COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Anthony Pardon, 53, has spent nearly half his entire life in prison.

Pardon went to prison in 1982 after pleading guilty to rape, aggravated robbery and attempted murder.  Court documents describe him using a knife in crimes against two women in separate incidents.

According to information read aloud in court Friday morning at Pardon’s arraignment, he tried to drown one of his victims in 1981. He had raped the woman in her home, tied her hands and feet and ordered her into the trunk of her car. Pardon than drove to the Valleydale Ballroom on Sunbury Rd and tried to drown the woman in Alum Creek. She fought back and survived. He went to prison for 25 years and was released in November of 2006.

In the Linden neighborhood where Anthony Pardon lived, residents say they got a letter a couple of months ago notifying them of a sexual predator living nearby.

Pardon is one of three registered sex offenders in the neighborhood.

The letter was troubling to homeowner Richard Dean. “I’m always concerned when you get something like that,” Dean said. “You wonder if you get somebody like that in the neighborhood. But I don’t know the guy and have never seen him out and wouldn’t know him if I’d seen him.”

News of Pardon’s arrest made Dean’s concerns all the more real.

“Some people go to jail and come out and do the same thing all over,” Dean said. “You always have to be concerned about who you’re living around.”