Neighbors of a convicted child rapist whose house is within feet of a school bus stop say their concerns are falling on deaf ears.

Gayle Gillespie says there was no police officer patrolling the bus stop on Monday, Sept. 28 -- something a police captain said would happen every day at the previous Town Council meeting on Sept. 23.

“Don’t come out and tell the public you’re going to send a school resource officer out here, and now say that you’re not going to do it,” Gillespie said. “You wonder why everyone’s so upset.”

Gillespie’s neighbor, Joel Dutton, 45, of 24 Dundee Ave., was convicted in 1999 of aggravated felonious sexual assault of a child, police and court records said. He was arrested again Sept. 18 for allegedly molesting a 7-year-old girl and was released from jail to await trial.

“A police officer definitely told her there would be one there today, but there wasn’t,” said Gillespie’s boyfriend, Steve Hanson. “I’m not too happy about that.”

Despite his words at the council meeting, police Capt. Paul Cecilio said on Sept. 28 a school resource officer would patrol the bus stop as often as possible, but not every day.

“There was no (police) car there this morning,” Cecilio said, adding that the school resource officer took the day off and the patrol supervisor might have been unaware of the bus stop routine.

“He should have ended it with ‘when available,’” Police Chief Stephen Agrafiotis said. “We can’t guarantee somebody being there at a specific time.”

Gillespie and several neighbors addressed the Town Council on Sept. 23 to push for an ordinance that would restrict where convicted sex offenders can live. The town administrator said legal counsel advised against such an ordinance because similar laws have been ruled unconstitutional.

Town Councilor David Boutin, who is also a state representative, filed legislation the following day in an effort to give communities more freedom in notifying residents about convicted sex offenders. Since then, police records show Gillespie called police on Saturday, Sept. 26, reporting several children, including the molestation victim, were seen going inside Dutton’s house. Police investigated the call and said Dutton was not home at the time, meaning nothing illegal occurred.

“We verified he was at an address in Manchester at the time,” Cecilio said. The children were apparently visiting family members who live with Dutton, police said.

“Why did we waste our time at Town Hall?” Gillespie asked. “They’re letting everyone slip through the cracks.”

Cecilio said the police department doesn’t have the resources to patrol the same bus stop every day. He also said the resource officer routinely patrols all school bus stops in town at random to look out for suspicious activity.

“We can’t put a car there every day for the entire school year,” he said. “For a long-range goal, we’re hoping the school can move the bus stop.”

David Ross, vice chairman of the Town Council, said having a police officer at the same bus stop every day is not a solution to the problem.

“When that was stated, there were a few of us that looked at each other,” Ross said. “I don’t see that as being a viable solution. Are we supposed to have an officer at all the bus stops?”

Town Councilor Michael Pischetola, a former Manchester police captain, said enhanced notification of where sex offenders live, similar to a city-wide phone alert system that Manchester has, would be a step in the right direction.

“This town isn’t that big. Manchester is like 20 times bigger than Hooksett,” Pischetola said. “Things like that are used for snow emergencies, but there’s a whole host of things you could do.”

Ross said he would like the schools to provide a map to parents on where sex offenders reside. Hanson, who now says he plans to work with Boutin on his legislation, says the schools provide similar notifications already but would support the map idea.