Seeing a known convict with mental issues in my area has got me afraid of walking home, how to deal?

Apologies for length but it all seemed relevant.

I thought psychology was the most fitting place for this.

I'd like to begin by noting that I have 2 years of thai boxing experience under my belt. Although in that time it has made me alot more confident if it came down to a fight I realized a while after starting it that handling confrontation and handling a fight are two distinct things. I noticed this mainly since even though my fighting skills had improved lads would still want to test me regularly in my day to day goings on. In the past few years I have improved alot in this area however this particular person in question (and similar of his kind) still sends the fear into me because I know him as a convict who has mental issues. It is the unpredictability factor that scares me the most.

There is this maniac st. person who I've seen around for years in my city who seems schizo. He goes around pestering ppl all the time asking for money but also does things like just stands there takes their food and otherwise terrorizes all the general good honest members of society and deliberately intimidates them. I can see no redeemable qualities in this person. I 1st knew he was an ex-con when I 1st came to this city and he was walking around shouting for ppl to give him change as he's been in jail for 10 years. The manner he was doing it was blaring it out giving no regard to social norms so the institutionalization/mental issues seemed apparent rather than your average chav. giving it the big'un.

This was in my student area at the time- so presumably plenty of easy targets. He came up to me a couple of times then and he would totally terrify me since he seemed deeply institutionalized/mentally messed up from whatever stuff he's done in his life. Up close when he spoke to me it seemed like he had a nervous tick and maybe had a bang or several to the head; one eye pointing away a bit- the full psycho works. He would immediately try and aggressively take advantage of me psychologically 'testing my boundaries' (which admittedly were weak at the time). It would paralyse me and I'd feel helpless and always fear seeing him when walking around my area.

I hadn't seen this guy for a couple years. I had moved to a different part of the city centre but the other night while talking on the phone to my mother I looked out the window and my heart sank as I saw this monstrous entity walking past my window looking at my building as if it were an interesting target for more of his terror tactics. He looked characteristically dishevelled with a huge unkempt thick beard. I am rarely scared by most people these days but this guys made me 'jump out of my skin' after not seeing him for ages and hoping he had died/been locked up for good. I couldn't concentrate on what my mother was saying there was so much fear running through me.

So now I am sort of scared walking home at night wondering if I might see him on a dark night. Usually I've seen him when there are lots of people around so at least then I feel a bit safer. Even though he doesn't seem to have much acuity to social norms if anything happened there would be some form of help at hand even if just to phone the police. More than that though it is easier to escape into the crowd. Of course ideally I don't want to do this pussy behaviour and instead feel confident wherever I'm walking.

I now live close to the clubs but it's still like a 1/4 to 1/2 mile walk home and the road is very empty.

Just like he always did I know if I saw him he'd try and test me somehow. So what should I do if the situation arose? I have to be prepared. Like I say I really loved my new place but now seeing this animal I and am scared walking home at night. Sounds lame but I wanna get this handled so I am being honest.

From what I recall what he would immediately try 'testing' you by trying to get you to answer his questions and play into his frame. I imagine he must have trained this daily in prison and is pretty much all he does with his time- tries to find easy marks to take advantage of. So how to not be an easy mark? For instance he would come up and start asking questions like 'where are you from' then make some story up about how he needs money to get somewhere. He also once just asks me if I know “X” gang who are the 'prolific' gang of my city. So over the years I have noticed his hoops but back then didn't know what to do to get out of them. In the past when I reluctantly complied to them I felt myself sinking more and more into his frame; one of the worst feelings I've ever experienced.

I am pretty good at not getting shit from the average idiot in the club now but these 'street guys' I still have some hurdles to get over with. This guy has til now still put shivers up my spin due to his 'history'. It's more that I fear this guy cos he is a known convict. I don't fear guys in the club cos I know they are not 'toughguys' and worst I'd likely get is a couple of punches in the face before the bouncers broke it up. I am scared of guy in question because I think to myself he would either have a weapon or have some nasty prison moves he learned in all his time inside. So could people with more experience of these types of people perhaps weigh up the odds of weather my fears are rational or not and/or whether my 2 years thai boxing would likely be fit to deter such a person?

I have been thinking the general idea should be to draw a firm line in the sand from the getgo and if he doesn't respond make it clear I will quickly escalate it so he backs ceases and desists and leaves.

So practically how would I put that into action in what I'd say and do?

Thanks.