Former Rare Staff
An Oklahoma man convicted of child molestation is out of jail and living next door to his victim — and it’s completely legal.
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Danyelle Dyer was just 7-years-old when Harold Dwayne English, her father’s stepbrother, molested her. He had already been convicted of sexually abusing a child, but Dyer’s parents had no idea. So, throughout that summer, the now 64-year-old man repeatedly abused her.
“As a 7-year-old, I had never been exposed to anything like that so I didn’t know it was bad until he told me not to tell,” Dyer told CNN.
After she told her parents, English was arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail time. He was eventually released, but ended up back in prison for violating his parole. Now, he’s been freed a second time and moved right in with his mother, Dyer’s grandmother who lives next door.
Under Oklahoma law, sex offenders are prohibited from living near churches and school, but there is no law forbidding them from living near their victims. Dyer and her family want to change that.
“I would rather look down the barrel of a gun than relive the time I had to look into my 7-year-old daughter’s eyes as she struggled to tell me what had happened to her,” her father said.
“Warning! You never know who is living next door to you,” Dyer shared on Facebook. “Meet my abuser and my new neighbor. He has been asked to leave but in Oklahoma he can legally reside there. Surely Oklahoma can do better than this. My parents and I are out to change Oklahoma law because surely he can find somewhere else to live.”
RELATED: A Texas seventh-grader is facing the possibility of having to register as a sex offender for life
The now 21-year-old comes home nearly every weekend and spends her summers there, but she no longer feels safe.
“He’s like right there, practically in my backyard and that kind of makes me nervous and not want to go home ever,” she told KFOR.
Her grandmother says she’s just doing what she can to help her son.
“I think Danyelle is okay for trying to get a law passed,” she said. “But she shouldn’t blame me for what happened because this is my son and I just give him a place to stay until he can find a place on his own.”
