Husband now on SOR. What happens next?

[rainrain]

Hi, I have previously reported about my husband being accused of downloading children's images off the internet. Well finally nearly 2 years later he has been to court and given a 3 year community order & placed on the SOR. Apparently the judge has also included a clause to make it easier for him to have unsupervised access to our children (13 & 10). He moved out as soon as it all happened and as far as we are concerned there is no future but I would still want him to have a good relationship with his children. The reason I'm posting is to find out what happens next, my main worry is that both himself and his parents see his sentence as being a sign that what he did really wasn't as bad as it's made out to be , which I disagree with completely.

Any help/advice would be great, thanks.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear rainrain,

I am sorry that it has taken so long for your husband’s case to come to court. It must have been a very worrying time for you and your children.
I know when he was first arrested, children services were involved and your husband complied with their requests to move out of the family home.
Was your husband also fully risk assessed at this time?

What about your children? Do they know fully about their fathers offences? Have they had any support to enable them to self-protect?

I suggest you contact children’s services as soon as possible and advise them what your husband has told you about the outcome of the criminal proceedings. Ask them to contact your husband’s probation officer to find out about the community order and what recent risk assessments have taken place.
Ask children services to re-assess his risk. Is it safe for contact to be unsupervised? Let them know your reservations about your husband and his parents views. Say you are worried that they are minimizing your husbands risks. This is worrying if his parents are the supervisors of contact.

I would expect contact to remain supervised until children services have completed their assessment.

To get specialist advice about child sexual abuse and the support available to families, you could also contact the Lucy Faithfull foundation .


Ultimately, if you are still worried, you can always say no to unsupervised contact and suggest your husband seek a court order. You could then ask the court to order that a section 7 report be prepared. The assessment will look at your husband risk and will be prepared either by your local children services or by a CAFCASS officer (court social worker).

Best wishes,

Suzie