30 January 2024 , 13:29
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Failure to ban paedophile dads from keeping custody of their children had led to "state sanctioned child abuse", ministers have been told.
The Government was accused of "turning a blind eye" to harrowing cases of abuse as pressure mounts for an automatic ban. In an impassioned plea, Labour MP Jess Phillips called for parental responsibility to be removed for men convicted of sexual offences against children.
She told MPs: "I believe that the family courts in our country are harming and killing children." Former shadow minister Ms Phillips backed calls for the Government's Criminal Justice Bill to include a clause automatically barring paedophile parents from custody of their kids.
She said: "It is state sanctioned child abuse that is going on. And we all just turn a blind eye. It is absolutely harrowing the things I have seen happen in courts. I have seen paedophiles have children removed from their loving mother and placed fully in the care of proven child abusers.
"The fact that we could casually sit here and pretend that that's OK, it's not OK with me." Ms Phillips told MPs that family court rulings are "actively dangerous", adding: "I'm afraid to say that there are cases of child abuse going on in our family courts up and down the country."
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And she continued: "Not only do we allow children to be alone with those parents who are abusers, we sometimes remove them from the person who's trying to keep them safe and place them with those abusers." Ms Phillips cited a case reported by the BBC where a Cardiff mum spent £30,000 in legal fees to stop her paedophile ex-partner having access to their child.
If the automatic ban was put in place, she said, it could be overturned by a judge if it was deemed in the best interest of a child. Her Labour colleague Alex Cunningham said: "This is a long overdue measure that will ensure all children are safe from these dangerous predators, including their own parents." He continued: "How can a man, and it's usually a man, be told it's too dangerous to work or to be around other people's children be allowed to have responsibility for all manner of decisions affecting that child's life?"
They spoke up in favour of a amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill put forward by Labour veteran Harriet Harman and backed by MPs from all parties. Responding for the Government, Safeguarding Minister Laura Farris said family courts can ban convicted parents from having custody of their children, but voiced doubt about a blanket ban. She said: "Decisions about suspending or restricting responsibility have significant ramifications for children, which is why judges prefer to consider each case on their individual merits and make a decision that is specific to the best interests of that child."
And Ms Farris added: "We must not conflate suspending an individual's parental responsibility with a punishment. It is a step that is the child And because of this, it might be done when it's in the best interest of the child." She said that the Government is looking at ways of addressing the concerns.