Sex offender father due to be released from prison

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L1971
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:26 am

Sex offender father due to be released from prison

Post by L1971 » Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:25 am

Hi I'm looking for some advice.

My husband was sentenced to 32 months in prison for downloading indecent images of children and inciting young girls to perform sexual acts. As a result our marriage is now over. I've recently found out that he is due to be released at the end of March.

We have a 7 year old daughter. When my husband was arrested and bailed he moved out and went to live with his parents. there was initial social services inolvement. But they were fine and were happy for me to supervise contact. Which I did because at the time I wanted things to be as normal as possible for her. I have had no contact from social services since my husband was sentenced.

My daughter was extremely unhappy for a while after her dad was sentenced but I haved managed to turn this around. The school have been great and they made a referral to Action for Children for me so she could have some counselling. She has had minimal contact with her dad since he has been in prison (a couple of letters and cards at birthday and christmas).

I'm at a bit of a loss about what happens now. My daughter wants to see her Dad. I have reservations about this and want to do what I think is best for her. I havent told her yet that he is due to be released soon.

Will social services automatically contact me? Can I refuse contact as the resident parent who has seen the effect this has had on my daughter? I'm certainly not prepared to supervise any contact and I don't think there are any other family members who would either apart from his mum who really wouldnt be suitable. She doesnt accept what he did was so wrong because it was through internet and chat rooms.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
Posts: 4207
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:57 pm

Re: Sex offender father due to be released from prison

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Wed Jan 25, 2017 2:46 pm

Dear L1971

Welcome to the Family Rights Group Parents’ Discussion Forum.

My name is Suzie, online adviser, at Family Rights Group.

I am sorry that you are facing this problem at the moment as your husband is to be released from prison shortly. It is a delicate situation for you especially as you have said in your post that your daughter would like to see her father. Having said that, she is only 7 so you, as her mother, have to consider carefully what is in her best interests. You will also have to consider how your daughter will respond to you if she believes that you are preventing her seeing her father.

If her father wishes to have contact on his release, and you are agreeable, then it could possible take place at a contact centre where contact can be supervised. Here is a link to the organisation responsible for contact centres. You could try to identify one local to you that provides facilities for supervised contact.

Alternatively, if you decide that he is not able to have contact, which you can do if you do not think it is in your daughter’s interest. It will be open to your husband to make an application to the court for an order to allow him to have contact. If an application is made to the court, then the judge will ask for a report to be prepared and recommendations as to whether contact would be in your daughter’s interest. He or she will look at all the circumstances of the case before making a decision. The judge’s paramount consideration is the child’s welfare when considering an order.

You should understand, that contact is for the benefit of the child and it is believed that a child should maintain a relationship with birth parents unless it can be shown that it is not in the child’s interests to have ongoing contact.

It is unlikely the children services will automatically contact you, so you might want to discuss your concerns about contact now with your local children services department. In this way you will be prepared for what they think about contact taking place or not.

I hope this is helpful. If you want to know how the court process would work you can contact Coram Children’s Legal Centre their website is here
for more information.

Best wishes

Suzie

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