Proposed law does not protect children born to convicted paedophiles, Lords to hear

Amendment to victims and courts bill in England and Wales aims to remove anomaly in parental responsibility A proposed law to restrict paedophiles’ parental rights in England and Wales is too weak because it does not protect children of theirs born after their conviction, parliament will hear this week. Under the victims and courts bill, a parent convicted of serious sexual offences against any child and who is sentenced to four or more years in prison will lose parental responsibility but they could come out of jail and have other children who would not be protected. An amendment to end this anomaly has been tabled by the crossbench peer and former family court judge James Meston, and will be debated in the House of Lords on Tuesday. The move to restrict parental responsibility came after the BBC reported the case of a mother, Bethan (not her real name), who spent £30,000 in legal fees to stop her paedophile ex-husband having contact with their daughter. Bethan said: “This amendment will prevent the formation of a deeply unfair two-tier system, where children born before the paedophile parent’s conviction are safe from abuse, but younger siblings, born even a day after conviction,