risk youth.

She vets her children’s friends’ parents, doesn’t allow her kids to go on sleepovers and closely monitors their electronic devices.

But now she’s living every parent’s worst nightmare: a man she came to trust and allowed to spend time with her pre-teen son is a convicted child sex offender — a fact hidden from her because he had changed his name.

“I’ve done so much training to identify grooming behaviour and predatory behaviour and the signs of abuse in children and vulnerable people and I had more access and tools than most to do searches on people and I feel like a complete failure,” said Lisa, not her real name, her voice catching as she tri