Summary
A family criticized a law change that affects convicted child sex offenders' parental rights. The planned law only removes parental rights if the offender has harmed their own child, which does not apply in all cases like Bethan's.
Key Facts
- A family's court case cost over £30,000 to protect a child from a convicted paedophile father.
- The father's parental rights were removed by the court after his conviction for serious child sex offences.
- A proposed law amendment would remove parental rights automatically after a serious child sex offence conviction, but only if the offender harmed their own child.
- Harriet Harman initially supported a broader version of the law to cover more cases.
- The new law wording limits the removal of parental responsibility to offences against the offender’s own child or stepchild.
- Bethan’s case is not covered by this limitation in the proposed law.
- The draft legislation requires the offender to be sentenced to at least four years in prison for the parental rights removal to apply.
- The affected family believes the law should cover a wider range of scenarios to protect more children.
