They Called Me A Paedophile And A Tout 🪶 In My Own City

Frankie McKillen ✍ I am writing this because I have exhausted every proper channel available to me and the campaign against me continues.

I want to be clear from the outset. I am not writing this out of anger. I am writing this because what is happening to me deserves to be on the record — and because it raises questions that go beyond my own situation.

Belfast has watched in recent months as immigrants and newcomers have been forced from their homes by intimidation campaigns. The city expressed outrage. Rightly so. People who had done nothing wrong were targeted, isolated, defamed and driven out.

I am white. I was born and grew up here. And I am facing the same playbook — in the New Lodge.

I have lived in the New Lodge for eight years. Eight years without incident, without complaint, without dispute. I am known here. This is my community.

I should tell you something about myself. I was raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. But I left organised religion behind long ago and I do not care about a person’s religion or their skin colour. I never have. What happens to one of us can happen to any of us. What is happening to me now is proof of that.

That changed only in the past two to three months — and the reason it changed is this: I moved old furniture and appliances out of my flat and new ones in. Oak furniture, a washing machine, a fridge. Most of this was done between 9am and midnight. I will be honest — it is possible that during March this caused some noise disturbance. I accept that. What I will not accept is what followed.

Because since the end of March I have not moved anything. The noise stopped. The campaign did not.

On 10 April a neighbour from the flat below confronted me. He threatened to get his nephews involved, offered me outside for a fight, and told me — in these words — to “get that fucking woman from your flat.”

It took me twenty to thirty minutes to work out what woman he meant. Then it dawned on me. He was referring to my oldest daughter. She had come to Belfast at the end of March — the 26th — for my birthday. She lives in France.

I do not know what he knew or thought he knew about her. I do not know that it matters. What I know is that a man who had never spoken to me before, who does not know me, chose those words about a woman who was visiting her father for his birthday.

On 2 May he forced his way into my flat, physically assaulted me, smashed a mirror and told me he would use the broken glass to cut my throat. He said he would gladly do life for it. I have a photograph of the smashed mirror timestamped that morning. I have text messages sent to my best friend immediately after. A friend who lives in the same block saw me shortly afterwards and observed that I was visibly shaken.

I reported this to NIHE. I was contacted by CRJ and attended mediation. I engaged fully and in good faith. I said that if my neighbour genuinely believed noise was coming from my flat at night he could be given my number to contact me directly. He never called.

On 27 May his family came to my door and threatened me. I called police. Police attended.

On 29 May police came to my flat unprompted, gave me a personal safety booklet and informed me there was a community threat against me — that people wanted me out of my flat. They advised me to install a camera at my front door.

On 5 June I met with NIHE. I brought my full timeline and supporting documents. No Anti-Social Behaviour Warning was issued. The NIHE officer stated that I should not have to leave my flat.

Three days later, on 8 June my neighbour saw me in the Tesco car park. He pointed directly at me and shouted — twice — that I am a paedophile and a tout. In public. In broad daylight. In an area covered by CCTV.

I did not respond. I walked on.

On 10 June I returned home to find a target — a crosshair sticker — placed on the exterior of my front door, directly beneath the peephole. I have photographs.

By 12 June a resident in the block was telling my friends to stay away from me.

I am not a paedophile. I am not a tout. I am a man who moved some furniture.

What is being done to me follows an identical pattern to what this city condemned when it was done to newcomers and immigrants. The accusations are designed to make a community hostile. The isolation is deliberate. The goal is to make life so unbearable that I leave.

I have lived in the New Lodge for eight years. I grew up in Belfast. This is my city and this is my community. I am not leaving.

I have engaged with NIHE, with CRJ, with the concierge, with police. I have documented everything. I have been patient and measured at every stage. That patience has been met with a target placed on my front door.

I am putting this on the record publicly because the proper channels, while not entirely without sympathy, have not stopped what is happening. The Tesco CCTV footage exists. The police records exist. The photographs exist. The timestamps exist.

My name is not what he is calling me in car parks and on stairwells.

I am Frankie McKillen, grew up in Ardoyne, lived in France a couple of years or so and now live in the New Lodge - people can call me a "cunt" all day long and if you are a friend, I will probably shake your hand and agree. A Paedophile and a Tout - No -An "Ardoyne Rockabilly, living in a New Lodge penthouse"?- 100 %.

🕮 Frankie McKillen is a Belfast Rockabilly